Okay, so I technically never made it to the actual island but I did have a ticket and I did fly all the way from LA to Miami to try and get there. Here’s what I experienced.
We booked out tickets months ago, before most of the performers were announced. Needless to say I was a little disappointed when the full lineup did come out but my boyfriend was excited and for me it was going to be a nice vacation after the bulk of my finals had already finished with a few good performers thrown in there. I should’ve known things weren’t going well when I tried desperately this past week to find a picture of where we would be staying and couldn’t find anything except a tent with nothing inside. Where was the beautifully decorated tent we had been shown before?
And before anyone says anything, no I did not pay $12,000 for the cheapest ticket as many news outlets are reporting. I paid about $1,900, which is only slightly more than I paid for a GA Coachella ticket and hotel room. So for a festival where the ticket price supposedly included food, housing, and a flight from Miami to the Bahamas, it didn’t seem so crazy.
The days leading up to our trip I continually checked social media to see if there were any updates or additional info. But the day we left LA was so rushed I had no time. We had a flight at 8 am Thursday and I woke up at 7.. not a great start. In hindsight missing our flight wouldn’t have been the worst thing. We rushed to the airport and got there at 7:30. Somehow my bag that I had planned to check made it through security with probably far too many liquids in my bag and we made it on the flight. We got to Miami at around 4:00 EST and had to wait until our flight at 9:15. We checked into the charter airline and collected our festival wristbands from the Fyre representatives and went to grab some dinner. Around 7:45 we decided to go through security and wait inside the terminal until our flight. The terminal had a bar and everyone there were on their way to the festival just like us. Everyone was drinking and already having a good time, nothing seemed to be wrong.
Then time for our flight came and nothing happened. We were told the representative from the airline wasn’t at the gate yet… so we waited. 20 minutes went by, then 30. People were starting to get impatient. Finally there seemed to be someone at the gate yet there was still no sign that we were boarding anytime soon. My boyfriend went over to see what was going on. Turns out the guy worked at the Pizza Hut in the terminal.. how he ended up standing in front of our gate I don’t know. But he did tell us that the entire flight crew and gate crew were all on the plane- something neither he nor I had ever heard of before. Something was up. That’s when the information started rolling in.
There were no tents, no food and no water on the island. There weren’t even bathrooms. Those who had paid extra- upwards of $20,000 to have a villa, couldn’t find them. In fact no one on the island could find them, they didn’t exist. The whole thing sounded like a complete disaster. I have never been so thankful in my life to have a flight cancelled, I can’t even imagine what it would’ve been like if I had made it to the Bahamas. As far as I know attendees are still stuck on the island. The organizer Billy McFarland has since said the island was hit with a storm Thursday morning that wrecked half of the housing and some of the infrastructure. But Fyre employees have called him out saying the festival was doomed for weeks. Overall the worst part was the lack of communication. They clearly knew for days that they weren’t prepared for the number of people coming to the Bahamas. Only 1,500 out of the 6,000 expected ever got there and they couldn’t even handle that. Even once our flight was cancelled we were given no further information until the festival was officially cancelled the next day. Now McFarland claims we are all getting free tickets to next years festival… but good luck getting any of us the actually come.
For a true play by play check out #fyrefestival on Twitter- it’s the only way we got any information on what was happening this weekend. Although anticipate a lot of social commentary on the situation, which while accurate seems inappropriate when people are stranded without food, water or shelter and as people are passing out from heat and hunger.
In the end my boyfriend and I decided to make the best of the situation and are now enjoying a nice weekend in Miami.