So this week I have seen not one but TWO documentaries about the infamous Fyre Festival. Now, I had heard about the Festival when it first happened (or didn’t) about two years ago. I don’t remember the advertising (I was prob not in the $2500 a ticket target market), but I remember the memes during the aftermath. Netflix and Hulu both put out documentaries about the entire fiasco, but of course, they focus on different things. The Netflix documentary is titled Fyre Festival: The Greatest Party that Never Happened which I think is the absolute perfect description of the festival. In the Hulu documentary, they actually interviewed Billy McFarland- the mastermind behind the festival.
Now let’s get some background. The Fyre Festival was put together by Billy McFarland, a 25 young entrepreneur full of big dreams. He wanted to offer young adults- who had thousands of dollars- a festival similar to ones celebrities go to. His goal was to have a mansion, villas, yachts, alcohol, girls, boy, and private jets so that people could live like a celebrity for a weekend. They planned for about 5,000 people to come to this private island. The private island they originally got used to be Pablo Escobar’s island and that’s how they advertised it. They hired models such as Hailey Bieber and Bella Hadid to be in the promo video for the event. By all accounts it looked and sounded like the most “lit” party there could be. I mean, the way they described the party in both documentaries, I got excited myself.
What many people don’t know is that this festival was to actually promote the Fyre app. The Fyre app was an app that would connect artists such as Beyonce to “regular” (really rich) people and have them book the artists for a birthday party or something along those lines. This app idea sounds great too. I mean at this point I do not make the money of the target market, but if I did I would have believed it was a great idea. It would have made booking a singer or artist much easier than it is now.
So some takeaways from both documentaries. Billy McFarland was a scam artist, but he was a dreamer first. He had a lot of dreams. I mean the festival was going to have so many elaborate, over-the-top things that sounded like the perfect party. I am sure if he had given himself some time his dream would have been more attainable, but much like Icarus, he flew too close to the sun. Another thing I noticed in both documentaries was he tried to surround himself with yes-men and got rid of those who disagreed.
It is important to realize though that he didn’t go to jail because he dreamed big; he went to jail because he cooked the books. That was his ultimate downfall. As a fellow dreamer, we need people who are going to a little bit more realistic because otherwise the wax falls of our wings and we go plummeting into the ocean.