I went into the documentary knowing almost nothing about the Fyre festival. All I knew was that it was supposed to be an incredible experience for people who were willing to pay thousands of dollars, but it ended up failing tremendously. I hadn’t realized how big of a deal it was until Hulu and Netflix made documentaries about the whole ordeal. Watching it, I was shocked and very interested in how it all unfolded.
1. Andy and Evian Water
Andy King was the event producer who had been working with Billy McFarland for the past five years. He was asked by Billy to “take one for the team” and perform oral sex in exchange for Evian water that was desperately needed to supply the festival. Crazy stuff. He didn’t actually do it but he was ready to. Wow.
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2. The Sandwich
A person who went to the festival uploaded a photo on Twitter of the “luxury meals” the event was supposed to be serving. The festival was meant to be catered by Stephen Starr, who is a famous American restaurateur. The photo of the cheese sandwich went viral, and it went even more downhill from there.
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3. Leftover disaster relief tents from Hurricane Matthew
This is quite fitting since the festival was really an absolute disaster. They did not have enough time to build luxurious villas, so they brought in tents that were practically unlivable. Plus, it rained the night before everyone arrived, so the mattresses were soaked.
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4. Pablo Escobar’s island
When Billy bought Pablo Escobar’s island, he was told not to share that it was the drug lord’s previous island. Instead of complying with the terms, that very statement–that it was once owned by Pablo Escobar–was used in the first promotional video of the festival. Once the previous owners found out, they kicked the team off the island.
5. Maryann Rolle and her life savings
The woman who owned a restaurant in Exuma had to work day and night to feed the hundreds of people who showed up at her door for the festival. She had many people working for her and she had to go through her life savings in order to pay her workers and more. The good news is that there was a GoFundMe started for her, and it has raised a lot of money.
6. The overall lying and stealing
Billy McFarland is such an interesting person. He managed to commit wire fraud, cheat investors, and lie to thousands of people. Even when he was out on bail, he still set up a system to cheat the Fyre Festival attendees. He definitely did not learn his lesson, and will not spend six years in prison.
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If you haven’t watched the documentaries, you should. It’s a crazy story, and it’s almost unbelievable that Billy was able to pull it off (kind of). There are so many people involved, and the fact that it happened in the first place blows my mind.