You can’t say you didn’t have ample warning. Festivals are an expensive service to provide, let alone on a relatively remote tropical island. It costs a few thousand to make a fancy website with conceptual images, but millions to put on a festival. Remember the last fancy island getaway festival we covered? Groovefest set the standard for festival disasters as it was cancelled and went bankrupt 48 hours from its start, but apparently Fyre Festival said “Hold my beer”. The festival has quickly become such a dumpsterfyre that it is trending on Twitter.
Fyre Festival made huge waves earlier in the year because of a splashy marketing campaign and glitzy website promoted by the Kendall Jenner and Kanye‘s GOOD Music family. Tickets ranged from $1200 to $250,000 for exlusive “glamping”, chartered flights, and access to a yacht.
Alarm bells began ringing Thursday night when headliners Blink 182 informed fans they were pulling out due to disorganization of the festival.
— blink-182 (@blink182) April 27, 2017
The “gourmet cuisine” this weekend was included in the ticket cost. We are being fed salads and ham and cheese sandwiches out of this tent pic.twitter.com/MRv7U0RiyM
— dylan (@DylanACOP) April 28, 2017
In case you’re wondering, those “cabanas” are actually disaster relief tents.#fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/jaZpkIKVT2
— Matt Halfhill (@MattHalfhill) April 28, 2017
What actually went down should make TomorrowWorld attendees feel comfortable, as the island setup was more akin to a refugee resettlement camp. There was nothing more than a tent city with barely any light or security. Reddit exploded with horror stories, and the disaster devolved from there into a full blown meme of misery and survival.
Stuck at #fyrefestival trying to leave for the last 8 hours. barley any food or water or security or electricity pic.twitter.com/jHPMnJw5gx
— Lamaan (@LamaanGallal) April 28, 2017
The gourmet food options turned out to be literally foam food packages with salad, bread, and cheese. Eventually all remaining flights to the island were cancelled. Finally this morning the promoters pulled the plug.
Due to unforeseen and extenuating circumstances, Fyre Festival has been fully postponed (con’t)
— Fyre Festival (@fyrefestival) April 28, 2017
After assessing the situation this morning and looking at best options for our guests, we cannot move forward as we hoped we could (con’t)
— Fyre Festival (@fyrefestival) April 28, 2017
At this time, we are working tirelessly to get flights scheduled and get all travelers home safely
— Fyre Festival (@fyrefestival) April 28, 2017
Attendees remain stranded in Exuma and Reddit thinking about how they got conned by Ja Rule. Remember folks, think twice before spending thousands on a festival with 0 track record especially if it’s a destination festival. You’ve been warned, again.
A guy just passed out in the airport because it’s so hot since they locked us in. The guards got into it with some guys. #fyrefestival
— William N. Finley IV (@WNFIV) April 28, 2017