I know what I plan on checking out next week!
Nope, not James Blake, Future, Blockhead, and/or Aesop Rock.
Two years after “The Greatest Party That Never Happened” ripped through headlines and social media, a documentary on the infamous Fyre Festival will arrive on Netflix. A refresher…
Ja Rule, along with controversial entrepreneur and business partner Billy McFarland, tried to throw their first — and, likely, only — Fyre Festival, which was self-described as “the cultural experience of the decade.” Attendees, who paid at least $1,600, were promised a treasure hunt valued at over $1 million, food provided by some of the top chefs on the planet, travel to and from the private island of Fyre Cay in the Exumas of the Bahamas and much more.
Members of the G.O.O.D. Music roster, Rae Sremmurd, Kaytranada, Migos, Major Lazer and a host of other acts were also scheduled to perform. If the whole thing sounded too good to be true, that’s because it was.
Things were terrible from the start, with attendees allegedly greeted by the infamous cheap sandwiches, FEMA-style relief tents instead of the luxury housing accommodations that were advertised, very little help, canceled flights and — according to some — feral animals running amok. Blink-182, a headliner for the festival, canceled their performance just hours before they were slated to take the stage, and the entire Fyre Festival was ultimately canceled.
The whole ordeal brought out McFarland’s shifty track record, which included a history of complaints registered against him on the Better Business Bureau. As a result of everything both Ja Rule and McFarland were hit with a $100 million class action lawsuit in California and banned from returning to the Bahamas, while McFarland was ultimately handed a six-year federal-prison sentence for fraud charges.
The Netflix doc, simply titled Fyre, goes behind the scenes of one of the most spectacular failures in festival history. Behind the direction of the Emmy-nominated Chris Smith, the festival’s organizers are given their chances to tell their side of the story. “Powerful models built this festival—and then one picture of cheese on toast ripped down the festival,” is one of the more memorable moments of the trailer.
Fyre debuts on Netflix January 18th.
