Well, if someone said that they saw this one coming they would would be lying. When it comes to events that deal with large amounts of people, you’d be a fool to not expect some sort of chaos to happen. But this situation has moved far beyond a simple mixup or a chaotic moment.
For the past year or so Fyre Festival has been promoted through social media posts from Kendall Jenner and a number of other known socialites and models. Created by rapper/actor Ja Rule and entrepreneur Billy McFarland, the festival was sold as a luxurious musical experience with tickets ranging from $4,000 to $250,000. With this payment, fans would be provided with private beaches, and live performances from the of the biggest acts in the world. But, unfortunately things did not go the way they were planned as we learned from social media.
According to FADER, attendees of the festival have expressed that they are having issues with delayed flights, lost luggage, lack of food and what can be labeled as sub-standard living conditions. The chaos is not just affecting those who were looking to momentarily know what feels like to live like their favorite artists. Blink-182 was originally set to perform at the festival, but understandably so they pulled out of their performance in response to the issues.
Often, people will take matters into their own hands when they feel that they have something that needs to be heard or seen. The Twitter account (@fyrefestivalfraud) appeared rather quickly providing a number of posts explaining what’s going on on the ground. What is most interesting is that this Twitter account has been around before today apparently being handled by someone who viewed this festival as a fraud all along.
This video came from PAGE SIX,
According to BILLBOARD, festival organizers have issued a statement, “Due to circumstances out of our control, the physical infrastructure was not in place on time and we are unable to fulfill on that vision safely and enjoyably for our guests. The festival is being postponed until we can further assess if and when we are able to create the high-quality experience we envisioned.”
“We ask for everyone’s patience and cooperation during this difficult time as we work as quickly and safely as we can to remedy this unforeseeable situation. We will continue to provide regular updates via email to our guests and via our official social media channels as they become available.”
Here is a video of organizer Billy McFarland attempting to address the displeased crowd at the festival grounds:
Representatives of the Bahamian Ministry of Tourism have also responded, “The event organizers assured us that all measures were taken to ensure a safe and successful event but clearly they did not have the capacity to execute an event of this scale,” the statement reads. “A team of Ministry of Tourism representatives is on the island to assist with the organization of a safe return of all Fyre Festival visitors. It is our hope that the Fyre Festival visitors would consider returning to the Islands Of The Bahamas in the future to truly experience all of our beauty.”
Earlier this morning Ja Rule responded via twitter. See his response below.
In an exclusive interview with ROLLING STONE, co-founder of the festival, Billy McFarland, spoke about the issues that went on with the festival.
“We started this website and launched this festival marketing campaign. Our festival became a real thing and took [on] a life of its own. Our next step was to book the talent and actually make the music festival. We went out excited, and that’s when a lot of reality and roadblocks hit”
“We were overwhelmed and just didn’t have the foresight to solve all these problems.” He continued, “We thought we were making timeframes that were correct. We were a little naïve in thinking for the first time we could do this ourselves. Next year, we will definitely start earlier. The reality is, we weren’t experienced enough to keep up.”
“The one change we will make is we will not try to do it ourselves. We will make sure there is infrastructure in place to support us.”
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