Review: The Two Fyre Festival Documentaries on Hulu and Netflix
Review: The Two Fyre Festival Documentaries on Hulu and Netflix
Two competing yet complementary documentaries about the clustermuck that was The Fyre Festival.
Two competing yet complementary documentaries about the clustermuck that was The Fyre Festival.
If you’re above a certain age and/or oblivious of pop culture, you probably have no idea about the fiasco that was the Fyre Festival.
Don’t feel excluded, you’re not really missing much.
It was conceived as a high-end/exclusive concert on a remote Caribbean island. For a very steep price, the hoi polloi could hang out & party with the rich & famous…or at least the social media famous.
That was the vision of millennial entrepreneur Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule had in mind when they brainstormed the festival.
The reality of this festival was one giant shitshow.
In short, the Fyre Festival is to music festivals what the 1985 film Gymkata is to American cinema…a funny footnote.
Hulu’s documentary, Fyre Fraud, and Netflix’s documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened detail both the rapid rise and epic fall of the festival. Now, you may be scratching your head wondering if this fine example of millennial hubris and chicanery is worthy of two documentaries.
Well, yes, it is.
The festival advertising promised exclusive housing.
It delivered was leftover FEMA tents.
The festival promised exclusive dining.
It delivered was cheese sandwiches in a styrofoam container.
The festival promised an exclusive island that was once owned by Pablo Escobar.
It delivered a section of the island of Exuma, a couple of miles away from a Sandals Resort.
Yes, both documentaries tell essentially the same story.
There is some narrative and interview overlap with but the story that’s told is consistent. And alarming.
Fyre Festival mastermind, if one can use that word here, Billy McFarland is an unparalleled flimflam man who apparently has charisma beyond what seems humanly possible. Not only could he rip people off blindly, but he also got one of his seasoned employees to “take one for the team.” In other words, trade a sexual favor for him with a contractor.
Fortunately, that didn’t end up happening.
Oh, and McFarland was even savvy (or manipulative) enough to get some employees/contractors to put festival charges on their personal credit cards…to the tune of over 100k each!
In many of the interviews with these people what is curiously absent is anger.
There seems to be more hurt in their faces and voices. Which seems odd to me…but tracks given the desired demographic of the participants.
If I had spent thousands of dollars and only ended up being bamboozled, I would be pissed. But most of these people weren’t, some even laughed it off. I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t laugh away a few grand going to line someone else’s pockets.
All told the Frye Festival, led by Mssr’s McFarland and Rule duped people out of +/- 27 million dollars. Somehow they even got Comcast Ventures to sign a letter of intent to invest in Fyre. But to be fair, that investment was not to be in the music festival, but rather an app the two were creating with the Fyre branding.
There were many people who never got paid for their work at Fyre. Many of them on the island of Exuma. There were many that played a role in the failure of the Fyre Festival. Many of them millennials on the island of Manhattan. That’s not a generational dig, just an observation.
There is more than enough blame to go around but ultimately it’s Billy McFarland who carries the responsibility. As well he should. He was convicted of wire fraud and received a six-year sentence…in addition to being slapped with a class-action lawsuit. I would be surprised to see if he returns any money.
The judge also legally admonished McFarland, all but branding him an entrepreneurial pariah.
Conspicuously absent from both documentaries is any explanation about how Ja Rule escaped any legal trouble or career fallout.
While on bail waiting to be sentenced for the above-mentioned wire fraud McFarland decided he wasn’t yet done bamboozling people. He drummed up another scam under the banner NYC VIP Access.
This scam involved partnering with some half-wit named Frank Tribble — yep, that’s really his name — they tried to sell tickets to extremely high-end events like Burning Man and The Superbowl.
They were so stupid, or smart, that they went so far as to try and sell tickets to events that aren’t even ticketed like The Metropolitan Gala and Victoria’s Secret fashion show.
The best part? He targeted the very same people from the Fyre Festival! I guess it’s a thin line between ballsy and stupid. You can watch either documentary and determine which side McFarland lands on.
If Billy McFarland had succeeded maybe we would be viewing the Fyre Festival through the same rose-tinted lenses we view Woodstock with. But, he didn’t succeed. He failed. In an epic manner.
There is a lot of texture to both of these docs. Odds are if you watch one, you’ll probably want to watch the other. Is one better than the other? No.
Although the Hulu doc does have a newish interview with McFarland that’s worth watching. The Netflix doc has a nicer production value.
Hulu or Netflix, it’s the same shitty story about a bunch of over-privileged white millennials being assholes.
As both films, unfortunately, point out, we’ve probably not heard the last of Billy McFarland. I think it’s true.
Social critic and journalist H.L. Mencken once said: “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”
As a culture, we love second chances. We also seem to celebrate and reward the hubris of grifters like Billy McFarland. Some of them are even elected to the highest office in the free world.