Fyre Festival was the luxurious illusion we didn’t see coming. The production and marketing efforts fooled us all that this would be the event of 2017. Even now, after two documentaries we have one question burning through us all: why does it still feel like we’re missing something?
The Documentaries
If you haven’t seen the Netflix documentary (admittedly, I have yet to see the one on Hulu), it’s worth the watch. We get a step by step guide on how they created Fyre. Billy McFarland, a persistent and blindly confident entrepreneur, was convinced he could throw the world’s best party…and completely failed. It’s a perfect example of any Expectations/Reality meme. You know the one. But it’s not just about the McFarland and Ja Rule and how oblivious they were (still are) to the truth. We learn of Maryann Rolle, the caterer, who lost her entire savings in order to cover costs for this festival. She was never paid.* Even with Netflix and Hulu’s introspective coverage, we haven’t received the full story.
“There are so many layers to this story. McFarland defrauding investors out of $27 million, the hilarious investor pitch deck, the greatest promotional video ever, the planning notebook, the cheese sandwich, the docu-wars, and so much more.”
The Podcast
Therefore, one of the attendees, Seth Crossno—also known through his twitter as William Needham Finley IV (@WNFIV)—decided to create a podcast: Dumpster Fyre.
In the podcast’s opening post, Crossno explains he will be interviewing other attendees, lawyers, producers and more to unveil the truth about this failure of a festival, and, coincidentally, a truth about our generation’s culture. Although the podcast hasn’t premiered its first episode yet, Dumpster Fyre has a detailed timeline of the Fyre Festival experience. Most are tweets and videos Crossno shared while on the island. In the meantime, Dumpster Fyre will be posting various news articles related to the festival.
Keep a lookout for the premiere of the first episode. It’s gonna be fire.
*Fortunately, Rolle and her husband created a Go Fund Me and have already exceeded their goal of $123,000.
