Thought you knew all there was to know about Fyre Festival, the calamitous, influencer-led fuck-up that left hundreds stranded on an island in the Bahamas in 2017? You ain’t seen nothing yet. This weekend saw the release of Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened on Netflix, a tell-all documentary digging into the development and subsequent implosion of Fyre Festival. And it’s one hell of a ride.
From botched deliveries to full-on fraud, the story of Fyre Festival goes a whole lot deeper than just some bloggers getting stitched up. Unsurprisingly, the film has elicited some fevered social media reactions.
The only level-headed guy on the island
We should all be more this guy #FyreFestival pic.twitter.com/d5fp15RIUT
— Holly Stower (@H_DaisyStower) January 20, 2019
This calm, knitwear-loving fella seems to be the only sane person in the whole doc, at times. Drafted in to help turn the festival from promo video to actual real event (or try, anyway), his quips have captured the hearts and minds of more than a few viewers.
Oral fixations
Almost definitely the wildest part of the whole documentary comes when one of the festival’s team is drafted in to “take one for the team”. Wondering what that means? Well, festival founder Billy McFarland had ordered a festival’s worth of water to be delivered to the Bahamian island he was looking to host Fyre Festival on. Only, he hadn’t factored in customs charges. And it got held up at customs.
His solution? Send a partner to offer a sexual favour to the customs officials, in exchange for the release of the water. AND HE ALMOST DID IT. This is, apparently, real life. No, seriously. This happened.
I literally havent tweeted since 2017, but I came here just to say THAT DUDE WAS READY TO SUCK DICK TO GET WATER OUT OF CUSTOMS. I thought the story of Fyre Festival couldn't get any better and yet, here we are. #netflix #fyrefestival
— SaraSwearsALot (@SaraSwearsALot) January 18, 2019
Andy's next new client meeting "So Andy, how committed are you to getting the job done?" Well…#Fyre pic.twitter.com/CG6GWSINj5
— Victoria Laird (@VickyLaird) January 21, 2019
https://twitter.com/guruangelina/status/1086837868725719042
Fly me to the moon
One particularly amazing moment comes when someone is drafted in to help fly around the island to get shots for the Fyre Festival’s promotional video. How did he learn to fly said private plane? Why, Microsoft Flight Simulator, of course. What else?
https://twitter.com/iLivi2011/status/1086448355188850688
Say cheese
Despite the carefully orchestrated social media marketing campaign, and the costly models that filled Fyre’s promo video, the festival wasn’t impervious to the power of negative social media. A now-infamous viral photo of a cheese sandwich was all it took to bring down the fest itself, and turn Fyre into a laughing stock. But, weirdly, the documentary didn’t address the sandwich itself in any real detail. One for a sequel, perhaps.
The Netflix #FyreFestival documentary neglected to address whether the cheese sandwich served was any good.
— Todd Barry (@toddbarry) January 19, 2019
Billy no mates
Of course, the goofish head of the whole operation came under a whole lot of criticism.
Billy McFarland looks like a dude who would get drunk on night one of The Bachelorette and fall in the pool after grabbing her ass. #FyreFraud #Fyre
— tierney bricker (@tbrick2) January 19, 2019
Under the influence
The reams of influencers, bloggers, Instagram celebs and YouTube stars who flocked to Fyre Festival were also the butt of many of the jokes. Some wanted to see the stunt repeatedly, albeit in a slightly more extreme form:
https://twitter.com/idannyxd/status/1086176461181071360
While others were slightly more serious, pointing the finger at the high-profile, highly-paid models who accepted money from the festival, when the locals who helped build the thing were left penniless after McFarland fled:
Maybe Kendall Jenner, Hailey Baldwin & Bella Hadid could donate the payment they received for their #fyrefestival Instagram post to the locals who never got paid for their work on #fyre festival
— Danielle (@stylesnooperdan) January 18, 2019
And then there’s this guy, laughing it all off
Sometimes that’s all you can do, to be fair.
That delirious laugh when you realize what you've done is absolutely beyond recovery. #Fyre pic.twitter.com/cqGiO6b5Rl
— Marvi Masud (@MarviMsd) January 20, 2019