Fyre Festival: Is this the worst ‘luxury’ festival of all time?

Almost certainly

Picture the scene. You’re pretty well off, and you fancy a festival this summer. Couldn’t get Glastonbury tickets, and Reading and Leeds is a bit, erm, dirty for you. You want to watch some of music’s biggest names, in a bit of style and a bit of luxury. Fyre Festival, then, the ‘luxury festival’ starring Major Lazer, Disclosure, Skepta and more looks mighty appealing. Yeah, tickets cost between $4,000 and $12,000 – but it’ll be worth it, right?

Er, perhaps not. The festival, which takes place in the lovely Bahamas has transpired to be a bit of a dystopian nightmare, with reports flooding social media from dissatisfied punters detailing some of the nightmarish scenarios.

Things got off to bad start when one of the headliners Blink-182 cancelled their slot after they deemed they were unable to give the “quality of performances” fans are used to.

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Then, as attendees arrived on site, that’s when things got really bad. William N Finley, a writer for the ITB Insider and others have been chronicling the chaos on Twitter.

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And here’s the luxury food offering.

Reddit also reported some serious and disturbing allegations of the attendees being seriously mistreated.

Eventually, the festival was cancelled, and attendees were returned home. But, predictably, that went about as well as you’d think…

Since the festival has been officially cancelled, the festival organisers have come out in defence of the chaotic event.

Rapper Ja Rule, who was one of the festival’s organisers, came out on Friday to say that they were working on fixing the situation – but that it “WASN’T MY FAULT”.

Co-founder Billy McFarland has since confirmed that there are plans to host the event next year “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.”

“We’re going to take every measure to make this right for everybody now, and make this right for everybody next year, on a large scale,” he said.

The festival then made several tweets apologising for the chaotic day.

That hasn’t stopped the lawsuits being filed. One lawsuit is allegedly suing the organisers for $100m following the chaos. The suit claims the “festival’s lack of adequate food, water, shelter, and medical care created a dangerous and panicked situation among attendees – suddenly finding themselves stranded on a remote island without basic provisions – that was closer to The Hunger Games or Lord of the Flies than Coachella”.

One reporter for the NYT exposed the festival for their shady refund techniques, with a screenshot showing that the festival are offering to exchange tickets for next year’s festival, instead of paying back the full amount.

Though Tweeters may want to watch what they say on social media – the organisers have allegedly fired off cease and desist orders to those who posted negative reports from the site.

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