FYRE FESTIVAL: THE MONSTROUS POWER OF FALSE-ADVERTISEMENT AND SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS

Fyre Festival was an epic fail of a luxury, 'immersive music festival' used to promote the company’s luxury talent hiring app, which ended in utter chaos and complete danger, Founded by the once successful entrepreneur, or evil mad-man, Billy McFarland, in 2017. What this tragic event highlights are the immense power of advertisement and the influencers that rule the dominant world of social media today. 

In summary, the elite festival promoted a luxury experience on the white-sand beaches of Pablo Escobar's private island in the Bahamas with hundreds of influencers and the some of the world’s most popular celebrities, a gourmet catering service, a customised private jet travel experience, the choice of multiple luxury accommodation options including private yachts with private chefs on board (priced at $250,000 each), private beach homes and VIP beach tents. Many of the world’s best models including Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin and Emily Ratajkowski were paid thousands to be in the festivals video advertisement and promote the event on their social media, which is ultimately what picked the festival up off the ground and running. the 10,000 people who bought tickets thought they were about to live the lavish life of a celebrity and attend one of the most elite events in the world. The expected "best festival in decades" sold 95% of their tickets within 48 hours and the hype spread worldwide over the internet. It almost seemed unreal that something of this kind was happening. 

Instead of getting what the attendees paid for, they got the complete opposite; they travelled on a regular airplane crammed with people, left stranded at the airport for hours on end without food or water, resulting in people fainting, and as they finally arrived at the festival location which was not the private island promised - a small, cramped space which was not a real beach, but with sand scattered over the ground, and small tents which were left over from a hurricane catastrophe and which of there were only enough left for approximately one third of the festivals population, barely any water, cold cheese sandwiches and no electricity, security or safety. The site hadn't even been finished when everyone arrived, most people didn't have a mattress to sleep on. Most of the celebrities and festival acts dropped out of the event, as they suspected that the event was simply a huge scam, and ultimately unsafe, therefore they did not want to be involved. People flooded the festival grounds crying to get home, begging for water, help and information - they got nothing. 

Ultimately, what happened here was that 27-year old, rich and stupid McFarland had not organised the event at all, knowing he simply couldn't financially provide all the unrealistic features promised, which he had advertised before even knowing if they were actually possible. For the plan to be a reality in such a short space of time is quite obviously impossible. His workers, which were talented innocent people and treated as family members for their entire careers with McFarland, realised his delusional and illegal behaviour during the process of creating the festival, realising that he was committing fraud and literally scamming everyone, taking thousands of dollars off thousands of let-down people to make himself wealthier. Some of the workers went against him, trying to expose him on social media platforms before the festival began, but their attempts were unsuccessful. By the final few weeks, everyone involved, including McFarland, knew that Fyre was going to be a complete and utter shit show. The festival was cancelled before it had begun, and everyone was sent home from the island, hungry, thirsty and confused. As the tragedy went on, the news spread rapidly across the internet and the company was destroyed in a matter of seconds.

Whilst Billy McFarland did not even pay the poor Bahamian locals which intensely worked day and night for weeks helping to piece the festival grounds together, and the homeowners which let the festival use their own homes for more accommodation for the attendees, famous model Kendall Jenner was paid $250,000 alone for one Instagram post promoting Fyre festival. Personally, I find this outrageously unfair and literally infuriating. Riots broke out on the island and people were left skint. Fyre employees and multiple companies providing for the event were left unpaid, and all Fyre's employees were left jobless when McFarland was imprisoned for six years for what he had caused and faced a $26 million forfeiture order. One of the workers was even told by McFarland to sexually pleasure the head of the water company that were providing for them in order to get enough bottles for the attendees, as they simply could not afford it. If this isn't bad business, I don't know what is. 

What is interesting about this monstrosity of a music festival is the influence of that one video advertisement. ONE video advertisement, which gave a false visualisation of the event, featuring models and celebrities partying on private yachts on a private island, living the dream life, created unreal amounts of publicity alone, causing thousands of people to pay ridiculous amounts for a ticket. Even during the last few weeks before the festivals starting date, the same original advertisements were being used on social media, continuously feeding people false expectations of the disaster they were about to face. What McFarland did was created an experience for an audience, from the American and global market, with two things: cash and an alter-ego - or, the super rich. This situation unfolds how in a world so obsessed with being what everyone else desires to be and so heavily absorbed by social media, influencers pretty much have the power to make people do anything. If it wasn't for the celebrity endorsement used to kick-start the huge Fyre festival hype, it wouldn't have gone anywhere. 

The biggest shit-show of the decade, perhaps?