Fyre Festival, the brainchild of 25-year-old entrepreneur Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule, was advertised as the anti-festival (what a coincidence), and became exactly that.
Let's start this story from the beginning.
McFarland and Ja Rule became friends and business partners through music. During some flying lessons, they found themselves stranded in the Exumas, Bahamas, and thought the place would be great for a music festival venue. After a marketing campaign and booking musical acts, they hit a wall. It turns out that the Exumas isn't a great place to host a large scale festival. The infrastructure simply could not sustain that many people. Chloe Gordon, a writer at NY Mag, worked on the festival for a short amount of time and claims it was always going to be a failure.
They advertised the festival as an island paradise vacation, where hidden treasure and Instagram models awaited guests. Tickets were priced at a whopping $1,200 to $250,000 (split between multiple people). The more you spend, the more impressive your sleeping arrangements (we're talking a vast range of housing including a deluxe tent to a literal yacht), and packages included gourmet meals. The island itself has a lot of history, as a former home to Pablo Escobar and Blackbeard the Pirate.
The day of the festival, things began to unravel. First, pop-punk band blink-182 decided to cancel their performance, as expressed in an official statement. Second, many guests found themselves stranded in Miami, unable to fly to Fyre Cay. Luggage was lost, or poorly managed. The guests who had found their way to the island discovered the deluxe villas they were promised were actually half-assembled emergency tents used to shelter victims of catastrophes. These tents weren't able to be locked, and many people were robbed of their belongings.
Festival-goers also found that there was no security on the island. The staff were reportedly unhelpful and just as in dark as the guests were. Medical staff also seemed to be missing. The gourmet meals that were promised were just bread, cheese, and salads. There wasn't even any beer available.
Things got worse and eventually people attempted to leave in droves. Exiting the island was a complicated process, with many people waiting to leave for up to 16 hours. All incoming flights were canceled in order to accommodate exiting festival-goers.
Ja Rule and McFarland have both put out official statements. In short, they promised refunds to everyone who attended Fyre Festival and apologized for not being prepared. They also are promising guests from this year free VIP tickets to Fyre Festival 2018, which will be held at a different venue (a beach venue, in the United States) with different staff.