Netflix’s Fyre – 4.5/5 stars
Hulu’s Fyre Fraud – 3/5 stars
It was the greatest train wreck of 2017. Most people watched it unravel over social media. Now, Netflix and Hulu give unique insights into the epic Fyre Festival, a festival failure unlike anything before its time, or, if you’re look at it from a different perspective, the greatest campaign ever launched by an advertising company.
Netflix’s “Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened” tells the story from the perspective of Fyre Festival employees and other parties involved, as well as employees of other ventures conceived by Fyre Festival creator and founder, Billy McFarland. The documentary overlaps recorded footage of the months preceding the festival with point-of-view interviews with the staff, presented in a linear timeline.
The footage shows what happened in the Bahamas in preparation for the festival. A lot of parties, drinking, and having fun, but actual construction for the festival didn’t begin until approximately four months before the event. A pilot, Keith, who taught himself how to fly using Microsoft Flight Simulator, was let go of the team for trying to shift the focus from partying to livable accommodations and toilets.
In contrast, Hulu’s “Fyre Fraud” tells the story in a true crime documentary format partly told by Billy McFarland himself. The documentary starts with a biography of McFarland and his previous failed ventures like Magnises that eventually led to Fyre Festival. From early on, the documentary sheds light on the fraudulent proceedings that took place in order to bring Fyre Fest to its short-lived, life-support existence.
Netflix’s “Fyre” shows how little preparation and thought went into the actual planning of the event. McFarland spent most of $4 million renting luxury offices in Manhattan for the Fyre App and Fyre Fest staff. The original purpose of the festival was actually to market the Fyre App, an application meant to help people book talent for their private events.
There were a lot of shady characters in both documentaries, but I have to talk about Grant Margolin, Fyre marketing director, neurotic dictator and seemingly crazy person. He had absolutely no experience planning an event of such scale. He also seemingly exploited employees under him in order to support McFarland and Ja Rule and provide anything and everything they wanted. He made me uncomfortable, to say the least.
McFarland’s inexperience could excuse some of his delusions were it not for the fact that, when they were finally brought in (too late), experts like Marc Weinstein, music festival consultant, told him the reality – that his vision could not be brought to life in the amount of time – and he failed to recognize this. McFarland, with the full support of crazy person Margolin, was so deluded in his conviction that he actually convinced people it could be done. And we know how that turned out.
Perhaps the most comic moment in the entire Netflix documentary, producer Andy King shares how McFarland asked him to perform oral sex on the Bahamian head of customs, so that they would release four 18-wheelers filled with Evian water without having to pay the $175,000 tax fee. What’s worse, King, a respected figure with a career spanning 30 years, was willing to “take one for the team”. He ultimately didn’t have to but the fact no one planned for a customs fee really shows the level of inexperience for everyone involved planning such an event.
The comedy ends quickly, though. The Netflix doc reveals that the 200 Bahamian workers who worked tirelessly day and night to try to pull off the festival were never paid for their work. Maryann Rolle, Exuma Point Restaurant owner, provided meals for the entire staff and workers for weeks. She never received payment for her work and spent $50,000 of her own money to pay her own employees for their work.
Unlike them, blogger Seth Cossimo, who works under the name of William Needham Finley IV, a fictional character of his own creation, received part of $5 million dollars in a settlement against the event organizers. He spent $4,000 dollars to go to the festival.
The most shocking detail of Netflix’s “Fyre” is how easily ad agency F*ckJerry Media was able to create the allusion of Fyre Fest with a simple concept. When the infamous video featuring Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin and Emily Ratajkowski premiered, the grounds didn’t exist and there was nothing on Norman’s Cay, the island where the video was shot. The location of the festival was later moved to Great Exuma because of the organizers’ failure to comply with a request from the owner of Norman’s Cay that Pablo Escobar’s name not be mentioned in any of the promotions.
Hulu’s “Fyre Fraud” features some of the influencers that were flown down to the event. Unlike paying customers, some of the influencers like CC Clarke and Alyssa Lynch, stayed in luxury accommodations. Clarke was placed on a cruise ship whereas Lynch was placed in a villa. In the doc, Lynch shares how she did “feel really bad” for them as she’s holding back laughter. Lynch is also an actress and I’m never watching anything she’s in if she’s ever in anything relevant.
It also demonstrates how incapable of remorse McFarland really is. Throughout the documentary, McFarland demonstrates that he is a pathological liar. Moreover, Ja Rule, whose real name is Jeffrey Bruce Atkins, fails to take accountability for his complicity in the affair.
Both documentaries work as complementary pieces, each shedding light on different aspects of the people who took part in the questionable activities that led to Fyre Fest. However, if I had to choose one, it’d be Netflix’s “Fyre”, which shows the harrowing truth of the festival and the true victims – the Bahamian workers who never received any payment for their tireless work, and the investors who were deceived by McFarland into thinking they were putting their money on already profitable ventures.
