Fyre Festival: A Review

Movie Review: Netflix’s Fyre Festival

For those who remain blissfully unaware of the absolute disaster that was the Fyre Festival, allow me to give you a brief synopsis. Con-man and potential borderline sociopath Billy MacFarland hatches the nearly inconceivable idea to host an all-star luxury music festival accompanied with A-list celebrities and private yachts on “Pablo Escobar’s private island” in the Bahamas. What actually happened was hundreds of affluent millennials got stranded without shelter, and with minimal access to food and water, each one defrauded out of thousands of dollars. Netflix delves into the 2017 disaster which subsequently evolved into a social media phenomenon through a series of interviews with ex-Fyre employees, distraught festival attendees, and even Bahama natives who worked exclusively with Billy.

The gripping documentary begins, as expected from Netflix, with stunning cinematography. Throughout the next 1 hour and 30 minutes the viewer is treated to a wide array of pleasing aesthetics including aerial views if the Bahamian island of Great Exuma. The producers also choose to include several of the promotional clips used for the failed Fyre Festival, which included scantily clad super models such as Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkoowski parading around on luxury yachts and drinking champagne. The audience is instantly drawn in, much like wealthy victims of the most elaborate of McFarland’s schemes. However, from the very beginning, it is exceedingly apparent that something is about to go terribly wrong.

Without question, the best part of this documentary and what sets it apart from Hulu’s competing film titled “Fyre Fraud” is the stunning interview clips. The interviewees include “the development team wrangled into working on the Fyre Media company’s website and app, the local Bahamian workers exploited for labor, the attendees who admit to adopting a ‘looting mentality’ during the chaos,” and the producer of the catastrophic event. These individuals absolutely do not disappoint and give a first-hand account of their own experiences, providing a better understanding of just how everything went so wrong as well as insider-access to Macfarland’s madness. Perhaps the stand-out and most shocking story shared came from homosexual event producer Andy King. Following a seized shipment of water to the island in a demand for payment from festival organizers, Billy MacFarland actually implores King to perform fellatio in return for the water to be released to the island from customs. Shockingly, the event producer was willing to trade sexual favors for H20, despite being initially hesitant. “Billy called and said, ‘Andy, we need you to take one big thing for the team, and I said, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve been taking something for the team every day.’ He said, ‘Well, you’re our wonderful gay leader and we need you to go down. Will you suck dick to fix this water problem?’ And I said, ‘Billy, what?’ And he said, ‘Andy, if you will go down and suck Cunningham’s dick, who is the head of customs, and get him to clear all of the containers with water, you will save this festival."

Arguably the overall purpose of this gripping Netflix doc is to provide commentary on the frivolous toxicity of some millennials and the repercussions that can occur when they are taken in. From the beginning, the viewer sees a charming, charismatic, narcissist with delusions of grandeur and we are seduced in much the same manner as the victims of the Fyre Festival. On one hand, it’s easy to sit back and laugh at young rich hipsters who had tens of thousands of dollars to throw away on a Bahamian getaway filled with Instagram influencers, beach-front cabanas, and mimosa fueled jet-ski rides. As one comedian included in the film says, “If you paid thousands of dollars to go on a trip to see Blink 182, that’s on you. That is Darwinism at its finest.” However, as Fyre Festival continues and you are shown young men and women in their late teens and early twenties without water, adequate shelter, and fighting over scarcely provided cheese sandwiches in the name of FOMO, your interpretation of the catastrophic events will undoubtedly change. The film serves as a shocking example of the phony and gratuitous Instagram era which our generation continues to perpetuate.

The climax of the documentary shows event creator and master manipulator Billy MacFarland’s arrest, along with that of several of his employees/accomplices. However, the story is far from over. While you are initially given the impression that Macfarland has learned his lesson and plans to remain under the radar, the audience is quickly shown that this conclusion could not be further from the truth. In a shocking twist, Billy further capitalizes on the failed music festival by once again illegally capitalizing on the event’s guest list. Unfathomably, the con-man proceeded to advertise and sell over $100,000 in nonexistent tickets to high-profile events such as the Grammys and the Met Gala to former Fyre festival attendees, despite already being under investigation for fraud. The mere fact that these affluent millennials once again bought into something that does not exist in the pursuit of luxury and attention speaks monuments about the society in which we live. Overall, I give this documentary 4.5 out of 5 stars and consider it a must-see!