If somehow you missed the fiasco which was Fyre Festival when it originally happened back in 2007, I’m sure you have heard about it more in great detail this past week with the release of 2 documentaries, a Netflix Documentary called “Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened” and a Hulu Documentary called “Fyre Fraud”.
We all had a laugh at rich millennial’s expense back in 2007 when they quickly realized their THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS luxurious getaway to Pablo’s Oscobar’s island for fine cuisine and top of the line musical performances with beautiful models and influencers was actually a SCAM. It was a huge cultural moment and dominated the social feeds with countless viral videos, pictures, and memes all poking fun at the “poor” rich kids.
As a festival goer I could perhaps feel bad for some of these people, but to me, these are the same kind of people(for the most part) that go to Coachella, because its fucking Coachella, they don’t go for the experience or music, they just want an Instagram picture there and to be able to say they were there.
That being said, there are a lot of people to feel sorry for in this story. The locals of Exuma Point that were never paid, Fyre Fest staff never paid, Maryann Rolle who spent 50,000 of her personal savings to cater to the attendees and staff, Fyre Media Staff left with debt on personal cards, investors being lied to and losing millions and countless more.
So which one would I say is better and recommend?
Well both. For different reasons. I think you should watch both to get both perspectives.
The Netflix Documentary
- Features alot of exclusive behind the scenes footage of the early stages of shitty planning leading up to the epic failure of Fyre.
- Includes interviews from previous Fyre Team Members and people from Exuma Point that were directly affected.
- The build up of hype for the influencers just to see that change so quickly is priceless
The Hulu Documentary
- Goes more into depth about the leading up to Fyre Fest, as well as an interesting look at financial specifics in which Billy was committing criminal offenses.
- Includes interviews from an (ex) Jerry Media Employee that is quite a revealing look into the Media Company’s role in all of this, as well an interview from previous employees of Billy Macfarland, as well as an interview from Billy Macfarland himself.
- With the Interview from Billy, he is asked some real legitimate questions about the fraud he was committing and the look on his face/delayed response really expose this POS as a pathological liar.
- This documentary call’s Jerry Media out for their involvement, the statements made by the ex-employee paint a different picture than that painted by Jerry Media in the Netflix Doc(I wonder why? See below)
Things I don’t like about these Documentaries
The Netflix Documentary
- This documentary was produced by Jerry Media, and while they don’t paint themselves to be saints, they try to neglect some of the responsibility by putting it on the Fyre Team.
The Hulu Documentary
- Hulu paid Billy Macfarland for his interview.
My final thoughts on Billy,
He is not remorseful and he doesn’t see anything wrong in the things he has done. Doods a POS. The whole thing was a scam from the get go. And he knew it.
the worst thing about these fyre fest documentaries is that the very scammers responsible for Fyre Fest are profiting from them.
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#FUCKfuckjerry
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Its all very interesting from a marketing stand point. The whole story is a testament to how powerful influencer marketing really is.
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I wonder how many brands will want to partner with Jerry Media after this. In the netflix doc (that they produced) they laid it all on the FYRE team, which when i watched at first I believed them because i have had clients like they were describing the Fyre team to be.
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Then after watching Hulu’s it became apparent that they knew much more than they led on in their doc.
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If my agency was marketing something like this and we started to figure out what was going on/being asked to filter negative comments, I would have backed out and told the public exactly why.
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They were posting up until the day of… trust me those fuckers knew, they should have did what was right but it seems like they thought they were going to be the exception when it came to getting paid. Which they weren’t, so now they can play victim too! oh and they can also donate to the go fund me page to try and save some face.
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if they really felt that bad, why not reach out with that money to that lady sooner, why wait almost 2 years until 2 documentaries make you look bad to give her back what is hers?
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I bet if these documentaries were never made, they would have NEVER gave that woman money back.
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The Netflix documentary and them donating that money is PR STUNT, their way of saving face.
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i would recommend watching both for different reasons though, each one features exclusive interviews, and you can better compare the conflicting talking points, and watching both gives you better insight over the whole story.
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Just so crazy that something like this could happen the way it did. The power of influencer marketing is astounding.
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So, What’s the take away?
The power of influencer marketing. I’m a digital marketer so you know I was gonna go there! But seriously, how could they pull something like this off!? Well, all they had to do was make a bunch of influencers believe it was real and post about it. That’s about it lmao.
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There is a GoFundMe for the lady who spent her life savings catering for the Staff and attendees.
https://www.gofundme.com/exuma-point-fyre-fest-debt
