We know a thing or two about luxury music festivals around here, but the inaugural Fyre Festival flew under our radar this year. Co-created by Ja Rule (and named after his Fyre App), the music festival in the Bahamas initially offered the kind of indulgent experience you’d expect to find at established events like Napa Valley’s Bottle Rock Festival, where there are practically villas for your villas. And as for music, Fyre Festival had lined up acts like Blink-182, Migos, Pusha-T, Disclosure, Major Lazer, Kaytranada, and more.
Ticket prices ranged from $1,000 to $12,000, but some of the accommodations were even pricier—starting at about $55,000, you could rent your own yacht to enjoy the headliners from the water. That is, if you’d ever made it to the island after springing for tickets, accommodations, and airfare. According to Pitchfork, a lot of attendees were blocked from flying out of Miami to the island where the festival was to be held from April 28-30 and May 5-7. From the looks of these photos and posts from the festival grounds, they were the lucky ones.
Given that Lord Of The Flies wasn’t exactly the theme of this fest, people were rightfully pissed. There was no concierge or kitchen setup, and—worse—the festival organizers hadn’t ensured there was beer on the island before flying in thousands of people. When the luxury cabanas were revealed to be repurposed relief tents, a lot of people prepared to get the fuck off the island. That also proved to be a problem, as the chartered flights were delayed for various reasons.
Blink-182 pulled out of its performance yesterday, when Fyre Festival began promising refunds to people who’d never even made it to the island. Organizers released this hilarious understatement via Instagram.
We can’t see how this could possiblie have gone wrong, seeing what planning and high-tech gadgetry went into the event. But people are apparently still stranded on the island. Meanwhile, Fyre Festival has yet to respond to Pitchfork.