What do you get when you cross a bored 20-something business bro, a washed-up early-2000s rapper and hoards of disgustingly wealthy millennials?
You get a music festival disaster of epic proportions. Then, eventually, you get a really incredible documentary about it.
Hulu has picked up a docuseries analyzing the famous failure that was Ja Rule’s Fyre Festival.
According to Hollywood Reporter, the streaming service has picked up a multi-part docuseries that will closely examine the absolute shitshow. The docuseries is being developed by Billboard, Mic and Cinemart and is slated to premiere in 2019. Through interviews with various event-goers, investors and festival employees, the series hopes to uncover exactly how and why so many Hawaiian-shirted white guys were left stranded in the Bahamas last year.
If you didn’t spend April and May of 2017 falling down the Internet rabbit hole of Fyre Festival coverage, here’s what you missed.
Fyre Festival was supposed to be a luxury music experience. Festival patrons were promised a beautiful and exciting weekend in “Fyre Cay,” a gorgeous spot in the Bahamas that doesn’t actually exist. The festival was the brainchild of Billy McFarland, a then-25-year-old entrepreneur famous for founding absurd, often status-oriented startups that targeted young, wealthy elites. McFarland, a Vineyard Vines lanyard personified, partnered with rapper Ja Rule to create Fyre Media Inc., the venture sponsoring the festival.
Fyre Festival was Instagram marketing at its finest. McFarland got models including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski to lure rich kids into buying tickets, promising an unforgettable weekend of beach parties, amazing concerts, luxury amenities, gourmet meals and hot babes.
Upon arrival, Fyre Festival attendees discovered a much different scene. It would still be an unforgettable weekend, but one that involved no concerts, disheveled-looking tents, broken amenities, cheese sandwiches and disgruntled (but likely, still hot) babes.
The festival was nowhere near ready when patrons arrived, but McFarland had to go through with his (seemingly nonexistent) plans if he wanted to repay as much as 7 million dollars in outstanding loans he had already accrued.
In an article for Vanity Fair that investigates the hilarious horrors of the festival, Bryan Burrough writes, “A Manhattanite named Matt, who asked that his last name not be used, remembers approaching a festival staffer and asking for a V.I.P. tent. The staffer just shook his head. ‘Honestly, man,” he said. “It’s every man for himself.'”
According to Variety, McFarland has already accepted a $26 million forfeiture for defrauding investors. He also faces up to 40 years in prison.
It’ll be interesting to see what else the upcoming Hulu docuseries reveals about the Fyre Festival and all of its beach mayhem. The event has all the pieces of a great documentary — a beautiful backdrop, a cast of outraged characters, celebrities, scandal and one young businessman who turned out to be a huge liar. Or should I say, lyre.
