Fyre Festival, Which Cost Thousands Per Ticket, Devolves Into Giant Mess

People are comparing Ja Rule’s Fyre Festival in the Bahamas to “Lord of the Flies.”
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This is so not Instagram-worthy.

The Fyre Festival, a luxury music festival created by Ja Rule, was supposed take place this weekend on a “remote and private” island in the Bahamas that was “once owned by Pablo Escobar,” according to The Washington Post.

Expectation Vs. Reality #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/RfOpbNEdH3

— BigKidProblems (@BigKidProblems) April 28, 2017

Concert goers were seduced by ads that promised a glamorous event, and tickets cost between $5,000 and $250,000, Rolling Stone reports.

It was supposed to be a weekend in paradise.

But when attendees arrived on the island Thursday, everything was a disorganized mess. Tents were half-built, there were feral dogs running around and the promised gourmet grub was actually sad-looking cheese sandwiches, based on numerous social media reports.

The dinner that @fyrefestival promised us was catered by Steven Starr is literally bread, cheese, and salad with dressing. #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/I8d0UlSNbd

— Tr3vor (@trev4president) April 28, 2017

Starr Catering group told HuffPost in a statement that despite reports suggesting they were involved with the festival, their agreement with Fyre Festival was terminated on April 2, long before the event took place. Starr did not provide food for the festival.

In case you're wondering, those "cabanas" are actually disaster relief tents.#fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/jaZpkIKVT2

— Matt Halfhill (@MattHalfhill) April 28, 2017

So Fyre Fest is a complete disaster. Mass chaos. No organization. No one knows where to go. There are no villas, just a disaster tent city. pic.twitter.com/1lSWtnk7cA

— William N. Finley IV (@WNFIV) April 27, 2017

This sums up Fyre Festival. #fyre #fyrefestival #fyrefest pic.twitter.com/x4xcFBL8Yg

— William N. Finley IV (@WNFIV) April 28, 2017

This is how Fyre Fest handles luggage. Just drop it out of a shipping container. At night. With no lights. #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/X5CdZRyJWo

— William N. Finley IV (@WNFIV) April 28, 2017

Blink-182, one of the bands headlining the festival, also canceled at the last minute.

“We just realized it was all a complete cluster and nothing was ready, there was no organization, there was no leadership,” William Finley a concert-goer from Raleigh, North Carolina who spent $8,000 to attend the festival told CNN.

“It was horrible, (like) summer camp,” he said. “Everything about it was a sham.”

Disenchanted, many who shelled out thousands to attend the bougie event took to Twitter and Reddit to express their dissatisfaction.

Bruh #fyrefestival turning into a Lord Of The Flies sequel right in front of our eyes pic.twitter.com/bSExCOacYo

— Samuel (@Fake_Important) April 28, 2017

Many also went back to the airport in an attempt to leave early.

U.S. Citizens attempting to leave #Bahamas after #fyrefestival #scam. People are scared. This festival put people in danger. #fyrehoax pic.twitter.com/7mlble0Obt

— Janan Buisier (@JananBuisier) April 28, 2017

Festival organizers have decided to postpone the event, according to the official site — which is now nothing more than a single page with a statement that acknowledges the festival’s issues.

Fyre Festival have taken down their whole website and replaced it with this statement: pic.twitter.com/j3FDM1ktaK

— BuzzFeed News (@BuzzFeedNews) April 28, 2017

“We ask for everyone’s patience and cooperation during this difficult time as we work as quickly and safely as we can to remedy this unforeseeable situation,” the statement reads. The “Fyre Festival Team” also states that they are organizing “complimentary charters” to transport everyone back to Miami.

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism said it was “extremely disappointed” with the disorganized event.

Bahamas official statement on Fyre Festival #FyreFestival pic.twitter.com/NQo8AmXZlQ

— The Bahamas (@VisitTheBahamas) April 28, 2017

“The event organizers assured us that all measures were taken to ensure a safe and successful event but clearly they did not have the capacity to execute an event of this scale,” the tourism ministry said in a tweet.

This story has been updated to clarify that Starr Catering Group did not provide food for the event.

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