In 2017, fraudster Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule made history when they launched the biggest festival failure of the decade. Initially marketed as a luxury festival in the beautiful Bahamas it was more like a refugee camp with bewildered festival-goers having no food, toilets, accommodation or way to get home after paying thousands of dollars for the weekend of their lives.
Supermodels such as Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski and Kendall Jenner were also tricked by promoting the scam. Jenner was allegedly paid $275k to make an Instagram post promoting Fyre. In the now-deleted Instagram post, she wrote:
‘So hyped to announce my G.O.O.D Music Family as the first headliners for @fyrefestival. Use my promo code KJONFYRE for the next 24 hours to get on the list for the artists and talents afterparty on Fyre Cay.’
This week, Jenner had to pay $90k for her involvement in the fraudulent festival and because her Instagram post supposedly led the public to believe Kanye West, the founder of the G.O.O.D label, would be performing at the festival demonstrating ‘a clear lack of good faith on Jenner’s part’.
What we can all learn from the Fyre Festival?
1. If something is too good to be true, it usually is. For people who went to Fyre Festival, they were desperate to live like billionaires for a weekend, no matter the cost. They guillably spent thousands of dollars before knowing important information about the Festival. Whilst it is unfortunate that they had a disastrous experience, they should not have been so naïve to throw away their money before knowing all the facts. Therefore, Fyre Festival is an example of how fools are easily parted with their money. So, let the festival be a lesson of what not to do.
2. The Fyre Festival slashed the hearts of Bahamian culture and pride after they watched McFarland create havoc in their beautiful country and not pay Bahamian workers. The lack of respect from McFarland and the rest of the Fyre team was utterly appalling. After there was no saving the festival, members of the team fled the site, leaving the Bahamians to pick up the pieces.
If we fast-forward three years, we can see people being selfless rather than selfish whilst facing a more important disaster: Covid-19. Often it is not helpful to constantly look back as that can stifle progress, however it is reassuring that people are valuing genuine kindness over the Instagram lifestyle.
