Bahamas party-goers paid £9,000 for tent and limp sandwiches
IT WAS billed as an exclusive “cultural moment” and an “alchemic blend of music, art and food”, during which wealthy revellers would bask on a remote private Bahamian island as supermodels swam in the sapphire waters.
But the reality of the Fyre Festival turned out to be very different. Last night, organisers called off the event as party-goers, who had paid thousands of pounds for tickets, complained that they had been left stranded in a “disaster zone”.
After guests flooded social media with photographs of their forlorn, litter-strewn and windswept campsite, the debacle was called “Rich kids of Instagram meets Lord of the Flies”.
Disgruntled attendees reported that the “eco-friendly geodesic domes” and private villas they paid to stay in were actually “disaster relief tents” that blew over, leaving mattresses strewn across the beach. The promised “chef-curated culinary pop-ups” were serving limp cheese sandwiches in Styrofoam containers – and no beer.
And according to guests’ unconfirmed reports, the site was home to rat droppings and feral dogs. Festival-goers had paid anywhere from $450 (about £348) for a day pass to $12,780 (£9,800) for VIP packages. There was an option to spend up to $250,000 on a package that included a private yacht.
Fyre Festival, the organisers of which included American rapper Ja Rule, had been promoted with a glossy promotional video. It opened with an aerial shot of Grand Exuma, a paradise island it boasted had once been owned by the drug lord Pablo Escobar. There were images of private jets and yachts, and supermodels such as Emily Ratajkowski and Bella Hadid on jet-skis.
A voiceover said: “The actual experience exceeds all expectations, it’s something that is hard to put into words.” Those who made it to the island had few problems describing it. William N. Finley IV, from North Carolina, who paid $4,000 for a “luxury” experience, said: “Fyre Fest is a complete disaster. Mass chaos. No organisation. There are no villas, just a disaster tent city. It was a sham. Night has fallen, we have no luggage.”
He posted photographs of people’s luggage arriving in a shipping con- tainer, lockers with no locks and a “luxury” food court that consisted of metal folding chairs under an awning next to a yellow school bus.
As many festival-goers went back to the airport in an attempt to leave, they were stranded there for hours. Janan Buisier described passengers being locked in a waiting room with no food and someone fainting. On the eve of the festival, the American rock band Blink-182 had pulled out of performing, saying they were “not confident”.
Organisers said the event had been “fully postponed”. They added: We are working tirelessly to get flights scheduled and get all travellers home safely.”
The Bahamas ministry of tourism said it was “extremely disappointed” by the “total disorganisation and chaos”.
‘Fyre Festival is a complete disaster. Mass chaos. No villas, just disaster tent city’
Beautiful people flocked to Fyre Festival on a sun-kissed desert island in the Bahamas, paying up to $12,000 for what was advertised as a perfect blend of music, art, and food, not to mention Instagram-friendly supermodels. It turned out to be the Caribbean version of one of those winter wonderlands back home where the reindeer is no more than a donkey with plastic antlers tied on and Santa sits tipsily in the rutted mud. The disappointments of Fyre Festival were epitomised in a photo tweeted by one marooned party-goer of a gourmet dinner in a plastic container consisting of two slices of dry bread and some processed cheese. Schadenfreude is an ugly word, but as we wrap up against the Bank Holiday wind, it might be with the thankful thought that there’s no place like home.