Fyre Festival was supposed to be the best musical party of the 21st century. Organized in the picturesque setting on the private island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas in April 2017, the event promised the best location, finest music, luxury accommodation, and food. 

And people from all over the world were hyped to join the days-long concert advertised by celebrities like Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin, and Kendall Jenner.

After all, they were promised live shows by notable musicians, including Pusha T, Migos, Tyga, and Blink-182.

But what people thought would be a dream-like escapade turned out to be a disaster for all the attendees - roughly five thousand people. 

Fyre Festival Became a Historical Flop

Despite great advertisements and promises, Fyre Festival failed to meet people's expectations. They were charged up to $100,000 (£75,000) for tickets, but the service didn't justify the expense.

Their luggage was thrown into an unlit car park, and there were no luxury villas. The festival-goers had to rush to get limited tents and spend the night on mattresses on rain-soaked floors.

Instead of promised delicacies, they got cold cheese sandwiches with no dressing in foam containers. The entire event was a mess with disorganization and a lack of entertainers. 

The disaster disappointed the excited attendees and the local people from the island, who spent their fortune in preparing for the event.

And it also infuriated the investors. So much so, they filed lawsuits against the organizer, Billy McFarland, also known as the Fyre Festival Guy. 

About the Fyre Festival Guy 

After the disastrous incident, McFarland earned notoriety as the Fyre Festival Guy.

The New Jersey native had reportedly teamed up with rapper Ja Rule, real name Jeffrey Atkins, to organize the event. But he fabricated his story and plans and won investors' trust through fake documents and bank statements.

As soon as the event failed, all attendees and investors sued him for the scam. And McFarland pleaded guilty to bank fraud, wire fraud, and making false statements in November 2018. 

In the light of his confession, McFarland got convicted of defrauding festival investors out of US $26 million and was sentenced to six years in prison.

In November 2021, the Bucknell University dropout was punished with six months of solitary confinement for taking part in a podcast interview titled, 'Dumpster Fyre.' 

The Fyre Festival-Based Films

The unforgettable failure of the Fyre Festival spawned a legion of memes and, let's not forget, documentaries for Hulu and Netflix. 

Netflix's Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened was released on January 18, 2019.

The film mainly focused on the backstage scenes that led to the catastrophe. It shed light on how the failure was inevitable, given that the organizer tried to pull off a plan that would typically take an entire year in weeks. 

The other documentary, Fyre Fraud, streamed on Hulu on January 14, 2019. It featured McFarland's interview and focused on how the event turned into a wreck.Â