If you haven’t heard of the FYRE Festival that was supposed to happen back in 2017 on a private island in the Bahamas, well count your blessings because you saved a lot of money by not being drawn into it. I had heard of the festival but did not pay much attention to it and really did not know much of what really happened until I watched this documentary about it. The fact that it was supposed to be the greatest party in the world already set the standards so high that there was bound to be an epic failure to follow.

So here is he brief backstory of the festival. Brian McFarland was the entrepreneur behind this epic music festival that was supposed to happen on a private island in the Bahamas. Long story short, he basically put so much money he didn’t have into a festival that was not going to happen. He scammed many people; social media influencers, concert goers, investors, employees, artists, etc. into paying for this experience of a lifetime luxury concert vacation. However, it all started to crumble around him and instead of telling the truth about the issues he lied and stranded a bunch of people on the island, the festival didn’t happen, many did not get paid and is now in jail for fraud.

This was an eye-opening documentary because I kept finding myself asking the question of why people kept following his “positive” attitude and why more people did not think to just inform the public themselves of what was really going on with this disaster of a festival. Between having hurricane tents, no food or water, asking an employee to provide sexual favors to bring water through customs, not paying employees and basically lying to the public, there had to have been one person who would have thought to say something! This is why people get away with things so easily. I feel like if more common sense was used it would not have gotten this far and the documentary was an eye-opening experience to how ignorant, compulsive liars like Brian get away with things like this.

It is a warning to all to be careful sending money over phone or internet to people you don’t know and honestly, don’t be the first to experience something without good reviews (it may sound hypocritical but I don’t go to things unless they are verified).

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