The Cheese Sandwich Heard Around The World!
Yes, this Instagram photo summed up the debacle that was Fyre Fest, a disastrous attempt to create a music festival in the Bahamas – and for this Cult Movie Monday, I want to share an incredible new Netflix documentary that tells the story about what happened!
Do you remember seeing these Social Media Influencers in the Bahamas, promoting the festival and the “must do” social event of the year? Well, it was all part of a grand plan – and a great documentary breaks down the disaster that was Fyre Fest, and how it was created by these two:
Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule!
It is the story of new media excess, living large on investor’s money, and how social media influencers can be bought to promote something they didn’t know anything about!
Now, in the wake of two new documentaries that look at the Fyre Festival, the spotlight has turned from the Organizers of the event to the Social Media Influencers who shilled for it!
Here you can see Bella Hadid as part of a social media campaign to promote the festival, and the film looks at how much these social media influencers were paid to promote something they knew nothing about!
After the debacle, other photos of the influencers began to surface, grafted on to scenes of the Fyre Fest disaster:
Now, according to legal documents being filed, Instagram influencers and artists who helped promote Fyre Festival could be forced to disclose information about payments they received from organizer Billy McFarland.
Billy McFarland was the mastermind behind the ill-fated festival, and the documentary digs into the scandal surrounding his company, staff, and the unrealistic vision to create a new music festival – one that was designed to appeal to young Millennials who were enticed to pay thousands and thousands of dollars up front to secure tickets and lodging at this upscale, hipster oasis…
By the way, this story continues – the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of Fyre Media on Friday asked a judge for a new round of subpoenas for the celebrities who helped build hype around the ill-fated festival in the Bahamas, according to Billboard. Why are the celebrities being targeted? You’ll see.
Here is the trailer for the Netflix documentary “FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened”:
Well, talk about a disaster! When thousands of festival goers arrived on this Bahamas island, they expected to find luxury accommodations, exotic food, Yachts and Blink-182! But they didn’t find luxury and music – they got this:
This was the “Cheese sandwich” heard round the world – when an unlucky attendee posted the “food” they were given to eat, it exploded across the internet, and the documentary shows just how bad things were for the thousands who showed up. And was it really that bad? It was!
Here are the deluxe accommodations: and what makes this documentary so compelling is that they has TONS of footage from stranded attendees showing how nightmarish it was!
So the question was: why did so many social media influencers post shots like this promoting the event?
A terrific Daily Mail article discusses what drove people to take part – heavily influenced by those social media posts:
“Among them are Jenner, Hadid, Hailey Bieber, Emily Ratajkowski and other beautiful people who frolicked in the crystal-clear blue waters of the Caribbean in a promotional video that induced serious ‘fear of missing out’ among social media enthusiasts and drove thousands to purchase tickets for the event spanning two decadent weekends in spring 2017.
Nearly two years later, the subpoenas are part of an investigation into what happened to the estimated $26million McFarland raised from investors and doled out in the weeks and months before Fyre Festival went up in [metaphorical] flames, leaving thousands of attendees and workers broke and abandoned, investors swindled out of millions and, ultimately, landing McFarland behind bars.”
As always, The Daily Mail has a terrific article about the mess, which you can see here:
Hulu also has a documentary about the festival, and they got McFarland to talk on camera – although he is all over the Netflix documentary anyway, and his reluctance to answer many questions in the Hulu doc is a bit frustrating, except to reinforce what you think of him – see them both together for a fascinating look at the power of social media, the desire to be part of “the next cool thing”, and the shysters who prey upon us.
The Netflix documentary includes a lot of great interviews with Fyre Media staff, who saw the disaster unfolding but were powerless to stop it…a very sobering look at the power of influencers – and so called “visionaries” in this social media age…
My cult movie Monday series looks at films new, old and obscure that I think are worth experiencing: like this one:
Kathleen Turner and Anthony “Psycho” Perkins chew up a LOT of cinematic scenery in “Crimes Of Passion” – see the trailer here:
Let me know if you watch the Fyre festival docs!
Categories: Books / Media, Cult Movies, documentary films, Exotic Travel, Great Films, Hollywood, Movies, Pop Culture, Travel, Travel Adventures, Uncategorized
It is interesting that the celebs have been issued subpoenas, John. After all, how much does any model know about a product they are advertising. A perfume could be full of terrible ingredients that give the wearers a rash for example. Would the model be blamed for advertising it.
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Luckily, my social media profile is minimal. So I never heard about that festival fiasco, but I am not in the least surprised. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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