Fyre Festival's Failure Was Only the Tip of the Iceberg: Inside Billy McFarland's Greatest Party That Never Was - stainless steel natural gas grill

This is supposed to be the party of this century.
The Fyre Festival of Billy McFarlane and Ja Rule was promoted to beat all the festivals.
There is a beautiful desert island environment in the Bahamas, its heightprofile line-
In terms of talent, its promotional blitz includes Bella Hadid, Haley Bieber, Emily ratakowski, Kendall Jenner and more
List influencers-
Not to mention its luxury price tag, which shows that attendance is the final sign of status --
These two weekends are meant to be obsessive-compulsive in April 20-
Days that make Coachella look like a child playing.
Then, on an unappetizing tweet with cold sliced cheese on the bread, Fyre Fest soon became a gloating disaster of the century.
End all scams
A warning story about the influence of the social media era, thousands of people have been deprived of their hard-
Making money, stranded in a largely underdeveloped parking lot outside the Sandals resort with some nightmare conditions and causing a lot of imprisonment and litigation.
But when we learned about this week through a dual version of Hulu and Netflix's competitive documentary --
Fyre fraud and Fyre: the greatest party that never happened --
This story is much more than we knew.
Everything is strange and wild than any novel.
To understand how Fyre Fest went wrong, an unfortunate attendee was left in the camp
Just like the conditions upon arrival and the Bahamian locals were deprived of their wages in arrears --
Working in direct sunlight
You know, it seems so painfully obvious that this is the only possible result of this story --
It's important to go back to McFarlane's past.
The son of a real estate developer, born obsessed with making money --
His first plan to get rich quickly, so he claimed in an interview with Fyre Fraud that when he told a classmate that he could fix her crayons for a dollar, then when he invaded the palm computer in his classroom, he came to primary school to advertise his services and all the children would see --
McFarlane claimed to have started his first company at the age of 13 and then dropped out of school in his freshman year to launch a content --
A shared website called Spling.
Soon after, he started a new company called "Magnesis" to provide "black card" services to fans in New York.
McFarlane quipped to The New York Post on 2014: "Latin is definitely free --"
This will allow members to enjoy the benefits of the whole city, including access to members --
The only townhouse in the West Village, while copying the front of the members
Magnetic stripe of existing debit card or credit card on smooth matte black stainless steel card, annual fee is $250.
By 2017, the company has expanded to Washington, D. C. C.
According to McFarlane, there are nearly 40,000 members and 25 employees in San Francisco, raising $3.
1 million of the venture capital, including the investment of the late Aubrie McLendon
The founder of Chesapeake Energy, he was charged by a federal grand jury with conspiring in 2016 to "manipulate bids for the purchase of oil and gas leases" and died once the following day --
Collision of vehicles.
But by 2017, the company had gotten rid of the black card and switched to a digital app that focused on getting membership tickets for the hottest event in town.
Magnesis has promised to engage with things like the Hamilton show, Jay Z and Beyoncé concerts to attract members, but has begun to live up to the end of the deal, members complain, details related to their purchase will be kept from their hands until the day of the event they were told that their purchase was completely canceled just a few days ago.
According to a former employee who appeared in Fyre Fraud, McFarlane allegedly listed the tickets for sale before having any tickets on hand and went out to buy on the same day, the use of funds raised from sales in future events means that each new sales ticket is only for entrepreneurs to be able to complete orders for upcoming events.
While there is growing concern that McFarlane's ability to deliver on promises clearly outweighs his tempting promises, he continues to attract attention. Enter: Ja Rule.
When Ja, whose real name is Jeffrey Atkins, met McFarlane, he was a rapper, his popularity dropped sharply and just released two from prison --
Guns and tax evasion were sentenced to one year in prison.
In 2015, he joined Magnesis, as the former employee admitted in Hulu doc, and he was completely a position with no real name.
Despite the arrival of Ja, McClendon's death caused trouble to Magnesis --
Prior to that, the hedge fund manager, Bobby Jain's wife, Carola Jain, entered the picture as Billy's new core investor.
Soon Billy and Ja had a new project Fyre Media, a talent booking service designed to help people rent out celebrities for their event.
It was originally intended as a promotion for this app.
MDavid Low, creative director of Fyre, said in the Netflix document: "After three to five months of development of the application, we started to consider ways to promote it . ".
"At a meeting, I actually mentioned, 'Why don't we hold a festival like a concert, and Billy is a little obsessed with the idea for industry professionals, then it changed dramatically beyond any input from me or Ja and became the Fyre Festival.
So the Fyre Festival was born.
Considering the date of April, McFarland, Ja and Grant H.
Margolin, the company's chief marketing officer, entered the McFarlane track in the age of Magnesis and as a customer, had a lot of ideas on how to improve the company, start hosting a music festival in Norman's Cay for only about five months, an island in the Bahamas, with little infrastructure for such an event.
"They have to create all the infrastructure," Bahamas reporter Ava Turnquest stated in Fyre Fraud . ".
"We are thinking about planning and building for a year.
"But first, a commercial film must be made.
Jerry media, social media brand and content production network
The House influencer born from the popular Instagram account @ f-in Elliot Tebele-
Kjerry was hired and photographer Michael Swaigen was commissioned to make a film on the island.
"They told us that this client is almost coming to the party, so we need to stay professional and take out the commercial ads from the shoot even if things are messy around us, he said in the Fyre fraud case.
"It's one of the most ridiculous and ambitious creative treatments I 've ever seen.
Included above is to let the model swim with the shark in the open waterI. A.
Music video on the runway, all the cars are running sideways;
We want to do something like that with a golf cart on the runway.
Soon, it is obvious that this is not feasible.
"However, the filming still happened, including models such as Bibo and Chanel Iman.
The place is edited on the island and has a plan for many influential people to post an orange tile on their Instagram feed at the same time, all of these videos are linked to what The New Yorker writer, jacortino, called the "Fraud" video in Fyre Fraud, is going to be a completely generic fantasy of what Instagram is going to be.
"This is just the background of the montage --
"Friendly happiness," she added . "And it worked.
"Within 48 hours, they sold 95% tickets," said Jerry Media CEO Mick pursky (Jerry media-
Make) Netflix documents.
"I think people think it's one of the new hot spots to start taking over the US and global markets.
Then things become reality.
"People leave me messages and say 'I quit because the boss didn't give me a vacation.
I sold everything I had.
Former Jerry media employee olun AXS noted in Fyre Fraud: "It's just a list of the crazy actions they 've taken to attend this fantasy island festival . ".
"But nothing was built.
"All of a sudden, McFarlane realized that in just four months they had to really start working.
"Billy is starting to panic," McFarlane claimed in Hulu doc by local repairman Del Roy Jackson in the Bahamas.
"He said, 'Look, people are actually buying it.
So we have a holiday.
First, they must find a new island.
It looks like, despite claims that he bought Norman's Cay for more than $10 million, the real owner of the island is not happy with the bragging in the promo because it used to be the island of Pablo Escobar --
They were explicitly forbidden to create a connotation because the famous drug lord and the murderer had an obvious and annoying reputation --
Kicked them out of the island forever.
"Six or eight weeks later, he had to find a new location on the neighboring island and start the process again," activity producer Andy King explained in Fyre.
All those luxury accommodations that have been sold, luxury tents and villas that are not available on the new site Grand Exuma.
Luca Sabatini said: "This website is on the mountain and at the base, I see almost a construction site for house development, which is dangerous in many ways . " He explained who was involved in the production of the stage and technology, only 45 days from the beginning of the event to now.
"It takes a lot of work.
"While occasional planning is underway on the island, people elsewhere are beginning to wonder what the festival is all about.
The appearance of the site has not been updated (since it has not been updated yet), Jerry Media continues to post the same images related to the promo shoot.
If questions or criticisms are raised on social media, they will be deleted.
Purzycki explained in Fyre: "The decision is to take a screenshot of all legitimate issues and forward it to the Fyre team and then remove all negative comments that belittle the brand.
Soon, a Twitter account run by New York venture capitalist Calvin Wells, called fyrefvalfraud, appeared after Wells, who was familiar with McFarlane Magnesis's plan, began investigating the effectiveness of promotional materials.
After contacting the agents of some of the bands listed online --up—Blink-
182, Disclosure, Major Lazer, etc-
He said in Fyre that knowing that no one has been paid yet, he "played a more active role in investigating everything ".
"What I realized was that they actually rented an area north of the Sandals Resort, and then what they did was ps the bottom of the map to make it look like it was desert island on the map, he added.
"I think the whole world knows what's going on.
"When the Twitter account failed to make much of an impact, he revealed to Comcast venture capital that their $90,000,000 valuation of Fyre Media may not be entirely true and warned them that the festival was over
Then MacFarlane began to be busy for new investors.
But first, a large-scale procurement was carried out.
"Then they ordered $2 million worth of wine," Jackson said . ""Who the f—
K ordered $2 million worth of wine, although you know the duty on 45% wines in the Bahamas is 2 million.
"They owe $900 in taxes now.
After getting a loan from someone named Ezra Birnbaum for $3 million, the maximum interest rate was 120% and $500,000 was paid within 16 days, mcFarlane turned to those who had already spent thousands of dollars on holiday tickets, basically to bail him out.
Attendees begin to receive emails explaining that there is no cash for the festival and they can only make purchases using the wristbands they need to pre-purchase
Load the funds and suggest they pay thousands for all the experiences they definitely don't want to miss.
When these emails were ignored, aggressive calls began.
"The top priority is not 'let's provide a cashless experience for our festival attendees.
Deng Shiyuan, a former Fyre product designer, claimed in Fyre: "This is 'We can't attend this festival because we don't have the money '. ".
"It's an amazing amount of money.
"The first kids put $800,000 on these wristbands," King added . ".
As it became more and more obvious that there was no money to pay all the fees, McFarlane began to commit actual criminal acts, committed wire transfers to suppliers, and sent only screenshots of the confirmation page where the tracking number was cut off, never really wired.
There is no real building, the day of arrival is getting closer and closer, McFarlane is repeatedly told that he should cancel the event, and the media will be worse if he just goes through something that must be a disaster.
The only problem is not cancellation because all investors are told that their investment will still be recovered if this happens.
However, McFarlane does not have an insurance policy on this incident for reference.
He had no choice but to continue fighting.
And then inevitably happened.
After a night of Monsoon
Like it rained the night before, almost all the work that had been done was canceled, in the blink of an eye --
182 became the first to withdraw from the festival and the first round of attendees began to arrive.
Some people were kicked off.
Location on site, Exuma Point Restaurant (only 25 minutes to prepare for them) where they were shut down for 6 hours and drunk.
"Frankly, this is probably the best part of the whole experience," said Purzycki, who just arrived here.
The people who arrived later were taken directly to the scene, where they found that they were really cheated.
Gravel Pits are filled with sand, no access directly to the beach, no food, no water, no electricity, in fact, relief tents left by Hurricane Matthew, a luxury tent
And they are not enough.
But there is a lot of wine, stacked in the tray next to the kiosk marked "bar.
"Even though McFarlane tried to check everyone in an organized way, he decided to jump on the table and tell the crowd that they should go and set up a tent if they booked the villa. Which they did. All at once.
The total chaos broke out and by dusk it became a situation of robbery involving some drunk people who were promised something completely different.
When the world saw the infamous "cheese and bread" tweet, the media had covered the disaster in full, and the rest of the behavior was online --
The reservation was canceled by Fyre Media employee Samuel Krost, who is responsible for the reservation.
The local Bahamians are very angry and now ask them to pay and come to collect the money.
Meanwhile, the unfortunate attendees are just trying to get rid of Dodge.
As for McFarlane, music festival consultant Mark Weinstein noted that "Billy has nowhere to go ".
The official response drafted by Margolin said that the event had been canceled due to "circumstances beyond our control.
Ja will tweet that the event is not a scam. . .
[And] it's not my fault.
"Before the end of the weekend, McFarlane, Ja, and the rest of Fyre Media were subject to multiple lawsuits, however, according to the video, on Monday, two men had a conference call with their staff, and their impression remained that they could come out of the mess they made, they point out that Samsung and their exploding Galaxy phones are examples of a company that has survived the storm.
When an employee asked if they had done anything during the festival, Ja replied, "It's not fraud.
I call that a fake advertisement.
Two weeks later, McFarlane invited swigan to his penthouse to film a documentary about recovery.
"He lives in this luxurious and clean penthouse and is removed from it by multiple layers of glass.
"He wants to go to the Bahamas and try to get his money back for investors," the filmmaker said . ".
On the list of things called robbing customs to retrieve the detained merch.
"When we were on the way to the landing, the whole government switched over and issued a statement that it was almost forbidden for Billy and Fyre to continue for the rest of the time.
"At about this time, the FBI began to inquire around and said to Fyre Media employees that they were told that there would be no more formal jobs or payslips, but that he did not dismiss anyone, this effectively ensures that he does not have to pay any unemployment benefits.
(Unemployment only comes when you are fired, not "voluntary" to resign.
) On June 30, 2017, he was arrested and charged with telecom fraud, admitted to two charges and admitted to using false documents to attract investors in 2018.
You might think this strange story is over here, right.
As Fyre reported, McFarland returned to work during the bail period.
He invited videographer Jin Duo to start documenting his life in his penthouse.
"We talked about my experience in the legal system, and I will never forget what he said to me," Jin said . ".
"He looked at my face dead and said, 'I will not go to jail.
It's like this guy either knows what I don't know or he's definitely crazy.
"In some of the shots, what is with them is" a man named Angelo "who will be the press secretary of Sen Angelo Rovio. Chuck Schumer.
At the same time, people attending the Fyre Festival began to notice suspicious emails from a person named Frank Trible.
Tribble, writing on behalf of VIP Access in New York, offers tickets for exclusive events such as 2018 celebrities, Victoria Secret Fashion Show, Met Gala and Grammy
All activities that do not sell tickets to the public.
You guessed right in Kindo's camera. Tribble.
"The first time I saw Frank Trible was at the hotel," Kindo said . ".
"I have never seen him before . . . . . . The most strange thing is that he actually wears a magnet cap . . . . . . A Fyre sweater.
"McFarlane recruited Tribble as a spokesperson for the new company, and-
It was all captured by the camera.
He will write a script for mail and phone calls.
According to the FBI, 15 people gave them tickets for more than $100.
"If these people don't know what's going on, it's hard for me to say, but I also know that Billy is very good at keeping a certain level of information below and above," Jin said.
After the publication of a story documenting McFarlane's new plan (which he also produced Fyre), he was re-published
Arrested on June 12 and faced a third charge of wire transfer fraud and money laundering.
In a statement at the time, American lawyer Jeffrey Berman said: "William McFarlane has been awaiting sentencing for previous fraud plans, and he allegedly continues to engage in criminal activities as usual, according to the New York Times.
On October 11, 2018, he was formally sentenced to six years of federal imprisonment, agreeing to a lifetime ban on serving as a company official or director and confiscation of $26,191,306. 28.
In the aftermath, Bahamian workers are still unpaid, and Maryann Rolle, the owner of Exuma Point Restaurant, pays her employees $50,000.
Low, who's back?
The joint Ja is still named the defendant's lawsuit in ICONN-
Try again
The brand Fyre app, which was sued by American Express for $250, said McFarlane told him it would be reimbursed.
Margolin does not acknowledge or deny any allegations made by the SEC, and he agrees that 7-year director-and-
A bar similar to McFarlane was fined $35,000.
Of the many notable figures recruited to promote the event on their Instagram account, several have deleted their posts, in turn, become the Federal Trade Commission's fuel to crack down on disguised sponsorship.
(Of all the people involved, Ratajkowski is reported to be the only one using hashtag # ad.
) Hadid was the only one to acknowledge and apologize for her role in the campaign, and she wrote on Twitter, "I feel very sorry and sad because that's something I can't stand, of course, if I knew the result, you would know.
"I think it's really easy to play quarterback for yourself on Monday morning and go back and say, 'I should do this and I should.
I did make a lot of mistakes. there is no doubt.
But before we had the worst luck, I thought we had the best luck.
"It sounds crazy, but a lot of things have to be right in order to make it such a huge failure.
Everyone is fully convinced that we will hold an event that will change the environment and provide the experience that people have talked about over the years.
"Ironically, he is absolutely right.
Fyre Fraud can now live on Hulu, while Fyre: the greatest party that has never happened is waiting for you on Netflix.