Netflix’s Fyre Festival documentary exposes why high-profile Bahamas event went up in flames
- Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened reveals a strange and sad story behind the failed Fyre Festival in the Bahamas
- In place of an opulent beach party, attendees at the 2017 event were greeted with a barren, unfinished site and leftover hurricane tents
“Just take it away and let me start a new beginning … It really pains me when I have to talk about it.” MaryAnn Rolle sits outside her restaurant on Great Exuma in the Bahamas, holding back the tears as she looks towards the camera.
Like many other Bahamians, she believed that a new luxury music festival organised by rapper Ja Rule and serial entrepreneur Billy McFarland would bring money and attention to the island. Instead, Fyre – which had been promoted by top models including Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner, and promised acts including Migos, Drake and Major Lazer – became one of the most talked-about flops of the decade.
In place of an opulent beach party, attendees at the April 2017 event were greeted with a barren, unfinished site, leftover hurricane tents and conditions that lawyers would later describe as “closer to The Hunger Games … than Coachella”, with ticket holders stranded on the island without food or water.
It is this reality – away from the memes, lols and claims that the event was “Darwinism at its finest” – that’s explored in a new Netflix documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, revealing a stranger and sadder, story.