Fyre Fest: Rich privileged kids pay up to 12k for "exclusive" music festival in Bahamas, raped and pillaged instead

[mulva]

lol @ this nigerian scam

[sonatine]

apparently the site location was chosen when ja rule and his copromoter landed there because their private chartered plane didnt have enough gas to get to the original location.

[sonatine]

ok, grand prize:

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/twt/status/857995704366706691

[Crowe Diddly]

from Bob Lefsetz's newsletter, should be on his website in a day or 2. Always a fun read.
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Fyre Festival

Everybody likes to pile on.

Rather than focus on the big issues, like Trump giving back to the rich, the great unwashed would rather concentrate on the foibles of a long in the tooth rapper and a greedy tech entrepreneur.

Then again, that's the world we now live in, one where everybody believes they can do everything. A failed real estate entrepreneur with multiple bankruptcies under his belt can become President and people with money and fame can become concert promoters.

It's a professional business, a skill, requiring boatloads of money and relationships. To believe you can become a successful concert promoter overnight is to believe you can shoot hoops in your backyard and instantly start for the Warriors.

Come on, we've seen this movie before. Nearly fifty years ago. Acts were ignorant, promoters were greedy and the experience was bad. INDOORS! Every outdoor festival was a financial disaster, sure, socially it showed that zillions of people could get together and celebrate their culture without killing each other, except at Altamont, but it took eons to figure out American festival promotion. Hell, the Woodstock reprises just about put a stake in the paradigm.

But you've got celebrities and athletes testifying as to its worth so it's worthy, right?

WRONG!

That's the seamy underbelly of today's world. Everybody's being paid, no one's being trustworthy. Near-unknowns feature products in YouTube clips and if you've got an audience there are corporations itching to give you money to promote their products and no one does any due diligence, other than to see that they're gonna get paid.

And you've got an ignorant populace that believes you can cut taxes on everybody and have the economy boom and that each and every fan is entitled to a front row seat at sticker price.

And you wonder why disasters like this happen.

Focus first on the attendees. Why in the hell did they pay to go? Looking themselves in the mirror like Stuart Smalley and saying they're hip enough, cool enough and rich enough that they deserve to go on a private island getaway where they can revel in their status. Wrong! You can't buy your way inside, backstage is off limits, you've got to earn that. So when someone says if you just pay enough you're a member of the club, know that the club is not worth joining or you're not getting inside. Yup, buy that platinum McCartney ticket and expect to have a long dinner with Sir Paul. Ask him about his marriages, discuss your children's schooling. He really cares, he really does. Just like Adele and all of the other acts you want to see.

You're just one of a zillion fans, admit it. Either get on the bandwagon early and see them in a club or overpay on StubHub to be thrilled to be inside the building.

So I've got no sympathy for the wankers who bought in to this festival, this is the same Instagram crowd spending all their time illustrating they're better than you and me, forget it.

And then there's the greed of the promoters.

That's right, festivals are one of the few places where promoters can actually make beaucoup bucks. Otherwise all the revenue just goes to the acts. Create an event and you can get rich. But history tells us most events lose money for years. So, only those with deep pockets in the business continue, make the investment. Believe me, without Staples and the 02, AEG would not be launching new festivals, something's got to make up for the loss.

But everybody's greedy, everybody's looking for the easy buck. We keep reading how everybody's getting paid, why can't I? The techies, the influencers, all the empty suits.

So you end up feeling powerful that you can post, but this isn't the media of yore, where only a few outlets could afford ink, it's essentially free to everyone, all you need is an internet connection to complain.

And complain you do. About Fyre Festival, United Airlines, the service at the local emporium. Makes you feel good, that you've got a voice, right?

No, the truth is the techies and the corporations and the politicians are running circles around you, most negative publicity is just a blip on the radar screen, United broke that musician's guitar and then its stock went UP!

So what we've got here is bread and circuses for the masses, while the rich and powerful rape and pillage. And, as per usual, the sea of nobodies would rather take down a celebrity with a name, whom they know, like Ja Rule, than educate themselves and take down someone really powerful, like Robert Mercer, or the whole damn Federalist Society.

Don't know what that is?

Then you don't know why Dubya became President and Gorsuch is on the Supreme Court and if you don't think those things matter, you're not a relative of one of those guys who the state killed after our new Justice tilted the table and said it was o.k.

Actions have consequences. Which is why this Fyre Festival is such a disaster.

But the inability to educate oneself, to wrestle with the big issues, to take a stand, is a much bigger problem.

Just read the front page of the newspaper.

Oh, you don't have to, you get all the news you need on Facebook!


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Visit the archive: http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/?utm_so...=Fyre+Festival

[unchainedghost]

If you have never been to the Bahamas.....this sums up the experience in a nutshell.

File under: "Don't vacation in 3rd World Countries"

I can't agree with this enough

[hongkonger]

If you have never been to the Bahamas.....this sums up the experience in a nutshell.

File under: "Don't vacation in 3rd World Countries"

I can't agree with this enough

Depends on where. Thailand and the Philippines are great places to vacation.

[sonatine]

Both those countries are decidedly second+ world tho.

[Crowe Diddly]

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https://twitter.com/twt/status/858040757982302209

[SrslySirius]

I would rather contract leprosy than spend another day in Bahamas.

[Dan Druff]

Tomatoes on the side very classy, must be high end!

Even better, it's a "cheese sandwich".

Even gas station vending machines provide more nourishing meals.

[Dan Druff]

But honestly, I don't get it.

Labor is cheap in a place like the Bahamas. Tons of money was collected for this. There's no excuse. It looks like they put this entirely in the hands of third world monkeys with no oversight.

This was the perfect cash cow with an immense profit margin, and they fucked it up.

The hard part with a festival like this is getting the proper buzz and convincing the rich kids that it's legitimately a cool place to be. The second hardest part is convincing acts to show up for reasonable money.

They managed that, and then bungled what should have been a relatively simple and straightforward execution.

This wasn't just new festival growing pains. They literally got nothing right. If they needed to bring this to an 85 to be considered successful, they barely got to a 3. That's why everyone is gawking at this. It's beyond fail. It's mind-boggling incompetence.

Anyone who paid with a credit card should be able to successfully charge this back, though.

I wonder who is personally going to take a financial bath on this one. Ja Rule? Or was he just a figurehead?

[sonatine]

Given that Ja Rule's partner in this has an established history of exactly this sort of nonsense but on a far smaller scale, Im guessing they have a lot of LLC hurdles between them and any real legal recourse.

[GambleBotsChafedPenis]

This wasn't just new festival growing pains. They literally got nothing right. If they needed to bring this to an 85 to be considered successful, they barely got to a 3. That's why everyone is gawking at this. It's beyond fail. It's mind-boggling incompetence.

only reason druff gave it a 3 instead of a 1 is because the tomatoes were on the side of the sammich...to think if subway coulda just learned this lesson...

[Dan Druff]

Oh and oddly enough, Tilly Smith, "The Angel of the Beach" who saved 100+ people during the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami when she was just 10 years old, was one of the victims here.

http://poplyft.com/angel-beach-10-ye...-tsunami-hero/

So she was great at seeing the early signs of tsunamis as a 10-year-old, but not so great at seeing the signs of a scam as a 22-year-old.

[WillieMcFML]

Tomatoes on the side very classy, must be high end!

Even better, it's a "cheese sandwich".

Even gas station vending machines provide more nourishing meals.

in before the infamous "cheese sandwich photo" turns out to be FAKE NEWS. sad!

obviously the whole thing was a total shit show, and nothing close to what was promised, but...

i've seen the cheese sandwich pic most often as the first of two pics, and the other appeared to be sauces, guac, other condiments, etc.

and the lettuce and tomato looked pretty fresh, and the way the food was arranged in the styrofoam container makes me think the pic was taken before they got to the deli tray and the rest of the food

[sonatine]

Even better, it's a "cheese sandwich".

Even gas station vending machines provide more nourishing meals.

in before the infamous "cheese sandwich photo" turns out to be FAKE NEWS. sad!

obviously the whole thing was a total shit show, and nothing close to what was promised, but...

i've seen the cheese sandwich pic most often as the first of two pics, and the other appeared to be sauces, guac, other condiments, etc.

and the lettuce and tomato looked pretty fresh, and the way the food was arranged in the styrofoam container makes me think the pic was taken before they got to the deli tray and the rest of the food

on the ground reports are pretty consistent in their rebuttal, least of all considering they paid for like, chefs.


i saw one pic of a cheeseburger so far and when i drilled down, it was apparently a meal that someone paid a local to fetch.

[Dan Druff]

Even better, it's a "cheese sandwich".

Even gas station vending machines provide more nourishing meals.

in before the infamous "cheese sandwich photo" turns out to be FAKE NEWS. sad!

obviously the whole thing was a total shit show, and nothing close to what was promised, but...

i've seen the cheese sandwich pic most often as the first of two pics, and the other appeared to be sauces, guac, other condiments, etc.

and the lettuce and tomato looked pretty fresh, and the way the food was arranged in the styrofoam container makes me think the pic was taken before they got to the deli tray and the rest of the food

I think you're right.

Billy McFarland, who was in charge of this mess along with Ja Rule, stated that the infamous cheese sandwich was a staff meal, and was uploaded by someone trying to falsely claim that it was served to concertgoers.

While McFarland made a lot of really tone-deaf excuses for what happened, I actually think I believe him about the cheese sandwich.

[Wiganer]

Talking of tone deaf, Ja Rule posted an apology on Twitter that reads, “I truly apologize as this is NOT MY FAULT.”

[Dan Druff]

Here's another statement from McFarland, which does not mention the cheese sandwich:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/fe...-naive-w479502

It's basically full of excuses, claiming that a storm destroyed half the tents shortly before the event, and delayed some flights, so that was the main problem (lol).

He does acknowledge that they tried to do too much on their own, and did not allow the proper time to get everything ready.

Keep in mind that this guy is 25 and his only background is in tech. He had no business attempting to be a concert promoter, and it looks like he didn't even hire anyone who had experience regarding converting a non-concert-lot into a working venue.

Laughably, he admits that the location "had no running water or sewage" and concedes, "It was almost like we tried building a city out of nothing."

So I've got a better idea of what happened here.

This arrogant 25-year-old tech guy believed that success in the tech business meant that he could easily succeed in anything else he tried (reminds me of young, successful poker players). He partnered with Ja Rule, who felt that his experience in the music business somehow meant that he was qualified to put on a major concert like this from scratch.

They chose this Great Exuma location in the Bahamas, and thought, "Hey, we're smart, we can make this place into an awesome party for rich people". They then hired some marketing firm to put together total bullshit material which matched their vision of the place but did not reflect anything that had actually been put together.

Then they hired idiots to put the whole thing together, who were overwhelmed, underfunded, and lacked the qualifications to convert this vacant lot shithole in the middle of nowhere into a luxury concert venue.

The really awful thing is how they tried to still pull this off, despite their complete failure to deliver anything slightly resembling what they promoted. It's not like the whole thing was beautiful and functioning, and then was destroyed by a storm.

This whole thing was a shithole from Day 1, and never improved. There were no surprises this week. Why didn't they contact every single concertgoer and inform them not to bother showing up?

I think McFarland was still in denial and felt that somehow they would make it work, even if it wasn't quite what was promised.

In fact, he claimed, "We sent guest pictures of the tents and told them if they weren’t happy we would refund them."

So that seems like they knew full well that the tents did not at all resemble what people were expected and felt they had paid for, but believed that they were covering their asses legally by saying, "This is what you're getting, we will refund you if you don't like it", thereby giving them an excuse NOT to refund people who hadn't objected. (They're refunding everyone now, but clearly they were trying to pull this off despite all the obvious fail.)

This is actually what I call a "negative check-off scam" -- where you rip off a large group of people, agree instantly to refund any unhappy customers, but count on the fact that some people will be too embarrassed or too naive to ask for refunds, and thus the scam works.

I don't think this was a premeditated scam, but I think they were very happy to attempt to keep everyone's money and deliver an extremely substandard experience, and now are basically forced to refund everyone because of the huge publicity backlash.

[Dan Druff]

Interesting article from Spin Magazine regarding Billy McFarland, and his signature company Magnises: http://www.spin.com/2017/04/fyre-fes...land-magnises/

Magnises is a weird pseudo credit card aimed at millennials. It isn't connected to any financial institution. It just physically resembles an American Express Black Card, but in reality it just simply transfers your magnetic strip from your Wells Fargo or Bank of America card, and you use Magnises in its place.

Oh, and Magnises came with a $450 annual fee.

So why bother with Magnises at all?

Because the card promised to grant members a VIP status at nightclubs and give them access to secret concerts, along with access to better seats to sporting events, and similar "VIP" type perks.

Actually, there isn't even a card anymore. They killed the whole card idea awhile back, and now it's just an app which comes with a $250 membership fee.

According to Business Insider in January 2017, many customers of Magnises aren't happy with the service, and want their money back: http://www.businessinsider.com/magni...members-2017-1

So this Billy McFarland guy seems very big on over-promising and under-delivering, especially when it comes to supposedly granting people access to the exciting trappings of luxury and exclusivity.

From what little I know of him, I already hate him.