That's from Billy McFarland.We've hit some roadblocks along the way, and that's what happens when you grow really quickly, and that's on me.
Think he's talking about Fyre Fest?
No, that was him talking about Magnises back in January.
That's from Billy McFarland.We've hit some roadblocks along the way, and that's what happens when you grow really quickly, and that's on me.
Think he's talking about Fyre Fest?
No, that was him talking about Magnises back in January.
Those island people have the absolute worse work ethic if they're available for hire. Tons of stuff likely needs to be shipped in. Then you have to find non corrupt people to manage the locals and not allow your business to be hoodwinked by operating in a country with little law enforcement (most of which is corrupt). I wouldn't have taken that job if I had to be successful to be paid.
The guys organizing this were scum but to think they could have actually done it if they tried is also lol.
The 3-4 night cruise to the Bahamas is a big industry here is south Florida. It's not a bad take and it's a well organized grift. Half the folks got to Atlantis. 40 % walk around down town. 5% gonoff the beaten path and get fucked. 5% go to cable beach or hit the run distillery and have a great and cheap time.
You can't pull something like this off and not expect to have problems. Not enough forward thinkers there to realize the real profit is a well run exotic concert over many years.
As I learned more about it after making this post (see my subsequent posts), I realized that this thing had no shot to be successful.
This shady guy McFarland just decided he would do it in-house with little outside help, and would worry about the consequences later.
That was also his approach to his Magnises business.
His M/O seems to be overpromote, overpromise, then worry much too late about the logistics and consequences of not having them.
I highly doubt he's actually going to make this up to people like he claims with a free concert in May 2018. I'm sure that also won't happen, and we will get even more excuses as to why not.
http://www.tmz.com/2017/04/29/fyre-f...ter-next-year/
FYRE FESTIVAL COFOUNDER
WE WERE SCREWED FROM DAY 1
... But We'll Make Up for It!!
The cofounder of Ja Rule's disastrous Fyre Festival has lots of excuses as to why the event advertised as a luxury experience turned into what looked like a refugee camp.
Billy McFarland tells us his team was in over their heads from the get-go, but things were exacerbated by a mega-storm days before the festival.
Check out the video and see if you buy it. He explains the tents that were ready to go were blown over by the storm, and their only option was pitching disaster relief tents.
What doesn't make sense ... why was the gourmet food 2 slices of bread and 2 slices of cheese?
He does promise a make-good. Refunds for all and a free concert next year.
Even Annie Duke is laughing at those promises.
Here comes the lawsuit!
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/05/01/ja-ru...-disaster.html
Shortly thereafter, a class-action lawsuit representing attendees was filed against Ja Rule, co-founder Billy McFarland and Fyre Media, the company that runs Fyre Festival. Geragos & Geragos, a firm that has represented high-profile clients such as Chris Brown and Michael Jackson, is handling the case.
The suit alleges that the organizers were aware months in advance that the festival was "dangerously under-equipped and posed a serious danger to anyone in attendance" and is seeking damages in excess of $100 million.
Usually not a fan of seeing sleazy attorneys jump on things like this and exploit the situation, but it's about time that this slimy McFarland character finally suffers some consequences for his dishonesty and hustling.
What's going to be tough for McFarland and Ja Rule to legally fade is the fact that they knew the whole way -- or at least McFarland did -- that it was never even close to being ready.
It's not like they had it all in place, and then a storm or some other unforeseen circumstance ruined everything.
This was fail from jump street, and it never got even slightly close to becoming a viable venue.
For them to still go forward with the concert instead of notifying people to stay home is simply unconscionable. The problem is that Ja Rule was probably just cluelessly letting McFarland handle everything, and McFarland is used to fucking thing up, blaming "growing pains", and still making lots of money.
"Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next."
George Steinbrenner
http://pagesix.com/2017/05/04/fyre-f..._share=twitter
The co-founder of the Fyre Festival squandered away millions of dollars on models, private jets and yachts to promote the doomed event – which he sold as a “pipe dream” to rapper Ja Rule, according to a new report.
Billy McFarland’s profligate spending began about month after he created the idea for the festival last October, to the point where there was eventually nothing left to pay vendors or artists – or even employees, Vice News reported Wednesday.
“We started getting paid as wires from Billy’s account and one time [in January] we got paid in a wad of cash,” a former Fyre employee told Vice.
“They didn’t have any money. They kept paying the influencers and the models.”
McFarland blew $250,000 for a single Instagram post from Kendall Jenner and paid no less than $20,000 for lesser-known “influencers,” according to one person familiar with the payments.
Planning for the ultra-posh Bahamas festival, which was scheduled over two weekends in late April and early May, only began in late February or early March – and was poorly done from the beginning.
McFarland, a 25-year-old entrepreneur, treated his latest venture as a “boys club,” flying down to the Bahamas “every other weekend for lavish vacations” on nearby islands but only taking male employees with him.
“Billy would take all the boys down there, it would be boys only,” an employee said. “They talk about f—ing bitches and hoes in conference meetings.”
Around March, McFarland and team members tried to secure a second round of investments. In one meeting, McFarland hinted that Fyre had already spent millions on celebrity endorsements and marketing – and now need funds to pay for employees, vendors and artists.
Still, the Fyre team didn’t seem worried that the festival wouldn’t come together in time.
“Let’s just do it and be legends, man,” one man said in response to postponing to 2018, according to Chloe Gordon, a production coordinator.
One Fyre employee said luxurious “rustic lodge” villas guests booked to stay in were actually created as a joke because organizers never thought anyone would buy them.
Vendors starting cancelling their agreements as late as a month before the festival due to lack of payment.
Philadelphia restaurateur Stephen Starr nixed his catering deal in April because he wasn’t paid.
Other vendors told Fyre organizers that necessities, such as porta potties and showers, wouldn’t make it to the island in time because they were left too late to be booked – and wouldn’t get past customs.
“There was no infrastructure to even support the equipment. They didn’t even have a loading dock, they had no understanding of what vehicles were on the island to even move the stuff off the ship once it got there,” one supplier told Vice. “They said stuff like, ‘Don’t worry about customs; it’s only for a weekend, you don’t have to worry about customs.”
McFarland blamed the cancellation of Fyre Festival on bad weather, while Ja Rule denied that the event was a “scam.”
One former employee said McFarland sold Fyre Festival as a “pipe dream” to the Queens-born rapper.
Organizers offered to refund patrons their tickets – or exchange them for extra VIP passes for next year’s Fyre Festival, which McFarland said it allegedly in the planning stages.
“We have received support and commitments from several musicians to perform at next year’s event. We would be so thankful to have your support as well,” organizers wrote in a form sent out Monday to ticket holders.
Vice is usually shit nowadays, but this article was actually pretty good, and very detailed: https://news.vice.com/story/fyre-fes...nes-and-yachts
Some interesting things I learned:
- Billy McFarland has been living large by basically scamming a New York socialite (unnamed). First he got her to sink all kinds of money into his fail Magnises company, and then he got her to bankroll this Fyre Fest disaster. However, the amount he squeezed out of her was not nearly enough to pull this off, so he had to sell a shitload of expensive tickets to pay the bills.
- Despite reports that people paid thousands up to $100,000 to attend this mess, that wasn't true. They initially tried to price it high in order to give it an air of exclusiveness, but no one was interested. Only when they lowered the price to something far less did they get buyers -- mostly middle-class kids who wanted to feel like they were living the rich person's lifestyle. Most tickets went for $500-$2000.
- Even with the discounted price, ticket sales were low. They initially promised and planned for 40,000 tickets sold, but the number didn't even come close to reaching 10,000 (maybe more like 1,000).
- The fact that ticket sales yielded a tiny fraction of the expected revenue, combined with the fact that nobody involved knew what the fuck they were doing (or even had time to do it), led to both a cash and time shortfall.
- Ja Rule was pretty much duped by smooth-talking McFarland, who assured him that everything would work out. However, this is an embarrassment for Ja Rule, as he was the 40-year-old with vast experience in the music industry, and he was snowed by a 25-year-old n00b.
- McFarland was surprisingly unconcerned about the event heading for complete disaster, still partying it up in the Bahamas every weekend.
Despite all the derision regarding the infamous "$250,000 instagram post" by Kendall Jenner, I don't even think that was necessarily a bad expenditure. This thing actually had some decent marketing behind it, and as expensive as $250,000 sounds, a post by Kendall Jenner seemingly being "excited" for this unknown festival could easily yield very nice returns. In fact, the entire marketing scheme was pretty damn good. They just had no way (and no ability) to deliver on their promises.
The beautiful location shown in the video above was NOT where Fyre Festival was actually located, nor was the island ever owned by Pablo Escobar.
The socialite who funded this whole mess was brought to the island shown in the video and told that's where the concert was, and she didn't attempt to verify that.
What a scam.
But this is really bad news for McFarland, as I'm sure she's not going to give him another penny. This will probably mean the end of Magnises and every other fail venture he pitches in the feature.
From last week, so missing current info, but this is a pretty good summary, especially some very interesting posts BEFORE this whole mess from a @FyreFraud whistleblower account on Twitter.
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