Culture

Ja Rule’s Luxury Festival Was A Complete Disaster And People On The Internet Are Loving It

Garbage Fyre.

by Tom Clift  29 April 2017

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Social media users are at serious risk of overdosing on schadenfreude, following the news that the ultra-luxe Fyre Festival in the Bahamas has imploded in spectacular fashion.

Organised by Ja Rule and entrepreneur Billy McFarland, and promoted by celebrities including Kendall Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski and Bella Hadid, the event in Exuma was hyped as “the culture experience of the decade.” Wealthy punters paid between US$1,000 (AU$1,335) and US$12,000 (AU$16,000) to see the likes of Blink-182, Migos and Major Lazer, while enjoying “first-class culinary experiences and a luxury atmosphere” over two weekends.

What they got instead was a mess of unfurnished tents, half-build infrastructure, damp bedding, feral dogs, mountains of garbage and a general Lord of the Flies meets Children of Men kind of a vibe.

It's straight up Lord of the Flies at the #fyrefestival right now. Will be keeping you guys updated on stories ?

A post shared by Big Kid Problems (@bigkidproblems) on

“The conditions were disgusting. No one would talk to us or help us,” one festival-goer told The New Yorker. “People’s stuff was getting stolen; people were dragging mattresses from tent to tent across the sand.”

“It was such a shit show.”

The shitstorm wasn’t contained to the campsite, either, with attendees who fled back to Exuma airport reportedly locked inside the terminal for hours without food or water.

Unsurprisingly, the festival has since been officially cancelled, with Ja Rule posting on Twitter that it was “NOT HIS FAULT”. Speaking to Rolling Stone, McFarland blamed the fiasco on “a bad storm [that] came in and took down half of our tents and busted water pipes”, while conceding that they may have perhaps been “a little bit ambitious” and “a little naive”.

The reaction online has been mostly sympathetic, with social media users sending positive vibes to all the unfortunate festival-goers caught up in the chaos.

Haha, just kidding!

According to McFarland, all tickets will be refunded. “We’re going to take every measure to make this right for everybody now, and make this right for everybody next year,” he promised.

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Feature image via William N. Finley IV/Twitter