Fyre Festival Organizer Says Day of Postponement Was Worst Day of His Life
Years from now, the failed 2017 Fyre Festival, put on by Ja Rule and Billy McFarland, will be a shining example of how exactly not to pull off a huge concert event. The whole thing went from promises of a luxury festival experience like no other, to simply being reduced to fodder for unyielding Internet meme makers. From the jump, nothing seemed to go as planned. Arraignments were unsatisfactory. Artists didn't show up. And the entire event was postponed in what McFarland is calling, "the worst day of [his] life."
They 25-year-old tech entrepreneur recently spoke with Vice about the failed planning and execution of the festival. “We started the website to test the theory that people were interested and it went from there," McFarland said. "All of the sudden we had thousands of guests and we started booking talent, and we had a festival on our hands. So we thought, oh wow, we have to go solve all the logistical problems."
He added, “Unfortunately we were hit by a storm early Thursday morning that caused some damage to half our tent housing and busted pipes and delayed flights that were arriving to the point where we weren’t comfortable in our ability to resolve it, and we decided to postpone the festival.”
Ja has since issued an apology about the debacle. “We are working right now on getting everyone of[f] the island SAFE that is my immediate concern,” Rule wrote. “I will make a statement soon I’m heartbroken at this moment my partners and I wanted this to be an amazing event it was NOT A SCAM as everyone is reporting I don’t know how everything went so left but I’m working to make it right by making sure everyone is refunded… I truly apologize as this is NOT MY FAULT… but I’m taking responsibility I’m deeply sorry to everyone who was inconvenienced by this…”
McFarland has offered full refunds for all those who attended and promised VIP tickets to next year's event. Yeah, good luck with that.
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