Here’s a massive surprise: half the reason 2017’s greatest exercise in schadenfreude, Fyre Festival, was such an unmitigated disaster is ‘cos the dickhead playboy responsible for organising it blew the entire festival budget on yachts and Instagram models.
According to an in-depth report by Vice, Billy McFarland, the 25-year-old charlatan behind the accidental rich-kid hunger games, spent staggering amounts of money on hyping the non-existent fest, and very little else.
He apparently paid US$250,000 for a single Instagram post by Kendall Jenner, and hundreds of thousands more to have other “influencers” spruik Fyre. (Only one of these influencers tagged their post as an ad, which is part of the reason there’s currently a class-action lawsuit against the whole festival.)
And when they weren’t throwing money at hot people on social media, McFarland and the other people involved with organising #garbagefyre2017 apparently spent most of their time just kinda… swanning about, rich prick-style.
One source told Vice:
“They were just stoked on getting vacation homes there [in the Bahamas]. I didn’t feel like they were taking it seriously at all.”
Another employee of the festival said that after the payroll stopped functioning, McFarland paid them in “a wad of cash“. Confidence-inspiring!
It seems from all accounts that McFarland and co. wholeheartedly bought their own hype, spending millions on advertising and luxury lifestyle experiences, without actually putting any cash towards stuff like, I dunno, toilets, accommodation, electricity, safety measures, artist fees, catering or transport.
What can we learn from this? Aside from the fact that rich kids in (non-lethal) peril is the source of the deepest, warmest, richest satisfaction, I’ll let this Tumblr user say it better than I ever could:
Source: Vice.
Image: @baldwinsupdate / @clarissa___cardenas / Instagram.
