Crowd at another music festival – Riot Fest (photo by Barb Dye)
History, we’ve come to learn, so often repeats. Absolutely no one wants to live out another Fyre Festival, the Titanic of music festivals, a laughing stock of live experiences which could yet sink its founders. So the story will be been captured for posterity.
The epic failure that was Fyre Festival will be retold in a multi-part documentary, led by U.S. music trade title Billboard.
The untitled docuseries will explore the ongoing investigation into what had been pitched as a luxury music fest on a secluded Bahamian island, but panned out as chaos.
Festival-goers forked out anything from $450 to $250,000 over two weekends in April and May for the promise of good vibes, live tunes, luxurious digs, celebrities and meals prepared by award-winning chefs.
On arrival, guests found their accommodation was actually disaster-relief tents set up on the beach, many not yet set up. The “gourmet” meals were cheese sandwiches. Bands pulled out. Luggage was stolen. And those stuck on site shared their horror stories on social media for the rest of the world to gawp and giggle at.
Fyre was the brainchild of 25-year-old entrepreneur Billy McFarland and U.S. rapper Ja Rule, who now face lawsuits totally more than $100 million in damages, with McFarland recently indicted for wire fraud. Whistleblowers said the production was an obvious disaster months out from showtime.
The Cinemart will lead production, with Billboard and Mic on board as executive producers. According to Billboard, Jenner Furst will direct and executive produce, with Julia Nason and Michael Gasparro executive producing for The Cinemart.
If you don’t know what happened, read more background here: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/8015181/fyre-festival-documentary-series-billboard-mic-the-cinemart-partner
By Lars Brandle
http://www.theindustryobserver.com.au/fyre-festival-will-retold-doco-series/
[Thank you to Alex Teitz, http://www.femmusic.com, for contributing this article.]