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For everyone who hates the "plug-and-play" trips to Burning Man set up for rich kids, this story is the schadenfreude of the year. It turns out that the logist

For everyone who hates the "plug-and-play" trips to Burning Man set up for rich kids, this story is the schadenfreude of the year. It turns out that the logistics of throwing giant festivals in remote locations are difficult! Who would have guessed? I look forward to the deeper investigative reporting on precisely how that mess worked out as badly as it did, but the combination of promise-vs-reality mismatch and the rough PR afterwards suggests incompetence on all levels.

sanswork 9y ago
I don't have the link handy but one of the people tasked with artist relations posted about how it was basically not happening 6 weeks ago when he quit. He mentioned they were so incompetent that they didn't even make him sign an NDA.
- eli 9y ago
  Here you go: http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/fyre-festival-exumas-bahamas-disaster.html http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/fyre-festival-exumas-bahamas... (And the author is a she)
  - sanswork 9y ago
    Thank you for the link and the correction.
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
- empath75 9y ago
  I know someone on one of the booking agencies involved. They insisted that all the DJ's get paid up front. So they basically all got a free vacation to Miami.
nebabyte 9y ago
> It turns out that the logistics of throwing giant festivals in remote locations are difficult! Who would have guessed? 2017 is the "back to school" year. Things people have learned so far are "harder than they thought": - health care reform - large scale events I look forward to seeing what knowledge gets (re)discovered next
- alistproducer2 9y ago
  Also the presidency
  - TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
    And Brexit.
- stouset 9y ago
  Don't forget to add to the list: - NATO - NAFTA - Chinese / Korean relations - Department of Energy
aaron695 9y ago
Other than a dig at '"plug-and-play" trips to Burning Man' which is a tired point that point of fact have always been part of Burning Man more so than the people now who are going to be cool and not liking it, not sure of the point? As you say it's schadenfreude, nothing at all to be proud of? True it's an emotion that we all have, don't deny it, but to revel in the failure of things is pretty negative. 'deeper investigative reporting' is just people fucked up big time. There is nothing to learn at this level, you/we are just loving schadenfreude is what's really going on.
droithomme 9y ago
"It turns out that the logistics of throwing giant festivals in remote locations are difficult!" I agree with your statement, but I'm not even sure it applies here. The organizers were charging up to $400,000 a ticket (!) including promises of chartered planes and geodesic domes. They provided none of it, the location is described as "dangerous", and it appears no performers showed up. But they did provide some sort of commercial flights back, which probably cost about $199 each. Sounds like a profitable scheme, particularly if the organizers are basically unknown and now simple disappear with the cash.
- tim333 9y ago
  It does have the look of a scam to steal the money. I mean if they were in any way decent you'd think they'd have shipped food and some of the other stuff they promised.
- k-mcgrady 9y ago
  They've already stated they're refunding everyone and providing VIP passes to next year's event (doubt that last bit will happen). As for 'disappearing' one of the organizers is Ja Rule a very well known hip-hop artist so unlikely.
  - filmgirlcw 9y ago
    If you think Ja Rule won't just let the business entity declare bankruptcy while he continues to tweet "NOT MY FAULT" because he used to have hits (the last time he charted was 2004), you are very naive. It seems very unlikely that everyone who paid will get their money back. Ironically, it's probably the people that paid the most/have the most "influence" will be reimbursed the fastest (if at all), because the "organizers" were most assuredly obsessed with status. The people that paid the least/have the least will almost definitely be the most screwed. They were asking people to sign pieces of paper for refunds. Come on. The co-founder of the event has a history of over-promising and under-delivering [1], Ja Rule hasn't had a hit in 13 years and is irrelevant, and the only people that probably got paid upfront were the models [2] that posted on Instagram but were then warned not to come to Miami [3]. [1]: http://www.businessinsider.com/magnises-complaints-from-members-2017-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/magnises-complaints-from-memb... [2]: https://news.vice.com/story/fyre-festivals-25-year-old-organizer-this-is-the-worst-day-of-my-life https://news.vice.com/story/fyre-festivals-25-year-old-organ... [3]: http://pagesix.com/2017/04/28/a-listers-told-to-avoid-disastrous-fyre-festival-before-it-began/ http://pagesix.com/2017/04/28/a-listers-told-to-avoid-disast...
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

sanswork 9y ago

I don't have the link handy but one of the people tasked with artist relations posted about how it was basically not happening 6 weeks ago when he quit. He mentioned they were so incompetent that they didn't even make him sign an NDA.

eli 9y ago
Here you go: http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/fyre-festival-exumas-bahamas-disaster.html http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/fyre-festival-exumas-bahamas... (And the author is a she)
- sanswork 9y ago
  Thank you for the link and the correction.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
empath75 9y ago
I know someone on one of the booking agencies involved. They insisted that all the DJ's get paid up front. So they basically all got a free vacation to Miami.

nebabyte 9y ago

> It turns out that the logistics of throwing giant festivals in remote locations are difficult! Who would have guessed? 2017 is the "back to school" year. Things people have learned so far are "harder than they thought": - health care reform - large scale events I look forward to seeing what knowledge gets (re)discovered next

alistproducer2 9y ago
Also the presidency
- TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
  And Brexit.
stouset 9y ago
Don't forget to add to the list: - NATO - NAFTA - Chinese / Korean relations - Department of Energy

aaron695 9y ago

Other than a dig at '"plug-and-play" trips to Burning Man' which is a tired point that point of fact have always been part of Burning Man more so than the people now who are going to be cool and not liking it, not sure of the point? As you say it's schadenfreude, nothing at all to be proud of? True it's an emotion that we all have, don't deny it, but to revel in the failure of things is pretty negative. 'deeper investigative reporting' is just people fucked up big time. There is nothing to learn at this level, you/we are just loving schadenfreude is what's really going on.

droithomme 9y ago

"It turns out that the logistics of throwing giant festivals in remote locations are difficult!" I agree with your statement, but I'm not even sure it applies here. The organizers were charging up to $400,000 a ticket (!) including promises of chartered planes and geodesic domes. They provided none of it, the location is described as "dangerous", and it appears no performers showed up. But they did provide some sort of commercial flights back, which probably cost about $199 each. Sounds like a profitable scheme, particularly if the organizers are basically unknown and now simple disappear with the cash.

tim333 9y ago
It does have the look of a scam to steal the money. I mean if they were in any way decent you'd think they'd have shipped food and some of the other stuff they promised.
k-mcgrady 9y ago
They've already stated they're refunding everyone and providing VIP passes to next year's event (doubt that last bit will happen). As for 'disappearing' one of the organizers is Ja Rule a very well known hip-hop artist so unlikely.
- filmgirlcw 9y ago
  If you think Ja Rule won't just let the business entity declare bankruptcy while he continues to tweet "NOT MY FAULT" because he used to have hits (the last time he charted was 2004), you are very naive. It seems very unlikely that everyone who paid will get their money back. Ironically, it's probably the people that paid the most/have the most "influence" will be reimbursed the fastest (if at all), because the "organizers" were most assuredly obsessed with status. The people that paid the least/have the least will almost definitely be the most screwed. They were asking people to sign pieces of paper for refunds. Come on. The co-founder of the event has a history of over-promising and under-delivering [1], Ja Rule hasn't had a hit in 13 years and is irrelevant, and the only people that probably got paid upfront were the models [2] that posted on Instagram but were then warned not to come to Miami [3]. [1]: http://www.businessinsider.com/magnises-complaints-from-members-2017-1 http://www.businessinsider.com/magnises-complaints-from-memb... [2]: https://news.vice.com/story/fyre-festivals-25-year-old-organizer-this-is-the-worst-day-of-my-life https://news.vice.com/story/fyre-festivals-25-year-old-organ... [3]: http://pagesix.com/2017/04/28/a-listers-told-to-avoid-disastrous-fyre-festival-before-it-began/ http://pagesix.com/2017/04/28/a-listers-told-to-avoid-disast...

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]