fyre festival is going well

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-fjoXcXYAA-gni.jpg

my faith in ja rule is shattered

this couldn't be a coordinated viral stunt could it

Tr3vor‏ @trev4president
Replying to @FyreFraud

Here's the dinner they fed us tonight. Literally slices of bread, cheese, and salad with no dressing. #fyrefraud #fyrefestival #dumpsterfyre

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-d5h3oVYAgoFT7.jpg

this couldn't be a coordinated viral stunt could it

to what end? other than reminding the world of the existence of 'mesmerize' hitmaker ja rule

this is the only good thing happening right now

Been checking on the feed of this guy:

https://mobile.twitter.com/WNFIV

Who seemed to have had at least some doubts going in, which was wise. (He is still currently stuck in an airport.) I like the planning notebook he found.

https://mobile.twitter.com/WNFIV/status/857821554368970752

https://mobile.twitter.com/WNFIV/status/857826106237497344

And in terms of who had it right in advance, Vanity Fair lost:

http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/04/bella-hadid-emily-ratajkowski-fyre-festival-exumas-bahamas

Observer won:

http://observer.com/2017/04/fyre-festival-supermodel-influencer-promotion-rumors/

And per that link, this account:

https://mobile.twitter.com/FyreFraud

Was calling it back in March.

Ad Homined‏ @Gosunkugi247 31m31 minutes ago

The #fyrefestival is 100% a scam designed to teach ignorant rich kids to care about the refugee crisis.

I bet Eli Roth's fingers are a blur on the keyboard already

i was gonna follow that with a wanking joke then i realised i was thinking about eli roth jerkin' it and now i just want to leave the planet

Ja Rule himself hasn't tweeted for a couple of days, so I assume he's on his way to his secret hideout.

L O S T

in a sense are we not all at fyre festiv

Nicely skeptical story from the WSJ a couple of weeks back:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/fyre-festival-organizers-push-to-keep-it-from-fizzling-1491130804

I do hope all these people are dying in a tent somewhere:

Tal Alexander, a 30-year-old New York real-estate agent who sells property in the Bahamas, said he and his friends chartered five boats and spent several thousand dollars apiece on VIP tickets to the festival. He said they were looking forward to schmoozing with other jet-setter friends in one of the world’s most beautiful places, and said “a lot of young people on the beach in their bathing suits” was a more appealing scene than festivals set on grass fields.

And apparently Ja Rule's partner was behind this scam as well?

http://www.businessinsider.com/magnises-complaints-from-members-2017-1

TS: fyre festival vs winter wonderland (various)
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/02/18/article-1358322-02A7EBBD000005DC-504_634x422.jpg

https://assets1.roadtrippers.com/uploads/poi_gallery_image/image/319702295/-strip_-quality_60_-interlace_Plane_-resize_1024x480_U__-gravity_center_-extent_1024x480/poi_gallery_image-image-948b029f-048d-4b75-8333-17c15750b16f.jpg

Mr. Blobby‏ @WorstBlobby

BLOBY IS BALLS DEEP IN 2017

^^^this tweet holding up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ2deiDKonM

was hoping this was being discussed here

aldo, the only person who would have thought to have posted about this by bumping an old ATP thread, posted about this by bumping an old ATP thread

lol i did actually use the search function before i started this thread, like a good little ilxor, but its telescopes are NOT MITEY ENOUGH to have spotted aldo had got there before me, let alone where

I am so here for this shitshow.

https://twitter.com/colortheghost/status/857866707309875200

God dammit I've forgotten how to post properly. Any, that link is good.

The official Fyre Festival IG has some amusing statements:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTazOKQBkYU/

Things got off to an unexpected start at day one of Fyre Festival.

FOR THOSE CURRENTLY ON GREAT EXUMA
We are working to comfortably accommodate guests and deliver a great experience. If you have needs, please head to the "BLUE HOUSE" on the main festival site. Security, first aid, and Fyre Festival staff are here to assist immediately, 24/7.

FOR THOSE WITH PENDING TRAVEL TO THE EXUMAS TOMORROW
Due to circumstances beyond our control, and in line with a culture of safety, all inbound charter flights to the Exumas have been canceled. Your ticket and any funds uploaded to your RFID band will be refunded.

Thank you for bearing with us as we work through the growing pains that every first year event experiences. Revised itinerary information will be shared soon for the remainder of this weekend and weekend two.

That was 8 hours back. Half an hour ago:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BTboT1KB2Br/

Fyre Festival set out to provide a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience on the islands of Exuma. Due to circumstances beyond our control, we must postpone this experience. We are working tirelessly to ensure each guest leaves the island safely and ask for everyone’s patience and cooperation as we continue to provide ongoing updates via email and our official social media channels as they become available, including refund information.

follow-up fyre festival motto: "in line with a culture of DANGER"

keep checking in waiting for the first account of somebody resorting to cannibalism

kudos to the attendee on reddit who said this was run by "a scam artist and an obscure rapper"

Fyre Festival set out to provide a once-in-a-lifetime musical experience on the islands of Exuma

mission accomplished tbf

keep checking in waiting for the first account of somebody resorting to cannibalism

yeah my first thought was that this sounds like it could be the setup to a future dead island sequel

wonder how well the scammers have planned their getaway

I mean, all the supermodel promo images were on a yacht. Obvious contingency plan.

some kind of Blofeldesque rocket hidden in a dormant volcano or gtfo

helicopter perched on the roof of a besieged embassy is a strong look too

https://image.slidesharecdn.com/mypresentation-1111x27223634-phpapp02/95/bermuda-triangle-16-728.jpg?cb=1337133366

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/a6/21/ae/a621aedfba3df94e6c7f7527a176f461.jpg

Not much engagement on that @fyrefestival post for a festival for ~influencers~.

https://twitter.com/DylanACOP/status/857792330006482949

this is wonderful

too hilarious

Reddit Influencer Island

fyre festival seemed like a pretty good plan, cruise some chicks and get a suntan

i think my favourite part is that they marketed it as an 'uninhabited island' when it is in fact an island with a fucking sandals resort

i wish i had that kinda chutzpah

I mean on the one hand that DylanACOP dude has a couple of good points re: a number of the actual attendees, people who saved up to get themselves out there, etc. On the other hand, one look at what was promised in the first place and...how IS that appealing?

(I am also trying to remember that I'm 46 and not 23 or whatever, but I have to say that when I was 23 I wouldn't have found equivalent events any more appealing.)

Their parents are likely doing Kenny Chesney No Shoes Cruises, though.

Here's to more poop ships.

roundup at WaPo

this is the best news I've had all day

all year, really

i love how they were STILL drowning in business speak on their updates only a few hours ago 'we are attempting to get this back on track to deliver a great experience' etc. meanwhile everyone's in tears and they're trending on twitter at number 1.

this is literature https://www.bustle.com/articles/200567-11-things-to-know-about-fyre-festival-because-its-unlike-any-music-event-youve-attended-before

(via murgatroid)

pretty sure this is Ja Rule's way of telling us he's running for president soon

final announcement

After assessing the situation this morning and looking at best options for our guests, we cannot move forward as we hoped we could

hmm, you don't say

cannot move forward as submerging vertically down towards our gold-filled undersea lair

only thing missing is a tsunami

Is noted music biz scumbag Irv Gotti involved with this somehow?

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/AkukvsDSvg8/maxresdefault.jpg

9. Ja Rule Is The Perfect Collaborator For The Event

The four-time Grammy nominee is not planning the festival on his own, but he is the founder and his connections to the music industry mean the guest list is going to be incredible. If his name wasn't attached, it would be hard to drop so much cash without a firm lineup, but Ja Rule's connections span the music industry and beyond. He is a consummate artist who will help make sure the weekend is one of luxury, fun, and quality entertainment.

according to Ja Rule's twitter he has been busy partying w/Bethenny Frankel.

http://www.thatdrop.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/FYRE-560x700.jpg

probably should host this elsewhere for posterity. how many of these people do you think even made it to the island?

Fyre Fest partner also runs this elite club for millennials

http://www.businessinsider.com/magnises-complaints-from-members-2017-1

there are so many shitty edm artists i've never heard of

surely it's only a question of time before they send Martin Sheen in there to kill Ja Rule

I have been looking up artists I am not that familiar with and I may have found a sentence on wikipedia that truly mystifies me
"Free Fallin Tropical Mojito Remix (John Mayer Tribute)" was produced with fellow tropical house producer Nelsaan and was released on Matoma's 23rd birthday

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZiN0O6tI8g

that's some Deep Margaritaville shit

just started giggling at work at that thought

https://soundcloud.com/matoma-official/matoma-nelsaan-free-fallin-remix

what in the

"I bet Eli Roth's fingers are a blur on the keyboard already"

would totally pay to see OTT battle royale/most dangerous game movie starring ja rule and a pack of feral dogs chasing a thousand rich twits through the jungle.

https://scontent-lax3-2.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18194067_10156489445063868_6941025085193034666_n.jpg?oh=5ceaf2956ee14d4cbb7ee76b0f89b22c&oe=59BDC344

lmao

I am nothing if not predictable.

the pack of feral dogs is just the coup de grace here

lol nomar

um, previous nomar

they promised us feral dogs, but it was just big rats

you finished eating that rat?

I think that salad was toppings for the cheese sandwich. that's why there's no dressing. everybody come back.

Well you can't say this McFarland guy has a hard to reach website

http://billymcfarland.net/

McFarland apparently owns this as well

http://spling.com/

It says so much. Are we sure this isn't a Silicon Valley tie-in?

lol @ bustle forever

https://mobile.twitter.com/desusnice/status/858037972096176128

scarlett johansson playing ja rule in the movie adaptation of Fyre Festival

https://mobile.twitter.com/steventurous/status/858038097422028800

*extremely Scarlett Johansson voice* MURDA

wrong kind of hustle in that bustle

Said author at Bustle's response to all this:

https://mobile.twitter.com/sljbowman/status/857977052376551424

I kinda love this:

http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/04/fyre-festival-disaster-bahamas

Cristina Gibson, from Bravo’s Montauk-based reality show Summer House, was one of the lucky ones. She was stranded in Miami, not marooned in the Bahamas.

A friend of Gibson's, like many others, booked a spot when the festival was announced in December. “I've been to festivals before,” she reasoned, phoning from South Beach. “I’ve gone to Coachella for years; I’ve gone to Governor’s Ball here in New York. So it’s not like I’m completely naive and had no idea. We checked out the Web site and thought, ‘Oh, this seems spontaneous. This looks fun. The video looks great.’ ”

..."spontaneous"

HE SPEAKS

https://twitter.com/Ruleyork/status/858025172942675968

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-hRV7mWsAAnvOf.jpg

if someone says something is "NOT A SCAM" in all caps, it's a scam

9/11 TRUTH IS NOT A SCAM

This is such a gift & has been just the lift I needed

They should have held it in the bwahahahamas,
Am
I
Right

Movie of this could be like Paul Greengrass doing Spring Breakers.

I'm drooling for the droll 5,000 word New Yorker piece on this mess.

"I don't know how everything went so left but I'm working to make it right" is giving me experiential benefits rn

I'm drooling for the droll 5,000 word New Yorker piece on this mess.

― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Friday, April 28, 2017 3:05 PM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i'm praying at least one pub like new yorker, vanity fair or rolling stone that still has some resources sent someone to cover this thing

An Oral History of Fyre Fest

dsj1996: it was dark

bubblesandbirkins: we couldn't see anything

nycla: no sign of travis barker

http://imgur.com/a/hm8DE

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-hKynbUwAAJPF-.jpg:large

hahahaha

I'm drooling for the droll 5,000 word New Yorker piece on this mess.

― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Friday, April 28, 2017 3:05 PM (thirty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Is Thomas Wolfe available?

Lol Tom Wolfe, not Thomas Wolfe

Tweet Homeward, EDMBro

yeah i'm praying at least one pub like new yorker, vanity fair or rolling stone that still has some resources sent someone to cover this thing

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, April 28, 2017 4:16 PM (twenty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I can say I was intrigued and reached out for RS in January. I asked what the capacity of the festival was and a publicist replied that it was 10,000(!) which is like 6,500 more than an ATP. I asked if I could get an interview with Ja Rule about it – he hadn't done any, I don't know if he ever did – and they said they didn't know who would be doing interviews and would circle back. They never circled back.

I did think it was weird that they were launching this very bespoke music festival and didn't want to talk to Rolling Stone about it.

That was the last I thought about it, so we didn't send anyone.

aw, man, would have totally read a fear and loathing with the feral dogs from whiney...oh well.

xpost Interesting. Do you remember how you heard about it? Was it the IG bombing?

just think of the photo ops with the dogs!!

aw, man, would have totally read a fear and loathing with the feral dogs from whiney...oh well.

― scott seward, Friday, April 28, 2017 3:57 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hell yes

The article about the dude's card/concierge service shows his business model is at least consistent

I'm drooling for the droll 5,000 word New Yorker piece on this mess.

― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Friday, April 28, 2017 3:05 PM (ten minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i'm praying at least one pub like new yorker, vanity fair or rolling stone that still has some resources sent someone to cover this thing

― blonde redheads have more fun (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, April 28, 2017 4:16 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

we need this but instead we will probably end up w/ a thousand thinkpieces on instagram culture and "influencers"

and looooooool @ the juicero image

lol

http://themuse.jezebel.com/fema-tents-government-cheese-and-feral-dogs-ja-rule-1794742843

"For Ja Rule at least, the festival started off promisingly..."

I know every failure sounds like a Trump venture in 2017 but this whole "we're going to have the best festival" followed by the actual work part being passed off to an underqualified employee (or not addressed at all) as you take pictures with supermodels advertising the best festival ever...

xpost Interesting. Do you remember how you heard about it? Was it the IG bombing?

― Ned Raggett, Friday, April 28, 2017 4:57 PM (thirty-three seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I got an email from a publicist in January after the Kendall Jenner thing. I'm looking back at my emails now.

First thing I did was fwd to three coworkers with "This festival is insane"

Second email from me to two coworkers:

The more I research this, the more insane it gets…

Apparently this is the brainchild of Ja Rule?

Also, the pub told me cap is 10,000. They’re going to fly TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE to an island

Trying to get a Rule interview because this is the best/stupidest thing

I’m fully convinced there’s no way they can actually pull this off….

feral yet patient, the best kind of feral

was gonna be so cool...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz5kY3RsmKo

we all weep now for getfuktantifacucks

lol nice promo

See the thing is about that promo -- having worked for years and years at UCI and all and seeing endless frat party announcements around the campus, it just reads like exactly that. "An epic event like no other," etc. Which I suppose explains who went to this thing.

Now I'm flashing back to a frat at my college who FILLED THEIR ENTIRE BASEMENT WITH SAND for some sort of beach-themed event.

aw, man, would have totally read a fear and loathing with the feral dogs from whiney...oh well.

― scott seward, Friday, April 28, 2017 3:57 PM (one minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

hell yes

― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Friday, April 28, 2017 3:59 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same

this all feels like Land of the Dead

Now I'm flashing back to a frat at my college who FILLED THEIR ENTIRE BASEMENT WITH SAND for some sort of beach-themed event.

― Crazy Eddie & Jesus the Kid (Raymond Cummings), Friday, April 28, 2017 4:35 PM (fourteen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

imo fyre should have started with this idea and one band. no concert experience and jumping straight to secluded island festival was a bridge too far

perfect pr.
next year this will sell out.

we better get a new york post LYRE! headline out of this or the world truly has gone mad.

Hey, Whiney (or rather one of his writers) got some goods:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/fyre-fest-head-billy-mcfarland-we-were-a-little-naive-w479502

Today is definitely the toughest day of my life. I'd love the opportunity to go through and tell my story of how we got here and how I see it now and where it's going.

I was a computer programmer, and after computers, the two things I love most are the ocean and, for some reason, rap music.

Trying to imagine who's the best voiceover for this.

Stuart Smalley

Once we got flying lessons together, we got on these really bad 40-year-old planes and flew from New York to the Bahamas – not really knowing the Bahamas very well – ran out of gas and landed in the Exumas and both of us immediately fell in love.

Sadly, not with each other.

I mean:

We started this website and launched this festival marketing campaign. Our festival became a real thing and took (on) a life of its own. Our next step was to book the talent and actually make the music festival.

He seems to be blaming everything on the weather. First I heard of that being an issue.

Love how much he tries to cram in to the final paragraph:

There will be make-up dates, May 2018 in the U.S., free for everybody who signed up for this festival. We will donate $1.50 (per ticket) to the Bahamian Red Cross. It'll keep the theme of being on water and beach. It'll be not just music, but all forms of entertainment. The one change we will make is we will not try to do it ourselves. We will make sure there is infrastructure in place to support us.

http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/fyre-festival-exumas-bahamas-disaster.html

Separate RS story had this:

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/fyre-fest-attendee-it-was-just-a-nightmare-w479493

Some who helped organize the festival took issue with the "out of our control" portion of the festival's statement. In early March, former Saturday Night Live talent associate Chloe Gordon traveled to the Bahamas to tour the site as a producer hired to work with the talent. "It was about two months out, and it was a mess," she says, adding that she quit after returning to New York. "They had already, when we got down there, hired and fired two full production teams. And they hadn't started planning anything. They basically just fired everyone along the way that told them it wasn't feasible."

He seems to be blaming everything on the weather

http://www.rawstory.com/2016/10/questions-about-the-bermuda-triangle-have-a-weather-explanation/

xpost with Malcolm's post there -- same person.

" They basically just fired everyone along the way that told them it wasn't feasible."

beautiful

This bit from the Gordon story says it all (and underscores my frat party comment):

On Wednesday, Ja Rule arrived for a “site visit.” I don’t know if he actually visited the “site” but he did spend a lot of time on a yacht, according to his Instagram. Meanwhile the event planners were holed up indoors putting together a game plan and a budget. With so little having been prepared ahead of time, the official verdict was that it would take $50 million to pull off. Planners also warned that it would be not be up to the standard they had advertised. The best idea, they said, would be to roll everyone’s tickets over to 2018 and start planning for the next year immediately. They had a meeting with the Fyre execs to deliver the news. A guy from the marketing team said, “Let’s just do it and be legends, man.”

Oh damn, the following paragraph is even better:

At this point it was pretty clear that this was a mess and I shared my concerns with the man I reported to. But he assured me that the Fyre execs were legit, and said some socialite was underwriting the whole thing. The budget was okayed and we were told to carry on with our planning. That night Ja Rule gave a toast. “To living like movie stars, partying like rock stars, and fucking like porn stars.” If Ja Rule is punished for anything perhaps it should be that.

let's just do it and be legends, man

I kind of pooh-poohed the experience stuff when I first got here. But this shit is hard.

it's weird it's like i've seen this story before

Take a crap, get drunk, put a festival, let's just do it.

and in that, they will succeed xxp

do you think they had the intelligence to do any legal work and have liability waivers or anything else? because there's no way this isn't a legal mess

Oh my god, the coup de grace at the end of the Gordon piece:

I cannot explain how or why the bros running this festival ignored every warning sign they were given along the way. The writing was on the wall. I saw it firsthand six weeks ago. They overlooked so many very basic things. And baby, they forgot to make me sign an NDA.

NAME NAMES

Thank you for my new display name, based fyre lyre lords

it's really good, but let's just do it and be legends, bro would have been all-time

I think we can all agree that putting on a music festival is tough and takes a lot of bravery and strength

do you think they had the intelligence to do any legal work and have liability waivers or anything else? because there's no way this isn't a legal mess

― a landlocked exclave (mh), Friday, April 28, 2017 6:38 PM (fifty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

apparently not to do NDAs!

related lols from a friend on FB:

Because of my job at the opera people are always asking me to be involved in some "edgey, culturally inclusive theatre project in an abandoned church in the lower 9th ward that's been flooded in Katrina" and then they talk for an hour about the voices of the oppressed and the ancestors etc etc. and when they are finished I ask them some questions. Like:
1 is there electricity?
2 do you know where to get a silent generator
3 have you inquired unit the city about permits?
4 do you have a dressing room for the performers?
5 do you have water for the performers playing the oppressed people?
6 do you have food for the performers?
7 do you have a lighting designer?
8 do you have lightning?
9 do you have stage hands? Will they be union or ?
10 how much are you paying the stagehands?
11 how much are you paying the performers? Or do oppressed people even have to be paid?
12 will you have beverages for the audience?
13 how will you keep that cold?
14 will you need a sound system ?
15 who will be the sound man? How much will you pay him or her?
16 will there be parking?
17 will there be security?
18 are there functioning bathrooms? Or will you have to get pot o' gold?
19 what if it rains.
20 do you have insurance ?

And then, after a few moments of them looking at me blankly, I say I have to go to the bathroom and I walk away

cocaine is a hell of a drug

so the anecdote about the organizers urging people to load money onto their payment bracelet things as soon as they arrived... so they had no money to pay people to continue setting up the grounds, did they?

fyre festival seemed like a pretty good plan, cruise some chicks and get a suntan

“Let’s just do it and be legends, man.”

http://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t34.0-12/18217202_10154270266941008_1191031535_n.png?oh=6f8876652e5a8e8c9161cdfede67dc1d&oe=590701F5

Many many xposts but I guess Daniel Cowel played for an hour before the Bahamian government pulled the plug. Not sure that anybody else made it to the island. I think Lee Burridge was supposed to play next and got stuck in Miami.

i finally figured out what this reminded me of:

https://tstotopix.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/kampkrusty.jpg

juggalos are the last american subculture

https://twitter.com/kioskmage/status/858224106864492544

the photo of the idiot at the top of the RS story says it all

We will donate $1.50 (per ticket) to the Bahamian Red Cross

this is the funniest, lamest part

There was that Twitter thread from earlier that started out like "okay let's just clear up a few misconceptions" & basically amounted to "um hello it was actually only FIVE grand for some tiers and this one kid told me he saved up for ages" and I'm like

https://pghgurl.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/congrats-youre-an-idiot.jpg

i dunno, regardless of the fact those attending may be idiots or people unlike myself, i still think the blame goes on the organisers. it is dangerous and they made a lot of money out of it.

http://img.wennermedia.com/article-leads-horizontal/rs-billy-mcfarland-qa-6c4ef770-ddca-447d-af16-f9e6d048a2d2.jpg

i dunno, he looks like a trustworthy, level-headed person

I don't blame rich idiot marks for being suckers but I reserve the right to lol @ them

it would be cool if you could just create a website and marketing campaign and a music festival would just happen. it would be magical!

some dare to dream

The fact that these were the same tents as a refugee camp was a running joke

this is the fucking heart music right here

All of our institutions are crumbling!

The notebook ...
https://twitter.com/WNFIV/status/857826106237497344

I love that notebook.

On Wednesday, Ja Rule arrived for a “site visit.” I don’t know if he actually visited the “site” but he did spend a lot of time on a yacht, according to his Instagram. Meanwhile the event planners were holed up indoors putting together a game plan and a budget. With so little having been prepared ahead of time, the official verdict was that it would take $50 million to pull off. Planners also warned that it would be not be up to the standard they had advertised. The best idea, they said, would be to roll everyone’s tickets over to 2018 and start planning for the next year immediately. They had a meeting with the Fyre execs to deliver the news. A guy from the marketing team said, “Let’s just do it and be legends, man.”

At this point it was pretty clear that this was a mess and I shared my concerns with the man I reported to. But he assured me that the Fyre execs were legit, and said some socialite was underwriting the whole thing. The budget was okayed and we were told to carry on with our planning. That night Ja Rule gave a toast. “To living like movie stars, partying like rock stars, and fucking like porn stars.” If Ja Rule is punished for anything perhaps it should be that.

Are you sure these aren't excerpts from a POLITICO story about Trump but with names changed to protect the guilty

Billy McFarland (born 1991)[1] is an American entrepreneur. He is the founder and CEO of Spling, founder and CEO of the Magnises black card and mobile app, and partner and promoter of FyreFestival.

Spling is a tech-driven ad platform helping brands increase media engagement and marketing revenue by optimizing their content presentation.

With Magnises, access valuable benefits and members-only offers. Whether it’s a complimentary room upgrade through Magnises Travel, the best seats in the house through SportsPass, or members-only pricing for the city’s best sold out concerts, always live life as an insider.

billy made the terrible mistake of trying to expand his business empire into actual real things

Man i am stoked to see the PR campaign for 18.

3OH!3 is headlining (via Skype)

You will get 50 acres of private land with your own trained guerillas!

We will reveal Biggie and Pac's killers!

This interview with a high school classmate of chief bro says so much

http://www.deathandtaxesmag.com/327934/high-school-classmate-interview-billy-mcfarland-fyre-festival-founder/

AD: Actually I do have a funny story of bumping into him. I think I exchanged with him a brief amount when he was starting the Magnises thing. He was trying to have some artist or whatever working in those weird little townhouse clubs that he’d set up.

DS: Mhm.

AD: I had some people who were hoping to get a few gigs, so I was trying to see if he’d be interested in having somebody working in those clubs. So I chatted with him once or twice already and then just kind of bumped into him on the street while he was on the phone. It was the first time I’d actually seen him since, I think, graduating high school. Maybe I had seen him once or twice in college. And he was on the phone talking with somebody, and he saw me and then waved and shook my hand very formally in a “How are you doing?” kind of way, and then like turned back around to his phone conversation.

fascinating stuff

Talking to 25 year olds from Bergen County about their peers is a sure fire winner every time

Love the bit about bro's middle school porn server business.

Spling your friends and they can splong you back

Tribune comment: Fyre Festival organisers showed disrespect in clashing with regatta

the Magnises thing is another obvious-sounding scam:

One former member, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said that they bought several tickets for several events — including Beyoncé's concert at Citi Field, one of Adele's shows at Madison Square Garden, and a performance of "Hamilton" — soon after joining Magnises in February 2016. This member claims to have had logistical issues with nearly every event for which they had purchased tickets.

Each time, just before the show (often the day before the event or even the day of) a representative for Magnises would send an email explaining that the startup would no longer be able to provide the purchased ticket and offer to help reschedule the seat for another date.

"They send the same email for every problem, but it's like fill-in-the-blanks for what the problem is," the person said.

Just before Beyoncé's concert at Citi Field in June, the same member said they received the standard email explaining that Magnises would no longer be able to provide the tickets as promised and offered to switch the tickets for a show the following day. After complaining, the member did end up getting tickets to the original show they had planned for, but they were surprised to see that the tickets they were given had someone else's name on them.

http://www.businessinsider.com/magnises-complaints-from-members-2017-1

Delisle, for example, had to reschedule his October tickets for a December showing of "Hamilton," so the friend who needed to fly in for it rescheduled his flight. The day before the show, Delisle received an email that was nearly identical to the first, saying that Magnises would no longer be able to provide the four tickets he had purchased (for a total of $1,200).

"The whole value proposition is providing access to these events and twice they failed to deliver," Delisle said.

He rescheduled his tickets for a third time and made plans for his friend to visit for the show on January 6. By 3 p.m. on the day of the show, he had yet to receive his tickets from Magnises, which said it would send his tickets by email to print out. After waiting at a FedEx location for an hour, Delisle was told his tickets would be at the theater's will call. When he went to the theater, the tickets weren't there.

The Magnises concierge then helped coordinate a drop-off at the restaurant where Delisle would be eating dinner just before the show.

"I did have a good experience talking with the VP of customer service at that point," Delisle said. "She was very professional and sympathetic and said, 'We'll prioritize yours.'

"It's just so stressful because once you start involving other people, the pressure is on you to deliver."

Delisle did end up enjoying the show, as did fellow member Victoria Reitano, the founder and CEO of the social media marketing agency CreatiVix Media.

http://i.imgur.com/yrIXDZ5.png

they later deleted the last comment lol

jesus, i ain't swimming with that pig. feral pigs!

You can’t not give Major Lazer a video wall. It’s literally their whole set.

The column sleeve linked to is grebt

"yucked up our vexation"

Spling is a tech-driven ad platform helping brands increase media engagement and marketing revenue by optimizing their content presentation

lol 'tech-driven'

worse than 'artisanal'

Went to an island party to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories and hear old songs again
When I got to the island party, I wanted to be sick
My salad had no dressing, I want Ja's head on a stick

the funny thing to me is the staff keeps focusing on the so-called storm that took down their tents and fucked their water supply, as if people woulda been ok sleeping in those garbage tents for 12k even had the bands showed up

http://img.wennermedia.com/article-leads-horizontal/rs-billy-mcfarland-qa-6c4ef770-ddca-447d-af16-f9e6d048a2d2.jpg

lol @ this person being a 25 year old

I have this long conspiracy theory that some dudes look 35 at age 25 and it's a quick slide downhill from there, so male actors who actually look decent at 35 end up playing 25 year olds, or at least opposite women a decade younger

and somehow being in a fraternity or in investment banking or other scams (see this guy, also I think there is an overlap) makes it more likely you'll be in the "looks like a greasy 40 year old at 25" group

can't believe the dude from Workaholics fell this far

schadenfyre festival

http://edmsauce.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Billy.jpeg

Hearing about all these 'special access' ticket/card scams this guy was running, it reminds me of Adam Scott on Eastbound bragging about his Platinum Plus card: "Platinum gets you front row at the Jonas Brothers concert; this gets all three of them to suck your dick backstage!"

It was the WORST day of their lives but you won't BELIEVE what happened next!

"Then something amazing happened: venues, bands, and people started contacting us and said they’d do anything to make this festival a reality and how they wanted to help. The support from the musical community has been overwhelming and we couldn’t be more humbled or inspired by this experience. People were rooting for us after the worst day we’ve ever had as a company. After speaking with our potential partners, we have decided to add more seasoned event experts to the 2018 Fyre Festival, which will take place at a United States beach venue."

that's the thing, legit cards like the higher american express tiers do offer concierge services but they generally cost more than a couple hundred bucks a year -- and if they don't, then they require that you charge above a certain amount to the card per year. this guy's brand is that he'll give you all this shit for a price that sounds appealing and might work if they had tons of members, but there's no way he's not just burning through cash trying to provide services at this small scale

both the magnises scam and the fyre fest scam seem too cheap! I don't think they actually sold ten thousand tickets to this thing, and if you go with $50 million as a ballpark figure for getting it done in that time period -- the number thrown out by the coordinator who quit and wrote an article -- the numbers just don't line up. Festivals with the ridiculous concierge-level, on-site luxury lodging are charging nearly as much for their top VIP tiers and they're in areas with transportation infrastructure and companies that can drive up and service the toilets.

http://web.archive.org/web/20170405151247/https://www.fyrefestival.com/packages

xpost -- that whole mea culpa is amusing.

https://www.fyrefestival.com/

I note they are no longer claiming the weather as an excuse.

"lol ok you got us but c'mon man next year we're gonna have Mumford and Sons print it and sell it"

really disappointed there's no photo of Ja Rule w/ single tear yet

mutual interest in technology, the ocean, and rap music

this unique combination of interests

Every generation deserves its own particular Altamont.

i'm still haunted by the moment yesterday when i'd posted that tropical house john mayer abomination link to the thread having listened to it on my phone at work, got in my car, and it started again from the top. i got to the end of the block before the horror really sunk in, terrifying driving experience

Chuck Tingle as always with his finger on the pulse:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-q1choUAAY8Qn8.jpg

Altamont's catering was was horribly mediocre

has anyone actually read a Chuck Tingle book? Like what is inside of them

You can read excerpts on Amazon. For example, a bunch of his more politically themed works have been anthologized in Pounded By Politics: Nine Tales of Civic Butthole Diplomacy. Just click on the cover to sample the prose.

they're all like 10 pages long

Yeah, "books" is definitely a stretch.

http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/in-the-wake-of-fyre-festival-fiasco-will-the-effectiveness-of-celebrity-influencers-take-a-hit/

Celebrity influencers only need to impress venture capitalists and advertising executives, who will be as reliably stupid tomorrow as they were three days ago

I guess there has to be some subset of people following celebrities on instagram who really want to buy protein supplements, juice cleanse diets, and shady grooming products but I don't think I know any

i am constantly baffled at who exactly influencers are influencing, like i feel so sure it must be strawpeople who don't actually exist but i know that i'm probably wrong

you're my favorite influencer

I have family members who are 100% vulnerable to celebrity influencers and try to imitate them on IG

which they do because they think that might result in some magic windfall of money at some point

that's the fallacy of imitation -- you think you're going to be rich and successful by imitating the juice cleanse and expensive skincare routine, but you should be doing what successful influencers did before they were big: illuminati sex magic and spirit cooking

just listen to your fav RHCP album until you become famous

I have family members who are 100% vulnerable to celebrity influencers and try to imitate them on IG

Well get back to parenting man

Dang

lol

https://i.imgur.com/6aeVgj6.jpg

lollll

i am constantly baffled at who exactly influencers are influencing, like i feel so sure it must be strawpeople who don't actually exist but i know that i'm probably wrong

― Fluffy Saint-Bernard (Stevie D(eux)), Sunday, April 30, 2017 4:50 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

isn't this a whole thread about them

i am constantly baffled at who exactly influencers are influencing

i am like this with car commercials. who ever sees a car commercial and is like, shit, let's go buy a new car!

Read some report saying McFarland was arrested in the Bahamas but zero corrobation on that. Still, that would be amusing.

http://ibankcoin.com/zeropointnow/2017/05/01/ja-rule-and-fyre-festival-slapped-with-100-million-lawsuit-for-multiple-counts-of-fraud/

More Billy McFarland mumblings

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/big-risk-failed-fyre-festival-founder-speaks/story?id=47122120

have any artists weighed in on this other than the ones who publicly cancelled leading up to the date?

haven't seen any but maura found this:

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/05/fyre-festival-pitch-deck

To pull off the 300 million impressions, McFarland and Ja Rule partnered with a P.R. agency, a creative agency, and Elliot Tebele, a once-random nobody who has created a social-media empire by siphoning other people’s jokes into the Instagram account @FuckJerry.

Honestly I'm surprised the account wasn't @JuckFerry.

all the once-random nobodies, where do they all come from?

Lol that bilton guy trying.so.hard. The call is coming from inside the house, man.

Has 50 Cent weighed in? Ja Rule is now destroying his own credibility in ways 50 and G-Unit could have dreamed of back in the early 00s

http://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/hip-hop/7777000/50-cent-ja-rule-fyre-festival-meme

bless

tbh the "rapping with myself" parody on an old mixtape might have been the peak

lol amazing my friends follow that FuckJerry guy and yeah it's just recycled memes

the ball pit kills me

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C-fAjscVoAAkZMf.jpg

Wait, that's not a photoshopped Dashcon joke??????

It is a photoshopped etc.

"We bought an ambulance in New Jersey and drove it down to Florida then took it over in a boat to get here." i'm imagining it arriving and the fyre people tryna turn it into an onsite mobile bar (with siren!) or something.

xp: I was all ready to be like "real life is trying to make up for all of the reminders of how most authority figures would prefer it if I was dead by delivering this beautiful slice of synchronicity"

that ball pit started life as an emergency raft. the fyre people party with all the emergency equipment afaict.

now i can only see attendees floating to rescue in a ballpit in some reno 911 style hijinks.

as much as i feel a tiny bit of sympathy for the attendees of this generational vietnam i also think everyone needs a memento mori once in awhile

Had missed this from yesterday

http://www.tmz.com/2017/05/01/fyre-festival-riots-violence-lawsuit/

The people who are bellyaching about the Fyre Festival may be inciting civil unrest and even riots, and if they don't stop grousing they're gonna be in big trouble ... so threaten the festival's lawyers.
Attorneys for Fyre have fired off a cease and desist letter to at least one of the people who flew to the Bahamas for the festival. The person complained on social media ... communications on the island were non-existent and there was nothing but disaster relief tents that were on the verge of blowing over.
The lawyers said the statements were untrue and what's worse, could "incite violence, rioting or civil unrest."
And there was this warning ... "If someone innocent does get hurt as a result [of your postings] Fyre Festival will hold you accountable and responsible," adding, "Inciting violence crosses the line."

well, now we know how they're spending the rest of the money they have left: lawyers

http://i.imgur.com/hIi3fyE.png

hyper colonialism

We'll find untouched lands and then colonise them with trust fund kids!

^^A True 1%er Fantasy

time to bring in the only people capable of dealing with this threat

http://i60.photobucket.com/albums/h16/oldeschool17/FIVE_ELEMENT_NINJAS-Title.jpg

Anyone with a passport knows there are no "untouched lands" within taxi fare from an international airport.

AFAICT, this is the Fyre festival site:

http://i64.tinypic.com/15rh4zt.jpg

Ie, quite obviously a failed real estate venture.

BTW, if you're curious why Exuma has a shark problem that prevents swimming in the water:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y_pzjJIMuM

As a scuba diver, fuck these people. ALL of them.

this is all so wonderful

that makes me think the "swim with pigs" company they wanted to hire might have led to a rather grisly incident

or possibly tourist synergy

Fyre festival, brought to you in partnership with the Bluth company.

and Kraft Singles

people get bit by those pigs all the time. they are just wild pigs. it's crazy.

I thought the feral pigs were part of what went wrong with the festival until I saw one of the supermodels cavorting with one in the promo video!

me too

Anyone with a passport knows there are no "untouched lands" within taxi fare from an international airport.

you say this as though the target audience isn't idiotic investors who'll believe anything put in front of them if it's presented with confidence

this festival has been great fun for non-attendees. the polystyrene cheese sandwich photo alone has brought me enormous joy.

And yet more joy!

https://news.vice.com/story/fyre-fest-organizers-blew-all-their-money-months-early-on-models-planes-and-yachts

Fyre Festival employees said planning for the event took on the feel of an extended Spring Break frat party. McFarland and members of his team would fly down “every other weekend for lavish vacations” on nearby islands, but only male employees and models were allowed to go. “Billy would take all the boys down there, it would be boys only,” the employee said. “They talk about f—ing bitches and hoes in conference meetings."

lol lavish vacations from what?

Being 'awesome'

Just wait, guys! Prison will be "epic".

"...hidden treasures accessible only by jet-ski."

Serious logistical planning for the festival didn’t even begin until late February or early March — less than two months before the thousands of people McFarland had sold a luxury vacation on a private island were scheduled to arrive.

The employee said McFarland would often urinate in the office with the door open for employees to see. “It’s a boys club,” the employee said. “They laugh about it.” Another former contractor called the environment “low-key sexist and racist.”

“They were trying to get us to use our own cards for the hotel rooms,” a member of the production team said. “And the owners were just walking around with giant wads of hundreds to pay people off.”

A former Fyre employee said McFarland sold Ja Rule a “pipe dream,” though there’s evidence to suggest the seasoned recording artist should have known better. Video hyping the festival he posted on Twitter and later deleted includes footage of the main stage, which had walk-up stairs and lacked barricades or an exit for EMS. “People would have died,” the production employee said.

this shit is so entertaining. hands-down this is better than Dumb and Dumber.

Lefsetz, he has opinions...

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2017/04/28/fyre-festival/

...and then goes through the looking glass

http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/2017/05/02/more-fyre-festival/

Literally the last person I want to hear on that.

i love how 'WE'RE the party!' is 'the EDM ethos'. he's only about 30 years out of date with that one. pretty typical of someone in their 60s who bangs on about 'oldsters'.

He actually uses the word "oldsters". . . a lot.

eating pussy keeps him young.

jut had a bad michael douglas flashback

wouldn't wish cancer on anyone but tbh lefsetz is kind of a walking cancer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4ZQVxyr2H4

--Bob Marley

This is kind of the perfect scandal where you can hate the scammers and the marks equally

yes it is like a slow motion car crash where nobody gets hurt

That one lady got a really bad sunburn

that was one of the promised "solar tattoos"

This feels...wrong....but......Lefsetz OTM???

It’s a professional business, a skill, requiring boatloads of money and relationships. To believe you can become a successful concert promoter overnight is to believe you can shoot hoops in your backyard and instantly start for the Warriors.

i think it's hilarious that they're trying to continue the scam, offering tickets for the future non-existent Fyre 2018 instead of refunds.

I keep thinking of the good old boy network that basically boils down to "I know a guy" or "Hey buddy, do you know a guy?" when it comes to this stuff and the problem is these dudes did not know anyone, and the people they did get they didn't listen to

might have even worked, if they didn't try to find their guys two months (!!) before the concert date

like their concierge club card scam was failing because they were obviously just getting broadway show tickets via stubhub and other perks via similar services and instead of checking availability they were just like "uhh yeah we can get you a flight/concert ticket" and then calling to say it didn't work out later

this really does seem like a cross between that VNYL record club scam and Kamp Krusty

has anyone made a kamp krusty edit where it's a recording of ja rule introducing "billy" instead of krusty introducing "mr. black"?

Third lawsuit's been filed.

has anyone made a kamp krusty edit where it's a recording of ja rule introducing "billy" instead of krusty introducing "mr. black"?

shockingly no! can i steal this idea w your permission? i will give you a shout out on AV Club

wow i've been owned

The old boys network has a leeeeetle savvy and connex but more basically, it has slaves and maybe concubines. The young boys network is just spoiled dumbasses who want concubines. lefsetz maybe thinks OBN works on just savvy maybe, but not me.

did you just refer to grown women as concubines

sorry, that was horrible too: did you refer to human beings as "concubines" and remove agency because wtf

not to mention the "slaves" comment, people have agency even if they're under the heel of moneyed whatever-percenters

and tbrr the "guys" are likely to include a few people with mob ties

my favourite bit from the whole thing:

http://media.vanityfair.com/photos/5907a8bd16779f27abc0a31d/master/w_768,c_limit/fyre-festival-pitch-deck-29.png

mh it was intended to sound shitty and offensive and I agree, it does. Space I'm in, about goings on. sorry.

point on agency is taken.

this really does seem like a cross between that VNYL record club scam and Kamp Krusty

YES

my favourite bit from the whole thing:

http://media.vanityfair.com/photos/5907a8bd16779f27abc0a31d/master/w_768,c_limit/fyre-festival-pitch-deck-29.png

― piscesx, Thursday, May 4, 2017 2:00 PM (thirty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this is incredible

i'm pretty sure this is the exact plot of the dreamworks animated film The Boss Baby

I made that slide into the header for my Facebook page

from the last slide on the Vanity Fair power point article:

"Fuck Jerry: Social Media - From the success of his personal instagram account, Eliot Tebele has build an empire through social media. Though thoughtful content strategy, FuckJerry references in-depth analytics to ensure that the data behind content performance is aligned with creative direction. Analytics are based on three factors: audience, engagement and optimization."

with the "three factors", we know where they stand on the Oxford comma

I mean "concubines" better describes what the young boys' network wants than grown women

if I was writing fan fiction from their standpoint I'd use it, maybe

Understand brand goals >> Fuck like porn stars >> Go to prison

http://variety.com/2017/music/news/fyre-festival-employees-reveal-chaos-1202409085/

The two production professionals became concerned as soon as they came on board. “They had fired a [previous production company], so we took a look at how much had been done — and there were so many red flags,” one said. “Things like water [supply], bathrooms and other everyday structures that should have been in place six months before — none of that had been done. We all said to them, ‘It takes at least eight months to a year to produce a festival, you have to push the date’ — we stressed that and said that over and over. And they were like ‘It’ll be fine, it’s not that big of a deal.’ They kept making it seem like we were exaggerating. It was like they didn’t care.”Even appealing to the young entrepreneurs’ reputations among the rich-millennial set they coveted had little effect.

“We said, ‘What you’ve promised [in statements and advertising promoting the festival] as opposed to what we’re even maybe capable of delivering in this amount of time is not the same. You’re going to destroy your brand if you try to have it on this date and don’t deliver what you promised. If you push the date a year, people will be upset. But once you deliver what you promised, they’ll get over it.’ But it was like they didn’t care: They literally kept saying, ‘We’re gonna be legends.'”

They literally kept saying, ‘We’re gonna be legends.'”

lmao at these chumps

i mean honestly i've driven myself batty trying to book a 4 band weeknight show at a fucking dive bar in minneapolis, putting on a festival must be a living hell

This is the telling bit I think:

“The marketing person behind this entire thing is Grant,” one said. “He kept saying in meetings, ‘I’m a marketing genius, I’m a prodigy — [the concerns] don’t matter, we’re gonna sell this and it’s gonna be amazing.’ He said that over and over and over. And after we went down to the Bahamas to assess the situation and we realized there was no possible way [the festival] was going to happen, he told the man who hired us that he wasn’t happy with (us) because we were a bunch of women who didn’t smile enough.”

man, u can't make this stuff up

They literally kept saying, ‘We’re gonna be legends.'”

tbf If this had even gone just poorly instead of disastrously we still wouldn't know anything about these guys

i mean honestly i've driven myself batty trying to book a 4 band weeknight show at a fucking dive bar in minneapolis, putting on a festival must be a living hell

I like to tell this story sometimes -- I've been to a number of the Terrastock festivals over the years, and they're all (essentially by default) somewhat shoestring affairs, relying a lot on volunteer time, connections and a bit of luck. They've all worked, mind you -- seven were held all told and even with some bizarre last minute problems once or twice, they've all been great weekends. But I saw and sensed how hard everyone worked to put them on -- and especially since you can so rarely actually enjoy any of the performances -- and whenever I thought it would be good to be a point person for a future Terrastock I realized after five seconds 'Wait, are you crazy?'

The demonstrative anecdote -- Jeffrey Rosenberg was the key guy behind the sixth Terrastock in Providence. Again, great effort all around, possibly my favorite of the five I attended but they were all wonderful in their own ways. So he's also playing a set with his then-band, Black Forest/Black Sea. About halfway through his set, he got down on the floor for some reason -- prepping an instrument or a pedal or just playing along on a quiet number -- and the poor guy literally fell asleep; his wife/bandmate Miriam had to wake him up with a gentle tap of her bow.

But everyone KNEW he'd been working that hard and understood, and it showed. So every story about this fiasco is almost the exact and total opposite, and it's an amazing contrast to easily be able to draw on in my mind.

yeah god bless the ppl who do stuff like terrastock (for ex. luke here in mpls is a saint for doing the drone not drones 24 nonstop show every year)

but these shitheads are so dumb they think it's gonna be FUN to put on a festival

They literally kept saying, ‘We’re gonna be legends.'”

http://i.imgur.com/fWGQxQn.gif

i had a 30 act noon to midnight bill one day at the store and i think i might have vacuumed beforehand.

they should hire you next time

Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision. Their goals differed, but they all had this in common: that the step was first, the road new, the vision unborrowed, and the response they received — hatred. The great creators — the thinkers, the artists, the scientists, the inventors — stood alone against the men of their time. Every great new thought was opposed. Every great new invention was denounced. The first motor was considered foolish. The airplane was considered impossible. The power loom was considered vicious. Anesthesia was considered sinful. But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered and they paid. But they were legends.

Murda.

holla!

I'm still back on "I'm gonna drop 4 figures on this luxury festival fronted by a Muppet"

https://muppetmindset.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/603c3-kermitdollar.jpg

people really trust that anyone who has the wherewithal to advertise them something has the ability to actually deliver it, regardless of whether they've demonstrated any capability to do so

it's one thing to be the old people who get scammed by "free hearing aids!" scams in the local paper, but in 2017 all levels of society seem to be equally gullible

mh, i DL'd Kamp Krusty and the Ja speech but it doesn't really work, that scene starts already zoomed into the TV screen. in my mind, i had it mixed in w the scene far later in the episode, when Bart is the only one left, and he's saying "He'll come you gotta believe me!" and then they wheel out Barney ("I am too Crunchy the Clown!").

but these shitheads are so dumb they think it's gonna be FUN to put on a festival

otm coincidentally, this was posted on p4k Sept of last year:
http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1242-how-to-organize-your-own-music-festival/

lol Adam I figured you were clowning me about people trying to fit everything into a simpsons meme

kudos for trying to make it work

didn't escobar not even own any island let alone this one? i'm pretty sure--and i'm remembering this from cartel stories and also NARCOS--that one of his underlings was the guy who actually owned some island somewhere. also jfc it's embarrassing that adults would be lured in by the promise of proximity to decades-old edginess because Escobar owned the island. which he didn't ftr!!

I have been going through this whole cycle feeling momentary bursts of sympathy for Ja Rule and then I remember the "fucking like porn stars" toast and it's back on the schadenfreude train

xpost -- they shoulda gone with 'where Blackbeard once roamed' or something vague and distant and piratey.

half the attendees would have been like "JAMES HARDEN IS GOING TO BE THERE????" and shelled out even more money

the mythologizing of things and self-mythologizing by people with the most tenuous link to the cocaine cartel days is ridiculous

escobar is totally cool. i like how he blew up an entire passenger airline to assassinate a politician who wasn't actually on board. or his penchant for adolescent girls.

whadda guy

helluva drug

man the one failed festival i went to the only problems were that the bands ate at taco bell and got the shits, and also that nobody showed up

lol I think a pitchfork fest I went to had a chipotle booth backstage for the artists

Xpost

This is the plot of the Seth Roget/Lonely Island movie.

I want that pitch slide to read:

Understand Brand Goals -> Ideate -> Reify -> Immanentize

xpost -- they shoulda gone with 'where Blackbeard once roamed' or something vague and distant and piratey.

they did that too

“The marketing person behind this entire thing is Grant,” one said. “He kept saying in meetings, ‘I’m a marketing genius, I’m a prodigy — [the concerns] don’t matter, we’re gonna sell this and it’s gonna be amazing.’ He said that over and over and over. And after we went down to the Bahamas to assess the situation and we realized there was no possible way [the festival] was going to happen, he told the man who hired us that he wasn’t happy with (us) because we were a bunch of women who didn’t smile enough."

The extent to which this story is a microcosm of much larger realities in the Trump era is almost ridiculous

I have been going through this whole cycle feeling momentary bursts of sympathy for Ja Rule and then I remember the "fucking like porn stars" toast and it's back on the schadenfreude train

Does he not realise that "fucking like porn stars" almost invariably means "fucking someone you don't necessarily want to fuck and even so doing so in a fashion almost entirely divorced from the joy of the act because you need the money"?

but people are taking pictures of you

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C_BEHPWXYAAssik.jpg:large

josh (random guy)

More joy! Referring to the Grant guy trashed above:

http://ampthemag.com/the-real/read-leaked-fyre-fest-organizers-nonsense-email-music-bella-hadid-video/

Amplify has obtained an email from Fyre Festival Director of Marketing Grant Margolin to his staff with his notes on the now-famous Fyre Festival promo video, and let me tell you, it’s certainly legendary….brah.

...

Hi All,

I hope this email finds everybody well this morning. It was a pleasure to meet yesterday— everything looks very strong and we’re excited to keep the momentum as we move through this process.

I know one outstanding question mark with regard to the video is music. I know that we touched on this a bit during our meeting yesterday, but wanted to provide further clarity on direction as I do know time is of the essence.

With regard to the brand piece, we’re all in agreement that an original composition is the way to go here. Would love to lock down a composer as soon as possible. I know you mentioned having a few shortlisted composers— would love to hear their work. Ideally, these individuals will have a strong theoretical background with a diverse knowledge of classical, popular and world music.

As far as the musical direction for the brand piece is concerned, we really need to pushy the sonic boundary. The track should work at most points, synergistically with the visual composition; however, at key moments having the music and visual composition run in parallel to create moments of tension (to be sonically resolved) would strengthen the overall work as a whole. Although some of the inspirations below are quite global, I think we need to develop a track with mass appeal. When global music elements are leveraged properly, the bits of unfamiliarity perhaps enhance listener attention. Cohesiveness of the overall work is so important.

Elements and inspirations:

Use of odd-meters (i.e. compounded time signatures or something like 5/4 for more exploratory elements) with global music elements can help to inform the more “exploratory” bits of the work, where use of even meters (i.e. 4/4 straight ahead) can inform the more “emotional” segments. Use of strings in odd meter is quite effective

Use of reverberation during water sequences (i.e. how this is achieved in genres such as tropical house) adds a more “suspended” element to the work

Employing the use of modulation to transition in and out of various sections is good— also is the use of modulation in unexpected places (however this is cautioned as it can be quite jagged)

Instrumentation inspirations

Xylophone
Sudro (Brazilian drum)
Tiko drums (especially during more exploratory elements)
Tabla (which can be filtered)
Fretless bass (as opposed to p or jazz bass would add more of a ‘glue’ specially with the more global elements— I would listen to Bakithi Kumalo on Graceland as this is the ultimate exemplar)

String segments which fall somewhere in between bright blue music (Torke) (during the build sections) and Hassan learns French Cooking (this is perhaps overly exaggerated staccato; however, dialing back 25% on staccato will land in a nice place) is good

Use of extremely consonant key signatures (i.e. D or G) would really help to provide “resolution” after the more “exploratory” elements— likely the composer will need to back into this compositionally if they are using an odd key (however use of borrowed chords, parallel keys, secondary dominants) would prove to be helpful

Lack of repetition is quite important

Heavily cutting elements (i.e. how Kiiara’s Gold is cut in the first 2-3 seconds) would also serve as good transition elements

Global inspiration

Rhythm of the Saints (specifically the track Can’t Run But)

Hamadoun Toure by Sidiki Diabete— this is the classic expression of West African Kora playing which is very combinative with Brazilian Sudro and more percussive elements such as marimba

Cool Papa Bell

Aevintyr— the use of percussive elements and ambient accessorial elements in the extreme right or left of the sonic field // soundstage is great)

Classical inspiration

The string segments in Glory if dialed back 30% would be right on point

--

Elements to avoid in the track include:

Regal (i.e. Hans Zimmer) style french horns— using them in the cut would be a bit “over the top” and stress “emotion” rather than imply and allow the listener to “feel”. Moreover, as french horn will likely be sampled, i’m not sure how “live” the horn lines will feel (even with sampling systems such as East/West, Vienna, Kontak, the lack of “breath” and variance with live recorded french horn will draw away from the incremental benefit of using phrases and themes. Caution against the use of english horn; however, bassoon would be a good use of woodwinds. Clarinet when combined with bass clarinet and bassoon are incredible. Would not use saxophone.

Rock drums— sometimes in more modern composition, rock drums are contrasted with luscious string arrangements— while the final result is impactful, I do not think this method will add to the overall work

Overly luscious string elements— all too often, it comes across as sappy and too ‘gushy’. Instead, I would recommend something a bit more reserved (i.e. leveraging an arrangement such as 5 violins, 2 violas, 2 cello and contrabass)—I know the is difficult as we are recording strings in the box via same, as opposed to live; however, in string sampling plug-ins, often times, the composer can throttle up and down the lusciousness

Themes which are too “quest driven”— i.e. take inspiration from video games like Zelda and the like. While we do have “quest driven elements” (i.e. treasure hunt), we need to come across more as “exploratory” and less “driven on a mission.” This is where the use of unfamiliar global music elements (please see above) will come in. Most prominently, the use of xylophone (or other percussive melodic instruments) and traditional instruments from Brazil (Sudro) or West Africa (Kora) is great— luckily the global music plugins for Logic are quite amazing

Ending on a I chord or square endings (I think ending on some variance of a IV chord can be interesting, or a subtly pickety third contrasted with another compositional element as not to make things so “square”

Although the compositional elements to this work will be important, the sound design and mix are an equally important exercise! Proper placement of instruments in the sound field allowing for not such a straight ahead compressed mix is important. White space and breath is crucial!

The above was meant to provide some frame of reference from the composer. I do think the best tracks are ones which are briefed prior to the composer putting pen to paper— that being said, I really want them to inject their own style and methods— the above is just a collection of thoughts I’d find helpful if I was writing.

With regard to the hype track, Father Stretch My Hands Part I is the track of choice. Looking forward to information regarding music publishing or licensing. If you could recommend some other track (I think use of soul samples with a contemporary lyrical approach) it’d be great.

Thanks,

Grant

"White space and breath is crucial!"

frustrated musician alert

To be honest I'm kind of impressed. "Musicology for adverts" is a weird skill to have but it's basically all understandable.

eh if someone was asking me to compose something along such strict guidelines I'd tell them to just compose it themselves then

That's the kind of email you write when you have a cursory understanding of a subject but feel compelled to signal real knowledge and end up sounding like a micromanager as a result. Rookies.

"pickety third" though

shit, he's composed his music already, he just needs to feed that into one of those AI sites

The real fun is watching the video afterwards, though. Which is images of girls in bikini with nondescript edm on top...

The song begins with a shaker, a ticking clock, and the ethereal outer-space synth-bloops of Mr Sandra himself. It is ambient, confused, directionless, floating in space as Spiritualized’s previous album hadn’t quite managed. Vibraphones. Swirls. Then, a piano motif. Unlike Ulver’s, it is wholly upbeat, positive. It is the opening of a flower. Enter guitars, enter a whole fucking orchestra, let commence a quite marvellous (and surprisingly airy) bit of gospel pop. Even at this early stage, one can sense the scale of the project, the army of musicians, the strength of Pierce’s conviction. He is begging to be let into heaven, and he thinks he can do it. This is some pretty damn serious stuff. But it is mellow, and comforting, rather than mindblowing or triumphant like a rapture ought to be. Then, without warning, the third verse is in three-time. No biggie. The tune gets a bit more yearning in this bit, but that is to be expected for a middle-eight. That is a middle-eight, right? The song’s gonna be four and a half minutes long, right? Wind chimes chime. The song slows. Thighpaulsandra’s keyboards bleep, screech and whirr in a decidedly unearthly manner. More of him later. It begins to sound more like it might be taking place in a space-station, where all the best raptures happen. One final chorus. “I believe my time ain’t long.” Still sounding a tad complacent. But then, turns out the song was four and a half minutes long, after all, but some higher power (who is probably called Thighpaulsandra, but more of him I promise very soon now) decided he’d let it go on a tad longer, under his own instructions. At exactly 4.30, Pierce’s guitar starts wailing; an unending, spaced-out drone. TPS’ keyboards emit a clinical pulse, at once pure and energising. The song doubles in speed. The backing vibraphone bass begins to undulate, thrillingly. Tension abounds. Dickaty begins to solo all over the song. He is the wild, unchained dancer at the back of the procession. He is always there. He is doing his own thing. It adds immeasurably to the experience, because he is exuding divine will. In this silly Rapture, he sounds like the most liberated musician on earth. Then, the choir comes back in, this time led by Pierce. “I’m hoping. Praying. Lord, I’m saying. I believe my time ain’t long.” Tens of people, all belting it out. And meaning it. It’s beautiful, this belief. And then, at the 7-minute mark, the unthinkable finally happens.

God appears.

And his name, as I’ve said, is Thighpaulsandra.

The tone TPS extracts from his synths at the 7-minute mark of this song is possibly the most holy tone anybody has extracted from any instrument ever. It’s such a jawdropping moment, Pierce even lets him have a full brass fanfare to introduce himself from. This fanfare is then repeated numerous times throughout the rest of the song, as if celebrating the fact that it still can and sound good doing so. This song is now in the fanfare paradigm. But that tone. God. And Pierce’s droning guitar. And the orchestra. And then the gospel choir comes BACK IN over the top. It’s too much. It’s Rapture. How do they end it? How can they end it? They’ve gotten to Heaven. How do they possibly end it? The strings take over. The song slowly retreats. The strings are playing something conciliatory, something humble. The guitar drones down, spins away into the sunset. A final fanfare. The chords now being played by the orchestra are darker, more elusive. Everything fades, retreats, beauty itself shuts down, the clouds merge again, but they merge over a saved man and a saved musical enterprise. The voices soften, to sleep. All that’s left is for Thighpaulsandra to make a few final bleeps, burbles, and swooshes. He has taken them to outer space; he might as well have the last word. But more of him…later.

A+

dialing back 25% on staccato will land in a nice place

throttle up and down the lusciousness on level 3

keeps calling a surdo a sudro

luckily the global music plugins for Logic are quite amazing

astonishing

http://pitchfork.com/news/73303-fyre-festival-hit-with-two-more-lawsuits-one-alleging-bloodstained-mattresses/

"we're gonna be legends"? ... "we're gonna be fucking bankrupt", more like.

didn't realize "Cool Papa Bell" was a Paul Simon song and thought he was just randomly shouting out a Negro League baseball player in that email

Ha, same here! That bewildered me.

Paul Simon To Headline FYRE Festival '18, To Be Held In El Chapo's Tunnels

performing "Songs from the Capeman" in its entirety!

christ on a cross just pull a royalty-free stock track and ship it

Fyre Festival saw Vynl's rollout and thought "challenge accepted"

let's just do it and be legends of zelda, man

The idea that some key signatures are more consonant than others was the biggest standout there for me.

"pickety third" though

Subtly pickety at that, and without ending on I.

christ on a cross just pull a royalty-free stock track and ship it

P sure this is what they did in the end.

Some the parody musical requirements (and maybe some of the "real" ones) reminded me of http://spaceteam.ca/

The idea that some key signatures are more consonant than others was the biggest standout there for me.

― My Body's Made of Crushed Little Evening Stars (Sund4r), Saturday, May 6

lol yes. and that's saying something.

B-b-but how do you know he is not one of these Just Intonation guys?

that guy should post on ilm

We could just post his email on the Introduce Yourself! thread. It would fit right in.

pretty giggly throughout but i lost it here:

Tabla (which can be filtered)

yes something very smoov b about that one

damn.

40. Defendants represented, among other things, that (1) the Fyre Festival would take place on a private island; (2) the island was previously owned by infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar; (3) food and beverages would be provided, including VIP food packages and upgrades; (4) the living quarters would be fully furnished permanent structures; and (5) the event would be attended by celebrities, and that top-level musical talent would be performing.

from the 7th lawsuit. lol that no musical acts playing is an addendum to the 5th complaint, a side note after the attendance of celebrities.

Fuck Like Porn Stars>>>>>Live Like Movie Stars>>>>>>Party Like Rock Stars seems to be the line there

Great success!

https://news.vice.com/story/audio-fyre-festival-founders-reveal-to-employees-nobodys-getting-paid

On Friday, Billy McFarland, the 25-year-old founder of the disastrous Fyre Festival, told his shell-shocked employees that their paychecks covering the past two weeks would not be coming. Nor would he be firing them, a prerequisite for unemployment benefits in most states. Instead, McFarland offered to allow his dozen-or-so employees to stay on in unpaid roles, where they could work to grow the business to a place where they might get paid again.

"offered to let"

unpaid legends

towards the beginning of the piece...

McFarland urged those who still believed in the idea of the company to stick around and help build the talent booking service without pay.“I understand that this is not an ideal situation for everybody, and this will likely cause a lot of you to resign, which we totally get and understand,” he said. “That said, if you want to stick with us, we’d love to have you and we’d love to work together and hunker down and get back to a place where everything resumes to business as usual as usual.”

and at the end

Instead, most of the remaining Fyre Media employees quit en masse over the weekend and on Monday. Soon after, their access to their company email was shut off.

you're not fyred

'which we totally get *and* understand'

This is like the business version of that time Nickelback played in Portugal...

"It's up to you, d'ya wanna work for free or do you wanna go home!?" ... ... ... ... "See ya!"

Bloomberg reported that Comcast had a term sheet in March to invest $10.5 million in Fyre Media, valuing the company at about $100 million.

every time this fact pops up it's a big disconcerting

a bit disconcerting

Dis-concerting.

I think you mean "non-concerting"

Consciously un-concerting

^^^ winner

"hunker down and get back to a place where everything resumes to business as usual..."

uhhhhhhh hold on, what is "business as usual" exactly? feral pigs and limp cheese?

"Living like Movie Stars etc."

was "where everything resumes to business as usual as usual" a mistake or did he really say that? i love that if so. reminds me of VIZ's
"it's political correctness gone mad gone mad"

“We’re not firing anyone; we’re just letting you know that there will be no payroll in the short term.”

So much of this stuff reads like "Silicon Valley" dialogue.

love these guys. still admire the brazenness of "we can give you a refund or we can give you twice as many tickets to Fyre Festival 2018!"

http://assets1.ignimgs.com/2016/05/28/sunday-tv-silicon-valley1280jpg-6dabfc_400w.jpg

The fun never stops!

http://radaronline.com/celebrity-news/fyre-festival-lawsuits-fraud-investor-claims/

According to new reports, investor Oleg Itkin filed a lawsuit against the organizers this week, claiming William McFarland gave him misleading information about the event’s expected revenue they’d earn by November 2017 — allegedly showing $932 million in earnings.

The Manhattan investor said in his court docs that he handed over $700,000 to the party planners from January to April, but was stunned when he heard it was a massive fraud from the beginning.

http://mashable.com/2017/05/13/fyre-festival-social-influencers-lawsuit/#IB..iI3Ynkq0

Mark Geragos, the Los Angeles-based power attorney behind the leading class action suit against organizers of the infamous Fyre Festival, now says his firm is investigating whether social media "influencers" who hyped the disastrous event could be dragged into the ever-expanding web of lawsuits.

"One of the things we're toying with is going after social influencers who didn't comply with [Federal Trade Commission] stuff so, that may be the next wave," Geragos said late last week on The Adam Carolla Show, where he's a regular guest.

And my favorite, this one:

https://variety.com/2017/music/news/fyre-festival-crisis-management-class-action-feds-1202426107/

Fyre Festival co-founder Billy McFarland has initiated talks with a crisis management team at FTI Consulting about managing his battered public image, which took another hit Thursday with a sixth class action suit filed in New York. That brings the total number of claims against the Bahamian music fest to ten. Between that pricey gambit and the need for legal representation it appears thwarted festival goers may wind up footing their antagonist’s costly tactical response with coin from ticket purchases.

Although reports of missed payments to vendors and staff are rampant, and McFarland looks to be on shaky financial footing, as a reputation manager at a competing firm put it, “They sold several thousand tickets at $500 to $2,000 each. Somebody has some money.” Although Fyre never issued a figure for tickets sold, the Wall Street Journal reported that 7,000 people were expected to attend. At a median price of $1,250 per ticket, that’s $8.75 million.

And I admit I like the quotes from this other crisis management dude they talked to

Schiffer said the event was only incidentally about the music, that it was more stagecraft conjured by McFarland, who “understood the mindset of a striving millennial that wants to reach a certain level of self-regard. In promoting this event, he painted a picture that allowed them to think they would get there.” Ja Rule, the celebrity in his circle, “gave him credibility.”

....

“Was this systematic fraud or a guy who didn’t take his medication? A guy who truly believed he was going to pull it all off and became unhinged? In any of those scenarios his reputation is in cinders,” Schiffer said. “In some ways trying to be a Bill Graham Productions, and in other ways a Gatsby, the difference being Gatsby had the bank account. This guy didn’t.”

The gift that keeps on giving.

According to new reports, investor Oleg Itkin filed a lawsuit against the organizers this week, claiming William McFarland gave him misleading information about the event’s expected revenue they’d earn by November 2017 — allegedly showing $932 million in earnings.

never respect rich people

I have no idea how they'd even get close to that w/gross income, lol

"Well, I dunno..."
"Did we say $93.2 million? Dude, that decimal's totally in the wrong place."
"Oh! Ok then."

Lots to tuck into here

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-05-15/fyre-festival-was-buried-under-millions-in-debt-before-it-even-began?bpop=152262292

Fyre Festival organizers took out a $3 million loan from a New York firm run by Ezra Birnbaum. Listed as a “member” of EHL Funding LLC, Birnbaum is now suing the festival’s organizers for defaulting. A second loan, for as much as $4 million, was tied to Carola Jain, the wife of prominent Wall Street executive Bob Jain, co-chief investment officer of the $35 billion hedge fund Millennium Management.

Birnbaum’s loan was to be repaid with money Fyre received for festival-related purchases, such as tickets and funds added to electronic wristbands meant for on-site digital payments. Fyre was to fork over at least 40 percent of what it received this way, or by other electronic means, according to a copy of the promissory note. Around the time organizers took out the loan from Birnbaum, himself tied to a now-settled U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission fraud suit, 1 ticket-holders began receiving emails encouraging them to put hundreds of dollars on their “FyreBands” to use for buying items and services such as extra beach tours and boat rentals. The festival received more than $700,000 from festival-goers for use via the wristbands–funds that were never repaid to Birnbaum, according to his complaint.

And this joy. 120%!

But as the festival meant to introduce the Fyre brand approached, the company was already taking on substantial debt.

On April 10, less than three weeks before the event, EHL Funding made a multimillion-dollar loan to fund the Fyre Festival, according to a copy of the promissory note filed in connection with a lawsuit. EHL shares a Manhattan address with Birnbaum, who identifies himself as a “member” of the business in a signed verification included in the court complaint. EHL also is suing Atkins and Robert Nemeth, managing director and head of research at Perkins Fund Marketing, a Southport, Connecticut-based broker-dealer, who guaranteed the loan, according to court papers and filings made under the Uniform Commercial Code.

The interest on the loan amounted to $600,000 over three months, but only if Fyre met a trio of stipulations. It needed to make a payment of $500,000 within 16 days, make each subsequent payment on time, and raise the company’s valuation to more than $75 million. If any of these terms weren’t met, interest charges would total $900,000, a penalty that would make for an effective annualized rate of 120 percent. Neither Birnbaum nor an attorney for EHL replied to requests for comment.

Fyre was to fork over at least 40 percent of what it received this way, or by other electronic means, according to a copy of the promissory note.

"We have no money right now, but we've collected 12,000 likes and a meme of Ja Rule drinking a club soda."

so many deserving people losing so much money on this, warms the heart

hopefully someone ends up footing the bill for whatever cleanup had to be done on the island and for the resources used at the airport. pisses me off that they probably ended up fucking over the locals

Am I the only one that thinks that because this kid is white and walks the Silicon Valley talk, he's still going to end up pretty wealthy by age 35

Am I the only one that thinks that because this kid is white and walks the Silicon Valley talk, he's still going to end up pretty wealthy by age 35

he def is

Seems more likely than not. Still...a little hard to explain away that resume item.

Or dead, under sordid circumstances, before he even gets to 35

He'll have a book out by Christmas 'Under Fyre - How Not to Run A Festival'

if the other liar lifestyle types are any guide, he'll "grow up" into some kind of marketing/mens' advice guru

https://nyti.ms/2rHz76f

Well into March, the event’s website — which briefly vanished because its designer had not been paid — claimed it would take place on Fyre Cay, a private island that once belonged to the drug lord Pablo Escobar. Ticket packages included the $400,000 “Artist’s Palace,” with four beds, eight V.I.P. tickets and dinner with one festival performer.

But there was no such island or palace. Fyre employees recalled higher-ups inventing extravagant accommodations just to see if people would buy them — and some did, they said.

"they said"

And we'll probably never know what really happened.

This just gets better all the time.

And by better I mean it crushes my already fragile faith in humanity.

Mr. McFarland seemed flush enough. “He always had a few thousand dollars cash in his swimsuit,” said Luca Sabatini, an owner of Unreal-Systems, which built the festival stages and supplied the high-caliber sound systems and lighting. If someone needed extra cash, Mr. McFarland would dole it out — “$500, crumpled up, a little humid because he went jet skiing with it,” Mr. Sabatini observed.

"Here you go, brah. Sorry about the pubic hairs."

"unreal systems" well yes

Hard to believe the guy featured in this article turned out to be untrustworthy...

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/19/fashion/Black-Card-Magnises.html

Is the name of the card supposed to be a portmanteau of magnum and penises?

a theory I could believe

http://vgtidbits.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/zelda-wiiu-scrn-magnesis.jpg

i went to a magnises event once

rick ross was performing

rushomancy otm

um more details please xp

Is the name of the card supposed to be a portmanteau of magnum and penises?

― Number None, Monday, May 22, 2017 1:28 PM (two days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

"Latin for absolutely nothing. The name is made up, but it sounds grand, doesn't it?"

gr8080 you should take over the Fyre Festival name and make it a 'Most Dangerous Game' type thing.

still sad no one has been able to construct a decent "fyre island" joke

more like Three Myle Island from the sounds of things

Hey, let's check in!

https://mic.com/articles/178929/fyre-emails-leaked-docs-show-execs-were-notified-of-urgent-concerns-weeks-before-festival#.k7LJ0qt4L

In an urgent April 3 email with the subject line, "RED FLAG- BATHROOMS/ SHOWER SHIPPING," a mid-level Fyre Festival worker alerted senior staff, including 25-year-old co-founder Billy McFarland and Fyre Media president Conall Arora, of a growing crisis: the unexpectedly high costs (estimated to be at least $400,000) of shipping enough toilets and showers to the Bahamas to accommodate an anticipated 2,500 people on the island.

This followed the news that its caterer, Starr Catering Group, had just pulled out of the festival. Those two events prompted one assistant on the email thread to joke, "No one is eating so therefore no ones pooping."

On the same day Mic reached out for comment, Fyre Festival's official website stopped working.

“Having seen many of the houses, they don’t have toilet paper, soap, water. Do we want to stock these items for guests / do we want to add anything - eggs, liquor, chasers?"

“That’s not fraud, that’s not fraud,” Ja Rule said, according to the recording. “False advertising, maybe — not fraud.”

Fraud like Pawn Stars

shoe's dropped http://pitchfork.com/news/fyre-founder-billy-macfarland-arrested-charged-with-fraud/

"festival bro"

Actual LOL.

Also, big Vanity Fair story up yesterday

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/06/fyre-festival-billy-mcfarland-millennial-marketing-fiasco

At Roker Point, where McFarland and Ja Rule could be seen many days popping wheelies on their A.T.V.’s, local workmen were hired to prepare the site. Because the building site was covered in crushed white rock, sand was trucked in and spread about; a trio of bar cabanas were built. The site itself had no beach, so McFarland’s crews improved a potholed road at Coco Plum Beach, six miles away, where they fixed up a pair of cabanas and sank swing sets into the surf. “They tried to do it all on their own,” the production executive says. “What I heard was Billy literally Googled ‘How to rent a stage,’and he rented a stage, and that was it. That was all they had.”

Ja Rule must be tellin his homies to get the helicopter

these are my favourite bits of the vanity fair piece:

the phrase "checkered bid for moguldom" -- which is expertly crafted to seem witty and exact and yet, upon experiment, turns literally applicable to everyone

and this, bcz lol the sub-surface ja rule shade:

Then he kind of randomly throws out there that his partner in all this is Ja Rule, which floored me. I would’ve assumed a guy like Kanye West or Jay Z was behind the scenes.… Anyway, I knew we wouldn’t invest in it.

but actually it's an all-too typical VR essay in the sense that it puts a LOT of detail and quasi-detail together to give an impression of a story -- and yet the story really isn't actually there yet, as soon as you put a bit of bodyweight on its structural walls: in fact it's full of stuff like "tickets costing up to $12,000 apiece", but no clear evidence anyone actually ever paid this amount etc etc. The evident ridiculousness of Ja Rule to a "money manager for a famous rapper" needs the proper backfill.

(I mean, I know "lol ja rule" flies w/o a further sentence on ilm but that's bcz we're a hive of zingy cynics w/not mucy money. this is actually a grown-up story abt celebrity credibility, how this works and what it entails: allegedly VR's wheelhouse, the clue is in the mag's name ffs)

In the summer of 2013, he caught a glimpse of his friends’ultimate fantasy: an American Express Centurion Card

lame fucking fantasy imo

Yeah the VF piece isn't definitive but it's a handy collation of details plus some new ones.

yes sorry ned i wasn't having a go for you putting it up, just a long-term frustration with the actual secure well paid end of longform journalism not really pulling its weight

lame fucking fantasy imo

I feel bad for these kinds of people. Maybe I'm the asshole, but I just assume when they have these kinds of goals that they have next to no imagination. Which must be a horribly boring life, amongst other things.

I don't feel bad for them at all!

what's VR?

Typo for VF

i blame venture capital

This VF seems less like Thackeray more like Trollope.

a lot of the people quoted and the anecdotes are just a compendium of the many articles out there

this made me groan, though:

“They tried to do it all on their own,” the production executive says. “What I heard was Billy literally Googled ‘How to rent a stage,’and he rented a stage, and that was it. That was all they had.”

Woulda been funnier if he was accused of using bing

the grim irony is bing has a festival organizer feature and he never knew

ok lol

http://pagesix.com/2017/07/01/failed-fyre-festival-promoter-too-broke-to-hire-defense-attorney/

McFarland appeared flustered after emerging from court on Saturday. “I’d love to speak. I’d love to say something. We’ll set it up soon at a better time,” he stuttered to a Post reporter.

I wonder if he still thinks there'll be a second festival.

McFarland, clad in a pale-blue T-shirt and black slacks — with briefs depicting brown deer sticking out of his pants — appeared in Manhattan federal court to face a wire-fraud charge.

"Gonna put on my power briefs!"

Deer in the headlights is his spirit animal

a friend of mine texted me and reminded me that i engaged in my own mini-fyre fest scam when we were in 3rd grade

me and him and these 2 twin brothers that moved away shortly after made a band called "10,000 Volts" (we had a logo, a lightbulb with 2 lightning bolts like a skull & crossbones, anyway we couldn't play instruments and didn't have any instruments or any songs...but for some reason we thought we could do a concert on the playground, so we made up tickets and sold them....we blew it all on candy at a drugstore on main street.

obviously on some level we had to know we were bullshitting but on some level we thought we could do it. i remember positing that we could make this crappy acoustic guitar at my grandma's house an electic guitar by putting a nail into it, then nailing the other end of a piece of wire into a stereo speaker....

i don't know, i guess we wanted to be legends.

a teacher did end up busting us for selling these fake tickets and we had to pay the candy money back.

today's tom sawyer

somehow our 8 year old thought process wasn't really a whole lot different than the fyre festival organizer's i guess

10,000 Volts needed a pitch deck and some VC

i wonder if all this will put paid to many hare-brained-but-heartfelt ideas in the near future. i mean infamously Glastonbury lost money its first few goes round and had all manner of skirmishes and trouble in its the 70s and 80s. if Fyre or same had happened the year before in 1971 or whatever, would they have even gone through with it.

i was going to try to throw a rave with a friend in "an abandoned warehouse" on "the other side of the lake" and he was going to hire this older dude he knew from "the bottom of the hill" to "run security." we got as far as checking out the site and realizing it was too big a job for two 17 yr olds and a shady dude. we probably avoided a pint sized Altamont.

Shroff said McFarland was paying off a $100,000 Maserati, which prosecutors tried to claim as an asset.

Goddamn prosecutors, clearly never owned a Maserati.

i remember positing that we could make this crappy acoustic guitar at my grandma's house an electic guitar by putting a nail into it, then nailing the other end of a piece of wire into a stereo speaker....

this is amazing

and this seems like it should have been an episode of degrassi junior high

Bella Hadid is a noble spirit now:

http://www.instyle.com/celebrity/bella-hadid-august-cover

She’s also learned to protect herself following the Fyre Festival debacle—she and other celebrities, including Emily Ratajkowski, were paid to promote what they thought would be “the next Coachella” but actually turned out to be a disaster. Hadid was the only model to issue an apology on Twitter. “It’s also a different kind of job that I don’t do very often,” she says of social media–based endorsements. “Now I tag everything as an ad.”

10,000 Volts is a good band name

Now I Tag Everything is also a good band name.

glad bella took the time to expound on the difference between stumping for fyre, where she used her image to draw positive attention to a product, and her day job, where she umm wait

when she says she tags "everything" as an ad... she's being pretty literal

actin like life is a big commercial

xpost qualx thank u

i retrospect i'm glad we had the moxie to do 10,000 Volts instead of just 1000 Volts I think we knew this entirely fictional band had a little more juice than your average

I tag all my content #IAmNotPersonallyResponsibleForAnythingIJustPosted

bummed that to the best of my knowledge there is no band named Ten Thou who could conceivably go on tour with Son Volt

but yeah very envious of this childhood rock and roll tom sawyer/great brain scheme, several orders of magnitude more sincere and honorable than the fyre festival

splitting the difference

https://www.top40.nl/uploads/title/formats/29415/songwiki.jpg

we were twice the band they were

great b-side title there

From the album Never Not on Fire.

/i remember positing that we could make this crappy acoustic guitar at my grandma's house an electic guitar by putting a nail into it, then nailing the other end of a piece of wire into a stereo speaker..../

this is amazing

everybody should

great b-side title there

― Max-Headroom-drops-a-deuce-while-shredding (Sparkle Motion), Wednesday, July 5, 2017 1:33 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

omg i didn't notice that, amazing

i think there was an episode of It's Your Move about something like this

oh yeah, didn't they have a band of skeletons or something?

i was going to try to throw a rave with a friend in "an abandoned warehouse" on "the other side of the lake" and he was going to hire this older dude he knew from "the bottom of the hill" to "run security." we got as far as checking out the site and realizing it was too big a job for two 17 yr olds and a shady dude. we probably avoided a pint sized Altamont.

this reminds me, this was basically the final episode/s of Fresh Meat, wasn't it?

i think there was an episode of It's Your Move about something like this

― kurt schwitterz, Wednesday, July 5, 2017 1:52 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh yeah, didn't they have a band of skeletons or something?

― President Keyes, Wednesday, July 5, 2017 1:56 PM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The Dregs of Humanity!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qw2qHmX5SM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gSDgrXsn1Y

Uh.

http://www.nme.com/news/music/blink-182-matt-skiba-witchcraft-fyre-festival-2108139

Skiba insists he used “every inch of my energy” to stop “that thing happening”. He told NME: “I had a bad feeling about that event. I consider myself a pagan and a witch. With every inch of my energy I wanted Fyre not to happen. I put all the electricity and energy in my body against that thing happening.”

MPU 1 (Desktop / Tablet)
“I’ve been to the Bahamas before and it’s so crass. You land in Nassau and the whole island is replete with beauty and culture, but there’s a lot of poverty. It is a largely black population then they build these places like Atlantis and The Cove that are walled off.”

“It’s classist and racist and then they decided to park a bunch of yachts with models to show off in front of those poor people, going down there with all your Ferraris and bullshit and yachts.”

why did his band agree to play it in the first place then

I don't think Matt Skiba exactly calls the shots

Are you doubting his witch powers

"I'm the biggest boss that you've seen thus far"

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/712849302834520064/oump1Yz0_400x400.jpg

honestly praying that Skiba gets kicked out then teams up with Delonge on a prop pop punk illuminati/lizard people/witchcraft concept album

I consider myself a pagan and a witch. With every inch of my energy I wanted Fyre not to happen. I put all the electricity and energy in my body against that thing happening.

Ha, what a nob!

https://news.vice.com/story/fyre-fest-concert-tickets-billy-macfarland?utm_source=vicenewsfb

I feel like a former employee has inadvertently explained their entire company ethos

“It was a shitshow, but we were able to get most of these people to their Adele concert,” the former employee said. “Not everyone got the seats they were promised, because they were all promised front-row floor section, and obviously for this concert there were not many of those left, so Billy ended up buying just a bunch of 100-levels and then saying, ‘Hey, this is the best we can do, blah blah blah.’”

Oh yeah that reminds me

http://www.billboard.com/articles/business/7950030/judge-forces-fyre-festival-billy-mcfarland-bahamas-bankruptcy

fyre festival of pizza

(for obvious reasons this is a bad analogy, but all the same a funny story)

https://scontent-lax3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/21430552_992738154270_5004130556004658974_n.jpg?oh=464ffad8de3092ec018b55db5630afb2&oe=5A54ECDA

To make matters worse, the event organizers also appeared to have sold tickets to a "Hamburger Festival," that was scheduled for the same exact time and place as the Pizza Festival. That event promised "mountains of french fries, oceans of ketchup and waterfalls of beer," with admission prices ranging between $35 and $69.

there is some traveling roadshow called "the taco festival" and I've been trying to figure out what its provenance actually is!

I'm slightly less skeptical in that it looks like they're coordinating with local taco places/food trucks to be at their festival, and there are actual sponsors, but their social media presence is 99% horrible taco memes and generic "people having fun outdoors drinking" pictures

I would not be completely surprised if there's a post-event backlash after people get ripped off

lol love it

lol the pizza/burger festival sounds like a fairly charming grift really, has a touch of old new york about it

$35 for the "hamburger festival" is lol

hahahaha

"Those people were sitting, waiting in line to get the burgers that were not there," Burke recalled. "And when they tried to eat pizza, the people were like, 'No, no, that's for the pizza people.'"

this kinda thing happens in the UK too but inevitably less absurd and more just pathetic http://metro.co.uk/2017/08/14/cheddarmageddon-descends-as-cheese-festival-runs-out-of-cheese-6850988/

lol, that was exactly what I was thinking of. A few of my friends went to that.

"It was my girlfriend's birthday so I got the VIP tickets, so I spent $150 total for the two tickets," Burke told Gothamist.

wtf spending this kind of money on a pizza party?

Aputumpu—described on Facebook as an "an archive of bands" that "throw parties, concerts and festivals in Brooklyn" and listed as the event's organizer—later told the same attendee seen in the Facebook screenshot above that the "deliveries were just late mane (sic)."

just a little late, mane

The Real England version of this is the annual 'Christmas wonderlands' of mud and mangy reindeer.

Fyre Festival: the High Class Version

http://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2017/09/13/ambitious-rhode-island-music-fest-ends-chaos/8haudXCj8N05mbm0G63mtI/story.html?event=event25

Globe paywall blocked me, so here's the Vulture writeup.

D'oh -- http://www.vulture.com/2017/09/heres-the-fyre-festival-of-classical-music.html

my theory:

https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1242-how-to-organize-your-own-music-festival/

only a handful of people actually read this but everyone that did went out and started their own music festival

And now

http://pagesix.com/2017/09/14/this-party-is-being-dubbed-the-fyre-festival-of-fashion-week/

Wednesday night’s bash, which was held at the PUBLIC hotel, was nearly impossible to get into — even for invited guests including “The Bachelorette” Rachel Lindsay, Instagram star Josh “the Fat Jew” Ostrovsky and “Sex and the City” costume designer Patricia Field

Okay you can stop right there.

BTW I still can't believe the actual Fyre Festival Instagram remains up!

https://www.instagram.com/fyrefestival/

lost my shit at "'Sex and the City' costume designer"

looooool "Paris Hilton DJ set" was a draw for this? loooooooooooool

I mean that surely had to be a case where you wanted to get in there BECAUSE it was cheap and low-rent.

News! Kinda.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/arts/fyre-festival-organizer-pleads-not-guilty-to-fraud-charges.html

Billy McFarland, the entrepreneur who became a lightning rod in April after his ambitiously marketed Fyre Festival devolved from a would-be luxury getaway into a jamboree of schadenfreude and cold cheese sandwiches, pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud in United States District Court in Manhattan on Monday. Mr. McFarland, 25, who was arrested and charged in June, is accused of misrepresenting financial information about his company to investors who paid him $1.2 million....

Mr. McFarland, who was released on bail in July, waived his right to be charged in an indictment by a grand jury. He may still change his plea at any time before trial, including as part of a deal with prosecutors to reduce his charges. If he is found guilty, Mr. McFarland could face a maximum sentence of 20 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBPg5ftCMv8

A sort-of update. (Main bro and Ja Rule could yet be made the responsible debtors in the bankruptcy case.)

http://ampthemag.com/the-real/fyre-fest-bankruptcy-trustee-wants-mcfarland-ja-rule-take-responsibility-disastrous-event/

cheddarmageddon 2:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/GiantCheeseboard?src=hash

I can’t brielieve how awful #GiantCheeseboard was.I’m stilton fuming. I’ve mulled this over and theres good reason to wine about it. I thought it would be much feta, I expect a briefund #justiceforcheese @mailonline @standardnews @MetroUK @LondonTown @JacobsSnacks @TimeOutLondon

— IAmMadden (@IAmMadden) December 16, 2017

Glad GOP tax cut will free up more $ for exploitation of rich kids #fyrelegends

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DUPU7RxVoAA7LxI.jpg:small

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/bjykx4/fyre-festival-attendees-are-worried-theyre-getting-scammed-again (via maura)

someone's selling the fyre mailing list as "the chump list" on the darknet

Beautiful.

I mean that speculatively

dream crusher

the trouble with tribble

https://pagesix.com/2018/03/05/disgraced-fyre-festival-organizer-spent-150k-on-a-yacht-for-blink-182/

And bro will be in court tomorrow.

And he pled guilty!

http://variety.com/2018/biz/news/fyre-festivals-billy-mcfarland-pleads-guilty-faces-40-year-sentence-1202719944/

it was sad, he was a legend

No, he definitely achieved that now.

"40 years in one of your own sad tents, with a cheese sandwich."

What a luxury sentence!

Maybe Blink-187 will visit him.

Does he not remind anyone else (not in deeds) of a certain ilxor of a certain era? I

ew

man said ilxor killed Yerac in mid sentence that's fucked up

work sucks, i know

Ha, I wrote this last night and obviously got bored of what I was saying mid-way through. I think it's the eyes.

I want this immediately.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/amp/live-feed/hulu-lands-fyre-festival-debacle-docuseries-1102725?__twitter_impression=true

Keep trying there.

https://theblast.com/fyre-festival-billy-mcfarland-ryan-leslie-no-jail/

He’s also using an ADHD diagnosis to gain sympathy with the judge, claiming the symptoms he suffers on a daily basis are very taxing.

McFarland says he has no criminal record, has cooperated with the Feds since the beginning and even plead guilty to the charges. He had numerous family members and friends write letters, along with Leslie’s, to the judge in support of him

McFarland is proposing 6 months of home confinement or a “minimal” period of incarceration, 1,000 hours community service and three years probation. He’s also already agreed to pay back 26 million in restitution.

I’d agree to paying an astronomical sum that I had no hope or actual intention of coming up with to avoid jail time too.

He’s also already agreed to pay back 26 million in restitution.

..by maxing out a series of credit cards, which he will then be balance transferring to a second set of credit cards

Hahah!

https://mic.com/articles/189794/exclusive-fyre-festival-founder-billy-mcfarland-hit-with-two-new-criminal-charges#.BHegMga2M

According to a court filing, McFarland set up a “sham ticket-selling business for exclusive events through a company controlled and operated by McFarland (”NYC VIP Access”).”

The filing alleges that McFarland “perpetrated a scheme to defraud attendees of the Fyre Festival and others by soliciting them to purchase tickets from NYC VIP Access to exclusive events when, in fact, no such tickets existed.”

McFarland allegedly engaged in a scheme to sell fake tickets to concerts and sporting events, including events like the Met Gala and Burning Man.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/a3ayma/fyre-fests-founder-is-going-to-prison-but-the-spirit-of-his-scam-lives-on

As a dozen-odd civil and criminal lawsuits inched their way through New York’s state and federal courts this winter, McFarland, out on bail, began pursuing new business ventures. In January, he took meetings in a 1,400-square-foot penthouse room with a private wraparound terrace on the top floor of the swanky Murray Hill Tuscany Hotel in NYC, according to interviews and receipts obtained by VICE News.

And despite the criminal charges and the flameout of his last two businesses — Fyre Media and the concierge service Magnises, which offered its members VIP experiences — people showed up to entertain his pitch, a scheme to make money off Instagram live streams.

Actual LOL: https://www.stereogum.com/2001285/fyre-festival-promoter-billy-mcfarland-arrested-on-fraud-charges/news/#comment-20516582

Millennial hero

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jul/04/two-attendees-of-disastrous-fyre-festival-awarded-25m-each

2.5m each - URL deceives but still

Christ

Seth Crossno and Mark Thompson each paid $13,000 for VIP tickets to the festival on the Bahamas island of Great Exuma

Can’t even imagine having 13 k let alone spending it on a ticket

one way or another this was going to end w a rich guy giving money to another rich guy

Yeah, this doesn't surprise me whatsoever!

damages based on losses for hotels and flights as well as the “mental anguish”

rich ppl's mental anguish is some next level shit

imagine if you had the resources to sue, say, a former employer for "mental anguish"

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DizQez1W0AEORUP.jpg

This is so perfect.

Plus!

https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/24/17608204/fyre-festival-billy-mcfarland-sec-settlement

From the SEC:

McFarland induced investors to entrust him with tens of millions of dollars by fraudulently inflating key operational, financial metrics and successes of his companies, as well as his own personal success – including by giving investors a doctored brokerage account statement purporting to show personal stock holdings of over $2.5 million when, in reality, the account held shares worth under $1,500.

I should just believe it at this point, but the financial shenanigans in several recent cases where it comes down to people flat-out lying about account balances or doctoring paperwork is astounding

You know how easy it is to view source and edit the number in your balance.

I'm surely doing things wrong when I have to provide detailed account information in order to secure a home mortgage -- I should be asking for a thousand times the amount of money and just scrawling zeroes onto a printout of my bank balance and then faxing it over

silby's got it

Oh and another guilty plea today!

Dude gets convicted of #fraud for #FyreFestival in #Bahamas, out on bond awaiting #sentencing of 8 to 10 years, then commits multiple new fraud charges while out on bond, now facing up to 75 years in #prison with new guilty plea deal. This guy is sharp. https://t.co/5Vayn0bXdO

— Billy MacLeod (@BillyMacLeod) July 27, 2018

#fraud
#prison

#Shithead

it was nuts when you look back

https://discourse-cdn-sjc1.com/business5/uploads/drownedinsound/optimized/3X/c/4/c417d16e59323c9e5efbf1f217d288cfc6fb94ea_1_674x500.jpg

"what's the deal with all the feral dogs?" is a line i think about a lot

@ApocalypticSeinfeld

"who has the fucking conch in this joint?!"

this is one of those rare stories that would work equally well adapted as either a riotous comedy of errors or a terrifying descent-into-madness horror movie

cannibal lolocaust

would watch

ferris bueller's flesh off