- The fraudulent Fyre Festival inspired two documentaries in 2019
- Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened was a huge hit
- Fyre Fraud drew controversy for paying Billy McFarland to be interviewed
The news of Fyre Festival’s improbable return has set social media ablaze, with thousands remembering the debacle of Billy McFarland’s first attempt at staging a luxury, influencer led, music festival. And, of course, the documentaries that followed in its wake.
In 2018, a festival so shambolic that it made Woodstock ’99 look like Beyonce-headlining Coachella took place and forever changed people’s perceptions of influencer marketing and the luxury lifestyles that are sold off the back of slick campaigns on social media.
In short, Fyre Festival was a giant scam that resulted in every promoted act pulling out of the event, influencers deleting the posts they shared promoting it and, of course, the founder being thrown in jail for almost four year for wire fraud.
So when Billy McFarland decided to announce that Fyre Festival was returning, in Mexico instead of the Bahamas, this year, many were reminded of the innumerable viral moments that were produced off the back of the initial festival and, in particular, the two documentaries that were produced as a result.
January, 2019 was a bonanza for Fyre Festival content as first, on January 14, Hulu dropped Fyre Fraud, directed by Jenner Furst and Julia Willougbhy Nason. Then just four days later, on January 18, Netflix came out with Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened. And everybody collectively stopped what they were doing and dedicated their entire week to both docs.
The Netflix doc was the one that generated the most attention, with numerous screengrabs being memed into oblivion. Sitting on Rotten Tomatoes with 93% of 94 critics’ reviews of the film being positive, for an average rating of 7.6/10; the site’s “critics consensus” reads, “Fyre smolders with agonizing tension when a party in paradise goes awry, but this slickly assembled documentary reserves its greatest horror for damning observations about the dangers of wealth.”
Netflix’s effort would go onto receive four Creative Arts Emmy nominations, although it didn’t win any of them. Controversially, the film was co-produced by Jerry Media, who were the social media agency responsible for promoting Fyre Festival and covering up the subsequent fraud. This was not something that Netflix disclosed at the time. It was reported that VICE were approached by the company to produce a documentary on the festival three months after it happened. However, Netflix have maintained that the film was director Chris Smith’s idea.
Hulu’s Fyre Fraud, meanwhile, described as a “true crime comedy”, featured interviews with McFarland himself, although drew controversy upon the revelation that McFarland had in fact been paid to be interviewed for the feature. Hulu’s film would also be nominated for a Creative Emmy Award although, much like Netflix’s Fyre, would come away from the ceremony empty handed. It currently sits with a 79% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Netflix’s Fyre can be watched HERE, while Fyre Fraud is available in the US on Hulu and Prime Video. Both documentaries are free to view for subscribers of each streaming service.
