How it ended with the Fyre Festival scammers
Everyone seems to be captivated by the Fyre Festival. Or: the greatest party that never happened. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can watch the amazing documentary on Netflix tonight. Let me catch you up.
Billy McFarland, a spoiled kid from New Jersey, has a dream of organizing the coolest party on earth. He does this together with rapper Ja Rule. The idea is fun, the execution... that was a bit less. It all started with the location. They chose an island in the Bahamas. But for the story, they shopped the bottom of the country so that it looked a bit more picturesque, and it continued with the company of deceit and fraud. The luxury beach cabins you could rent for thousands of euros per night were actually the tents where the victims of Hurricane Matthew had stayed. Thousands of tickets were sold, which is great, except when you have no place for thousands of people at all.
At one point, Billy was running over glowing coals and needed more and more money to close all the gaps. So he called on the people who had bought tickets to donate money that could be put on a wristband with a chip so that it would be a cash-free event. Everyone who had bought a ticket was called back by a strict lady who firmly advised them to put a substantial amount on it. Because everyone was doing it, she said. Great idea, except there was no wifi on the island and that wristband chip where you had deposited thousands of euros would never work.
To make it all just a little worse, it also rained heavily the night before the party, and even the hurricane tents were soaked. To distract everyone, Billy sent the arriving guests to a local hospitality venue where everyone was filled up with food and tequila. And, you guessed it, the $50,000 bill was of course never paid.
Now I wanted to know just one thing. How are all those people doing now?
Billy McFarland
He's dutifully in jail, has apologized to People Magazine (regret always comes after sin), and teaches his fellow inmates at the Otisville Federal Correctional Facility about music entrepreneurship. He still has plenty of time for that, as he received six years and will spend at least three years there.
Ja Rule
Did not cooperate with the documentary and has tried to convey on social media that he embraced the idea and really wanted to create something cool, but had no idea of the financial game that was playing out in the background. I tend to believe him.
Andy King
You know, the nice guy who tried to keep everything on track and who was called the Billy whisperer because he was the only one who could calm the drifting Billy down a bit. Andy became especially famous through the documentary because he said he was willing to orally satisfy a customs officer so that the trucks filled with Evian water would be released and no $120,000 would have to be paid. That poor Andy has become a verb. To pipe is just a bit of Andy King-ing.
Andy is still an event producer and has also set up GoFundMe, through which he raises money for all the victims, especially the residents of the Bahamas who did so much for the event and received nothing in return.
And oh yes, Andy is the only one who hasn't broken ties with Billy. He feels a bit responsible for him. “We both come from the same neighborhood, from the same respectable families, my friends have sons his age. When I was as old as he is, I had no one to guide me, I think it's important that he has a guide.” And yes, he really is going to visit him in prison.
Maryann Rolle
This is what I was most curious about. The incredibly sweet Bahamian woman who took in all the FYRE Festival-goers in her restaurant while she had no idea what was going on. Because she wanted to pay her staff and received nothing from the FYRE organization, the whole joke cost her $50,000. FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS of her savings that she had set aside for later. All gone. She could hardly talk about it. It was too much. It had to be this way.
But lo and behold, here comes Andy King. With his GoFundMe foundation, he has raised $123,000 for Maryann.
It would almost be a happy ending, were it not for the fact that Maryann couldn't handle all the stress and became ill from it.
Anastasia Eremenko
The Russian model girlfriend of Billy McFarland. She still seems to be a couple with Billy. She has temporarily set her Instagram account to private, which seems quite wise given the situation.
Main image: Instagram Hoskelsa
