Fyre

Netflix's take on the Fyre Festival fiasco has a more grounded vibe than Hulu's more montage-driven version. But ultimately both platforms do well in building up what the Fyre disaster was all about, both before and after it all. We can debate on the ethics of what occurred behind the scenes of each doc, at the end of the day there was little bias to be had as the message was the same: Billy McFarland was a delusional fraduster.

The real entertainment is seeing wealthy people predictably buy into the facade of luxury only to experience first world problems as if they have it worse than the middle class. When the "worst 24 hours of your life" involves a botched Bahamas vacation because some huge festival party you paid thousands for didn't happen, it just looks ridiculous compared to people going through real issues like years of no clean water in Flint, MI.

No one deserves to suffer, but there is hilarity in seeing self-important narcissistic party socialites who never worked a day in their lives get scammed because they put their trust in some circle of wealthy social media models and "influencers"...for some luxury party.

This documentary illustrates the perfect analogy of the social media illusion with the Fyre fest disaster. Some things are just too good to be true, and may even be a facade of something much much worse. It is an important documentary to raise awareness of the problems of social media and the concept of understanding what it takes to do something seemingly impossible.

It was almost palpable, the sense of unease that you feel as the concert goers began to realize just how much of a disaster they'd signed up for...even though you knew it was coming. This was a very well told story, and aside from that, the best thing I could say is that it was told very to-the-point. It wasn't a long, rambling documentary...it said what needed to be said, yet also gives the viewer a nuanced view of just how some of the people behind this promotion were able to be dragged in over their heads. You can't help but feel for some of these guys, as they were taken for just as much of a ride as the festival attendees, but lost more than just the cost of a ticket. There's currently a Gofundme page set up for the owner of a restaurant who worked tirelessly to provide food for everyone, giving up her life savings in the process. Apparently she was very reluctant to speak on camera, as the issue is still very hurtful for her, but hopefully it'll end up being worth it for her having done so.

If you don't know much about this event, this is one heck of a story insofar as the difference between what was advertised and what was eventually produced, the dichotomy itself provided quite a bit of entertainment value with its "wow" factor. Great documentary on a very interesting part of our zeitgeist, a testament to the power of social media as well as its potential for abuse and the superficiality it helps foster.

I'm an oldie, and a festival veteran that has seen once great events get hijacked by the rich and gentrified. Even Burning Man is now a cabal of trust fund kids desperate to prove that their inherited wealth isn't the reason for Global Warming, because they got there in a pig poop powered bus and have a Celtic tattoo. Glastonbury is now about which fashion designer made your wellington boots.

Getting covered in mud, rained out, wind swept, sun burnt, dehydrated, not eating for 2 days were part of the experience. One thing you could rely on was that fellow festival goers would help out if you needed it, there was always a sense of camaraderie. Even the original Woodstock, a living hell, was turned into one of the greatest ever experiences because of the love shown to each other by total strangers. The common factor back in the day was that these festivals had grown from nothing, were organic, the bad ones died off, the good ones grew. Not FYRE, my God, not even close.

The more I watched this doc' the more vindicated I felt about my own views of what the festival scene has become. It's now riddled with fakers, fraudsters, wannabes, poseurs, social media addicts and worst of all...people that don't even love music, just themselves and their Instagram accounts. From the beginning, although I have no conclusive evidence, I suspect cocaine was a huge factor. Macho Alpha's trying to out snort each other and construct more elaborate party schemes to promote an app' until they ended up with FYRE. Surely buying Pablo Escobar's island, and then promoting it as such is a clue? (The festival was on that particular island until cancelled by PE's lawyer after FYRE used his name).

The oneness and kinship often displayed at other festivals in the past when things got tough was missing here. The slightest adversity turned 5,000 socialites into a baying mob that turned on each other for toilet roll. Imagine Lord Of The Flies but without the rescue at the end? Welcome to FYRE on day 1, day 1 !!! In all of my time I've never heard the cry 'Where's my villa'?! You were lucky if you had a 2 person tent and it was definitely a luxury. FYRE had large domed tents with beds and mattresses in, but just weren't good enough, apparently. As organisers fled the blood thirsty, vengeful mob and unpaid contractors we're left looking at the wreckage and an island ripped of by rich guys yet again.

This is a story of greed, machismo, hype, fakery and blatant fraud. But also a moral tale. Karma does exist and it really doesn't care how much money you have.

I laughed so much I'm about to watch this again. It's my new happy place.

This is exactly the right documentary about the social media age and the so called influencers. How a specific guy took advantage of the whole absurdity in order to make a profit and turned out to be a huge crook, taking full exploitation of the morons who are so into the lifestyle of the 21st century - trying to be social media models (or look like them), playing their own little reality show by living the high life. And at the end you're reminded that there were some hard working people, festival professionals and local Bahamians, that worked really hard to pull this off and ended up losing a lot of money plus part of their own dignity. Strong piece of film.

I had not heard of this festival or even it's outcome, but that could be because I am far from being in the class of people that were duped. I feel sorry for the honest minority who were robbed of their hard-earned wages and their livelihood.

That is the extent of my sorrow. It's hard to feel sorry for the upper class who think nothing of paying thousands of dollars for a weekend of debauchery. For a short time, they got to see first hand how the 'little people' live; no shelter, no food, no sanitation.

Hearing a socialite complain that the jet trip to the Bahamas was like 'riding in economy class' sums it up. And Billy McFarland will no doubt be back to prey on the wealthy again.