Documentaries About Fyre Festival Have Been Released

Remember when Ja Rule was relevant? His deep raspy vibe flooded the radio airwaves, balancing Ashanti's high pitched voice in their hit “Always on Time.” Well, get your ears ready, because he is kinda sorta relevant once more, just not for his music this time. In late 2016, Ja Rule and Billy McFarland—the creator of a company that was already in the process of being found out as a scam called Magnises—decided to create another company. They not only made the company and announced it, but made a festival coinciding with its release. The idea of Fyre Festival was born. Billy, his employees, and some of the most influential models in the world like Hailey Bieber and Kendall Jenner started advertising something that they hadn't even started building. They promised jet skis, five-star catering, fancy villas, and music acts who found the idea sketchy themselves. The best part? The Fyre team only had five months to make everything they promised a reality.

The whole thing obviously failed. It bombed, tanked, and turned out to be only what I would imagine was a miserable experience for those poor white, rich millennials who had thousands of dollars to see Blink-182 in the Bahamas. They were stuck sleeping in FEMA tents, which is a far cry from a villa that was reportedly worth 250,000 dollars and were fed cheese sandwiches.

One of the only good things that came out of this debacle were the memes. Society had been making fun of privileged youths for millennia, but never to this extent. I scrolled through Twitter hoping the next picture would make me giggle just as hard as the last one did. The #fyrefest did not disappoint.

Fast forward to now. BuzzFeed published an article listing people's reactions to the Netflix documentary, Fyre Fraud. I got through one or two and immediately opened my Netflix app, while "working out" at the gym. It was a wild ride. While I had followed the developments of the failed festival, there were so many details and signs that, not only gave Billy's employees red flags about going forward with his plan—like not getting paid or being told to lie—but also made it seem like it was an actual film, script and all. There was even one point where Billy asked an employee to perform sexual acts in exchange for a large amount of Evian water. It's insane. I've rewatched it with friends and they've compared it to Project X because of the insanity. And you learn that the night before the festival was set to begin, as if it were an act of God, a thunderstorm wreaks havoc on the small island. Employees stated they started cackling because when you know something is going to be that bad, what else can you do?

When these people tell their stories, you can visibly see the frustration and confusion on their faces. No one understood why Billy McFarland would dig himself into the deepest grave humanly possible—except (maybe) money. But because of the greed of a privileged millennial, thousands were left with nothing and the only thing he has is six years jail time.

The only difference with the Hulu documentary is that they actually were able to interview Billy, but he didn't contribute to the conversation in any meaningful way. He was still being investigated at the time of filming and was unable to disclose much. The information was also less chronological. It would go from point A to point C, and then back to point A to introduce point B. It was more all over the place compared to the Netflix version.

No matter which version you watch, however, they both end the same way: With thousands of people out thousands of dollars, including the Bahamian workers employed by Billy and his team. The lesson? Don't promise something that you don't have.