The World Scout Jamboree, held in South Korea and attended by more than 40,000 youth from 155 countries, has turned into an utter debacle, as thousands of Scouts have gotten sick from excessive heat and a COVID-19 outbreak. News from over the weekend revealed that the event quickly devolved into a kind of nightmare scenario that sounds to me a lot like the Scouting version of Fyre Festival. — Read the rest
Qatar has been prepping for the FIFA World Cup for 10 years, building stadiums, a new airport, new roads, and much more (to the detriment of at least 6,500 migrant workers, who have died since the constructions began).
The world became a more dangerous place this week with the release of two formerly imprisoned criminal fraudsters: Billy McFarland, the prevaricating promoter of the catastrophic Fyre Festival in the Bahamas, and Martin Shkreli, the price-gouging pharmacy exec whose trollish tweets seem to have been an inspiration to Elon musk. — Read the rest
The summer of 2020 is the PERFECT time to auction off seized merchandise from the infamous Fyre Festival fraud. Dumpster fyres powers activate — form of t-shirts, hats, "tokens" and other shite souvenirs! Just don't expect a bargain. This merch is going for top dollar. — Read the rest
Saddleback Cay, the private island seen in the Fyre Festival promotional videos, is for sale. Only accessible by boat, the 35-acre Bahamian island features seven beaches, a main house, and multiple cottages. It's yours for just $11.8 million, FEMA tents and cheese sandwiches not included. — Read the rest
If you watched the Fyre Festival documentary that came out earlier this year, you might remember Maryann Rolle, who provided catering services for the catastrophic Fyre Festival and lost $50,000. After the documentary, an online crowdfunding campaign was organized to raise money for Rolle. — Read the rest
The Fyre Festival documentary premieres on Netflix on January 18 and I can't wait. If you remember the Fyre Festival, you definitely weren't there… because, y'know, it didn't happen. And I'm glad, because if it did, we wouldn't have this fantastically ridiculous story. — Read the rest
If there was ever collective schadenfreude to be had, it was when we learned that a bunch of young, privileged rich kids got swindled by the promoters of the 2017 Fyre Festival and were left to fend for themselves on a remote island. — Read the rest
Billy McFarland, the 26 year old con-artist who organized a disastrous Bahamas music festival in 2017 was sentenced to six years in federal prison on multiple counts of fraud. Ticket buyers who paid $12,000 had been promised a "first class" experience on a private island with yacht rides, gourmet meals, supermodels, and luxury villas but instead received school bus shuttles, cheese slices on bread, feral dogs, disaster relief tents and no musical performances. — Read the rest
Attorneys for Billy McFarland, organizer of the fantastically failed "Fyre Festival," are blaming a host of untreated mental health issues, alcoholism and attention deficit disorders for the amazing flop, and asking a judge to be lenient.
This can't be good for Fyre Media co-founders Billy McFarland and Ja Rule: leaked emails and documents show that organizers were not only grossly incompetent, they didn't seem to particularly care that the Fyre Festival was doomed.
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.
There's lots of juicy, behind-the-scenes details in this New York Times expose about the Fyre Festival – a promised lavish music event in the Bahamas that was cancelled after people who paid thousand of dollars arrived by plane and discovered crappy tents on a gravely beach with little food or security and no performers. — Read the rest
On Wednesday 25-year-old Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland — who is being sued for $100M over his catastrophic schadenfreudefest — gathered his long-unpaid employees on a conference call this week to tell them that "After conferring with our counsel and all financial people, unfortunately we are not able to proceed with payroll. — Read the rest
The organizers of the disastrous Fyre Festival— which charged $12,000 a ticket, splurged the proceeds on celebrity endorsements and other bullshit, failed to prepare the site in time for the rich kids flying there, then delayed the event as they went feral at the half-finished event site in the Bahamas, then flew them all home—has informed staff they will not be paid. — Read the rest
(Note to proofreader: I just received this copy and figure it should just go up verbatim. Next time they do something like this remind me to send William Golding instead. — Rob)
Fyre Festival was advertised as a luxury music festival on a private island in the Bahamas. But promises of a private chartered flight to the island, gourmet meals, private glamping tents, yacht cruises, gourmet catering, and an all-star concert performance line-up "quickly turned into a terrifying B-movie, with flocks of Instagram models forced to seek shelter in an airport after arriving to discover a lack of food, violent locals, appalling accommodation and feral dogs roaming the grounds," reports The Telegraph. — Read the rest
A "Willy Wonka Chocolate Experience" in Glasgow ended in disappointment and chaos. Tickets were sold for £35 each, with promises of "captivating live performances featuring charming characters singing orginal catchy tunes. Marvel at extraordinary props, oversized lollipops, and a paradise of sweet treats… Brace yourself for an adventure that will leave you spellbound!" — Read the rest
In the immediate aftermath of the Fyre festival debacle, co-founder Ja Rule tweeted, "
