Fyre Festival seemed like the perfect festival: models, music, beaches, cabanas, boat rides. But as the festival fast approached, and influencer after influencer Tweeted their experience, we quickly found out that this festival was far from what was promised. Now you can get a little more insight into the festival with Hulu’s Fyre Fraud and Netflix’s, Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened.
You’d think between the two documentaries, all our questions would be answered, but we had mixed reviews.
Hulu’s documentary, Fyre Fraud had one key player: Billy McFarland; the purveyor of the festival himself. Unfortunately, though, he wasn’t able to answer a lot of the questions that they asked, and what he did answer, seemed to be false. That’s not terribly surprising though, knowing how the rest of the story plays out.
Hulu’s documentary also had Oren Aks, Fyre Festival media manager turned whistleblower from Jerry Media. Oren Aks was open about what was happening and how involved Jerry Media was in the marketing of the festival. Aks is not mentioned in the Netflix documentary.
It’s also worth noting that the Netflix documentary was produced by none other than Jerry Media themselves, so there are some definite rose-tinted glasses in the way they paint their role in the festival.
The Netflix documentary went more in depth about the time that was spent on the island: The dark night, the little water and food, and the sleeping arrangements. The Netflix documentary also has a telling story from Andy King, the man that was going to go to “extreme lengths” (you’ll have to watch the documentary for the R-rated description) to fix a problem.
The interesting common thread we saw with both is how much we rely on social media as a society. A orange square, a promo video on Instagram, the idea of influencers, and Jerry Media. Essentially, the way our generation uses social media is powerful. You can promote anything if you have a hashtag.
Each documentary goes in depth of different parts of the festival. But even after watching both, there are still so many unanswered questions. Was it intended to be a scam the whole time? Is Billy McFarland just a con artist? Was Ja Rule as involved as drunk Ja Rule says? We may never know these answers, but at least we had some entertainment for a few hours.
Have you seen the Fyre documentaries? What are your thoughts? Let us know on our Facebook and Twitter!
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