Fyrefest 2017

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Freed Roger
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Re: Fyrefest 2017

Post by Freed Roger »

I couldn't figure why Andy King (the older gay man) subjected himself to the humiliation of that Netflix interview. How much could he have possibly been paid for it?
..Being honest with himself, owning up to being taken by the charlatan? perhaps- but to tell-all in that venue, jeesh.

I also couldn't decipher his explanation of why he stuck it out, hope that since Woodstock was a disorganized cluster, but rose above to become epic - that Fyre would too.

Target market, and the product were completely different. Woodstock ya know, vs Fyre Fest Rich kids flying to Bahamas hoping to have tequlia shots/table service with supermodels while listening to Blink 182 and hip hop artists to be named later

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Hoot45
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Re: Fyrefest 2017

Post by Hoot45 »

Freed Roger wrote:I couldn't figure why Andy King (the older gay man) subjected himself to the humiliation of that Netflix interview. How much could he have possibly been paid for it?
His uhh ... bottled water confession ... I did not see that coming. I wondered the same thing when he brought that up. He probably could have kept that to himself and no one would have known. Why did he agree to do this???

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Hoot45
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Re: Fyrefest 2017

Post by Hoot45 »

Has anyone watched the Dirty Money episode on Netflix that covers Trump's business dealings? It is chilling to me to see how similar Billy's story is to Donald Trump's. Seriously. They both are manipulative, fake rich scammers who left behind a wake of failed businesses, scams, lawsuits, and unpaid laborers.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Fyrefest 2017

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

i KNOW it's pretty well documented and proven that Billy is a liar. That said, in Fyre Fraud he specifically states that they had rented 200 or so houses but lost all the keys so the houses were unusable. People don't believe this and that's understandable. But, to prove how ridiculous this statement is (first off losing the keys sounds made up, obviously but ignoring that), I doubt there are 200 houses available to rent on the entire island. Maybe there are. Maybe. But, they didn't plan this years in advance, they planned it about 4 months in advance and there was a regatta going on that weekend meaning it was going to be busy so not all the rentals would be available. If you go onto Trip Advisor and search for rentals the week of the regatta this year, 45 show up. Forty Five!!!! This doesn't include hotels and resorts though. So, I went to VRBO where 81 listings are available. A lot of those are going to be included in the TA number, so you can't really add them together. Finally, there are hotels not included in VRBO and I went to some of their websites to confirm almost all of their listings are booked that week as well. In short, not only is the idea of losing keys to 200 places completely unbelievable, it's almost certain that there were not even 200 places avaible from which they could obtain keys.

Lastly, if that doesn't completely close the case. It should be noted that in the area where the festival was, the vast majority of the above mentioned rentals/hotels/etc would be 10+ miles away as the crow flies. This is important because, well, there's only one road in Exuma called the Queens Highway and it is not a highway. It is a 2 lane at best thinly paved thing on which people kind of drive and play slalom with the potholes and other cars. To go 10 miles would take at least 20 minutes one way. To transport 200 groups of guests to/from these properties with a huge peaking factor as most everyone is going to want to arrive/depart at similar times is a logistical nightmare that would easily require 100+ cars. Simply impossible and frankly stupid.

Ahhhhhhhh.

I mean, if you're going to lie, at least make it a lie that people can understand and is physically possible. His statement is akin to, uh let's see, a murder suspect telling the cops he couldn't have committed the murder because he was on the planet Jupiter at the time of the murder. Uh huh- okay buddy. [expletive] off.

Also, it should be noted that Exuma in general is an awesome [expletive] place. Having visited there last year, I was extremely disapointed in the documentary as they kind of made it seem like this was a fallback plan and not as exotic as the festival claimed. I don't really know where they planned on having the festival in the first place, but Exuma is a fantastic tropical island. Sure, they found possibly the ugliest part of it and put up tents and then repeatedly show that scene which doesn't really paint it in the best light. But, I'd say Exuma (really probably all of the Bahamas in general outside of Nassau, but I can only speak directly about Exuma) has some of the best beaches in the world. This isn't just me saying it either, read any sailors blog or watch their vlog or read articles or whatever, and almost everyone ranks Bahamas beaches at/near the top. Anyway, there are some truly fantastic beaches available by car (Hoopers Bay, Coco Plum Beach, and Tropic of Cancer) are awesome just to name a few. And, then Stocking Island is across the Harbour (about a mile or two from Georgetown) and has just as many beaches. Just a wonderful place. And, the people we encountered were amongst the nicest we've met when travelling. So, yeah, I had to get that off my chest. Exuma isn't some commercialized area with a ton of infrastructure, but it is incredibly beautiful and peaceful.

Freed Roger
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Re: Fyrefest 2017

Post by Freed Roger »

Yeah, Exuma came out looking poorly,.The pr image got clobbered and people there got screwed the worst, by far. Film could have done something for the island, explaining like you did.

I wonder how much of the original Billy intent was to defraud people, vs being incredibly dumb and naive about logistics and things magically coming together.
They made some efforts that didn't make sense as fraud.
But then again, they flat out scammed afterwards on the VIP tickets.

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go birds
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Re: Fyrefest 2017

Post by go birds »

My impression was that he wasn't looking to defraud anyone--that he genuinely wanted to be put on an elaborate, upscale festival, but then it started to spiral out of control, mostly due to his stubbornness and stupidity.

And once costs started to rise and unpaid bills started to roll in, that's when the fraud began.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Fyrefest 2017

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Yeah, it is incredibly odd.

The whole scenario certainly doesn't scream fraud/scam. As you mentioned, they made efforts to pull this off. They did have booze, water, food, etc. Some of this stuff was not even close to what was advertised, but it was...something. Why go through the hassle if it's a complete scam.

I kind of get the feeling that they just threw stuff together as best they could, got way behind financially, and simply couldn't pull it off. Based on that, and the fact it was apparent they could not pull it off, they should have postponed but because Billy was/is a con-artist and needed the money, I bet he thought he could just get by with giving them something and then keep all the money/profit. In the end, it wasn't nearly enough and all the bands pulled out. So, yeah, he was [expletive] and got some jail time which is warranted.

When I have a minute, I'll post some pictures here that we took highlighting some of the beaches/attractions because it really is a great place.

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Fyrefest 2017

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

Image

Image

Image

AWvsCBsteeeerike3
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Re: Fyrefest 2017

Post by AWvsCBsteeeerike3 »

These are a couple i had readily available but these pics don't really do it justice. Take that beach in the 2nd pic and then imagine sandbars stretching out for hundreds of yards and that's what the better beaches are like. There's an abundance of wildlife (fish, turtles, starfish, dolphins, sharks, rays) that are easy to find and swim with. Etc etc etc. Exuma is awesome.

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Tim
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Re: Fyrefest 2017

Post by Tim »

Looks incredible

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