Hulu and Netflix Recommendation: Fyre Fraud (2019) and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019)

Along the same veins of Ponzi scheming and insider trading, these documentaries cover the disaster of the music festival called Fyre Festival that was supposed to happen in 2017, conceived by Billy McFarland and Ja Rule.  Fyre Fraud, a Hulu production, was released before Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, the Netflix production.  While both covered the same event or should I say lack of event, both managed to include insight and coverage the other did not despite the final consensus that the Fyre Festival was a complete disaster from start to finish.

McFarland was born in the year to make him a millennial, where social influence is more abundant than ever before, and he saw an opportunity to get a slice of the American pie as an entrepreneur.  When you combine all three, the Fyre Festival was conceived and while it might have been a good idea on paper, a music festival of this magnitude takes a lot of timing and planning.  This is where McFarland failed in a big way.  He probably should’ve stayed in school because he might have learned a half thought out conceived plan rarely goes well, and combined with his delusion things went from bad to terrible.  He clearly didn’t have the patience or years to know you just can’t live the high life and earn millions of money without adequate effort and work.

Fyre Fraud included the interview of McFarland after he was charged with mail and wire fraud.  He seemed to have a blank stare on his face most of the time, a huge disconnect with what the documentary filmmaker was asking, which to me is a sign he still hadn’t absorbed what he had done and probably the magnitude of it either.  While there was some coverage of those McFarland had financially hurt, it was more prevalent in Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened.  It might have been done to draw attention away from Jerry Media’s involvement, but the stories tended to be more personable.   Those who suffered because of this failed music festival, from the workers on Great Exuma to the concertgoers to the American investors, were basically duped. The only people who got paid their due were the celebrity promoters.

This puts me near the end of this music festival, barreling toward the grand finale that turned out to be pretty chaotic in most respects and dismal on the music front.  There was no Blink-182 because they had dropped out.  They obviously smelled the danger from far away.  For whatever reason, maybe to take pity on the people who paid thousands of dollars to attend, a local band offered a few hours of their time.  The disaster relief tents leftover from Hurricane Katrina served as the luxurious housing promised and were completed with soaked mattresses from prior rain.  There wasn’t adequate lighting so when the sun disappeared and night fell, you can imagine the horrors that occurred when people had to use the portable toilets.  Good luck washing your hands because there was no running water.  People couldn’t get cell phone reception either.  I could go on and on, but seeing this part further made me realize McFarland didn’t care about anyone but himself.

I wish I could say McFarland learned his lesson after this doomed luxury music festival, but he did not.  I’m not sure he will learn his lesson after he comes out of federal prison, but only he knows that.  Given how many lives he wrecked along the way, I’m not sure anyone would give him another chance.  The Netflix documentary primarily focused on McFarland’s delusions, victims of his actions, and his true character behind the scenes.  The Hulu documentary focused on his character as well, but it didn’t go in-depth of his life prior to the Fyre Festival as much, although both were willing to place most of the blame on him.  I encourage anyone who likes documentaries to watch either one or both.