If you didn’t hear about FYRE Festival, I’m not sure you have social media and maybe this review isn’t for you… But if you did hear about FYRE, keep reading and lets break down the documentary together.
When I heard about FYRE, it was before it had all spun out of control the way it eventually did. It looked like this insane party, ready to take on Coachella for the title of the greatest festival of the year.
What it turned out to be was the most accurate depiction of “expectations vs. reality” the world has ever seen.
FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened is an in depth look at the planning, execution and eventual downfall of the festival itself, and also an interesting look into Billy McFarlane, the millenial “Nigerian prince” - if you don’t know what this is, it’s an old email scam. A Nigerian prince reaches out to you, explaining how he needs help and will reward you for your help handsomely, if you provide your bank /credit card details... I think we all know where this is going but if you don’t, this eventuates into all of your money being stolen.
Billy McFarlane starts out looking like a guy who just wants to make it as an elite, he doesn’t really know what he’s doing, but has a lot of ideas. You might have chalked FYRE up to inexperience… had they not made this documentary.
It all started with an app, a great idea for an app actually, someone describes it as the “Uber of booking talent” - essentially the idea was that people with reasonably large amounts of money could book participating artists for events with ease. To build hype for the brand while the app was being built, Billy decides to throw a party - FYRE Festival.
Through the documentary, you listen to the people who worked on the business and the things they had to endure, the frustration is abundant among participants and you feel it every step of the way. You kind of feel yourself getting more and more stressed as they describe events happening, and bewildered at the fact that the festival actually made it as far as it did.
It’s not only an interesting story, but it’s pleasant to watch, high quality shots and a good soundtrack behind it; so you watch it with ease and absorb the story that really needed to be told, instead of the one that was sold.
The direction is good, there’s a great amount of footage of the event being managed/planned, and you get a look into the emotion that was evidently being felt in the room during meetings. Also, there is plenty of backstory of the participants that show their level of experience in the respective jobs they were given.
Everyone is open and honest about the advice they gave at the time of the events, and they provide evidence to back it up. They’re factual for the most part and leave the tension at the door when needed - it’s important with these kinds of interviews to be able to be emotional and factual in a good balance.
The locals that were hired by FYRE have the opportunity to speak and share their stories as well, which is significantly more important as a perspective than that of the people who bought tickets to a festival that never happened. You can forget a shit party, you never forget someone coming to your home and fucking you out of thousands of dollars/your life.
The really interesting thing about this documentary isn’t the story of FYRE, it’s not the reactions from the party goers either… The really interesting thing about this documentary is the story of Billy McFarlane… Actually, let’s not call it the story of Billy McFarlane - lets call it the cautionary tale of Billy McFarlane, who is not inexperienced, or insane… Billy McFarlane is simply a terrible human being. A Sociopath.
Interesting story, interesting follow up and easy to watch. Check it out.
*Netflix Rating “Thumbs Up”