A byword for con artists who offer up a vision of sun-kissed perfection, but in reality, deliver chaos and disappointment . The festival is being postponed until we can further assess if and when we are able to create the high-quality experience we envisioned., The Bahamian Ministry of Tourismissues their own statement, blaming the disastrous festival on Fyres organizers. I dont know.. California from the recovery shoot, McFarland dropped out of contact, leaving "You get a couple more followers, people hit you upeveryone comes out of the woodwork," he said on the We're All Psychos podcast. 10. A social host for the NBA and vlogger, Austin Mills hasn't publicly sounded off on his participation in the Hulu doc, but he did retweet the trailer for Fyre Fraud. "Originally people were just like reaching out to me all the time and I was just like, I don't want to hear it. thing about twin films is that, through different treatments, the competing "[8] Metacritic, which uses a normalized average, assigned the film a score of 75 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Billy McFarland - Fyre Co-Founder (archive footage) Jason Bell - Former NFL Player (archive footage) Gabrielle Bluestone . (Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski and more celebrities appeared in itwhich they might be regretting now.). 23. Both documentaries purport to According to a Netflix spokesman, it was Smith supports HTML5 video, Director: Chris Smith production of the film itself. Fyre Festival - Wikipedia Everyone likes a good redemption story unless the people seeking redemption are joke thieves. We didnt just want to be a tech company that was a pure enterprise with no consumer awareness, McFarland said of the event the magazine referred to as a brand activation cloaked in a Coachella-esque vibe. it was being put together. launder the troubled An important thing to note: The Netflix doc is co-produced by Jerry Media and Matte Projectsthe same groups behind the original promotional fantasy videos advertising Fyre Fest. So, we decided to literally attempt to build a city. The disastrous fallout from the canceled Fyre Festival continues, . Festival disaster. Hulu has one-upped Netflix, dropping their own competing documentary about the Fyre Festival just four days before Netflix had announced they would release . words, feeding information about the Vice documentary back to the other camp. Fyre Fest Scammers Jerry Media, FuckJerry and Elliot Tebele Sued for Contact 561 Broadway 6th Floor New York, NY 10012 +1 (646) 854 2652 info@matteprojects.com Kincaid still serves as the creative director of Matte Projects, which he co-founded, and the company donated $5,000 to Rolle's GoFundMe. Fyre Festival: Inside the world's biggest festival flop - BBC News Agency Matte Projects Raises $5 Million From Forest Road - Insider Executive Producers: Brett Kincaid, Max Pollack, Matt Rowean A contradiction to Netflixs filmmaker statement on preferential treatment of its subjects. will not be approving anything that is not done with integrity., Netflix disputed Purzyckis Ja Rule, however, wasnt hearing it. . Although the Vice logo appears in the movies credits, the company seems to have been Music family as the first headliners for @fyrefestival. The post even included a way for her followers to use a special promo code KJONFYRE, to get on the list for exclusiveafter parties. . This sums up Fyre Festival. It has a long And Crawford recently talked about all the attention he's been receiving since the movie's release. A source from Vice explained that the Vice/Smith team collectively March 12: Two months out,word begins to leak out about festival headliners, including the addition ofBlink-182. confirmed. I don't want to be living it. replied immediately. . Kincaid still serves as the creative director of Matte Projects, which he co-founded, and the company donated $5,000 to Rolle's GoFundMe. he tweeted. The breakout moment from Netflix's documentary? Lauriello also claims he was robbed of his clothes and headphones on the island, because Defendants failed to provide any security. The suit details the total chaos of conditions on the beach when the men arrived. So a festival was a great way to go and do that and beyond people who are attending.. In the Netflix doc, Jerry Media CEO said they and Matte Projects didnt have any visibility into what was happening on the production side of the Fyre Festival. The company released Seth Crossno, et al v. Fyre Festival, et al, Whos guilty? Oren, the whistleblower in the, Just gave every dollar my agency earned from the Fyre Festival back to the go fund me. #fyre #fyrefestival #fyrefest pic.twitter.com/x4xcFBL8Yg, William N. Finley IV (@WNFIV) April 28, 2017, So Fyre Fest is a complete disaster. Official Trailer for 'Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened' Doc The convicted con man, who had nothing but time on his hands while spending four years . It seemed like no one was in charge, he says. Eventory - Why it was a disaster: Fyre Festival. What happened? What Because McFarland and the festival didn't pay their customs bill, all of Sabatini's equipment was seized by the government. Matte Projects Names Angus MacEwan as Company's First CMO the filmmaker Jenner Furst a photograph of himself with McFarland, and Furst hashtag #FuckFuckJerry. Bringing Down The Band / YouTube. This was superseded by the distribution agreement After he completes his time in jail, he will be serve three years of supervised release. March 14: Writing in New York Magazine (after the festival implosion), talent producer Chloe Gordon says that when she arrived on the island six weeksbefore the fest was to take place, things were obviously not good. The Faces of the Fyre Festival Documentaries: What Are They Up to Now? Club stated that "Fyre is the stronger, more worthwhile documentary, but its counterpart is a helpful reminder that, like so many stories, one account can't contain the whole truth. #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/m9G2Xu1LNS. Branding & Design Agency NYC | About | Matte Projects But it wasnt long before my friend turned to me and said, Were getting off this fing island. I was like, No, lets give it an hour or two before admitting, Okay, this really is terrible. Why did nobody else tweet out that this was such a sthole? Swaigen had shot the viral And he also responded to someone criticizing him on Twitter, writing, "Find out facts before you speak out manMy influencing' had nothing to do with fyre. There was not enough space to build all the tents and green rooms they would need. Review: Rival documentaries showcase the fraud behind Fyre festival email to Michael Swaigen sent by Mick Purzycki dated March 25, 2018, he wrote: I have final cut on the film and Since the demise of Fyre, Ja Rule has since started a new venture, an app called ICONN, a "celebrity entertainment book & concierge service." We connected with Matte Projects [the production company hired by Fyre]. And maybe that's the closure I need.". NES claims that whenthey arrived on Grand Exumas Island a few days before the concert was scheduled to kick off the company said staff members immediately discovered that the accommodations were uninhabitable, including bug infestation, blood-stained mattresses, and no air conditioning, and that the defendants had failed to provide proper facilities for staff to provide medical services. 42 Disastrous Facts About Fyre Festival - Factinate asking Smith what he knew about Fyre Festival and discovering that Smith for attention against a shadow public relations campaign. Netflixs documentary producer, Mick, the Jerry Media CEO, says in the doc, off-camera, that Grant Margolin, was trying to use our employees for customer service but isnt what we were hired to do. international news flashpoint that encourages us to draw conclusions about the companys reputation. *An earlier version of this article stated that Brendan Fitzgerald founded Viceland, and dropped out of the Fyre Festival documentary. As whispers moved across industry that Vice was progressing on a documentary, Hulu wondered if they had enough time. Watch all you want. How did it all go so wrong? Matte Projects got the velvet glove treatment too. which was co-produced by the CEO of Jerry Media and several other FuckJerry Netflix's Fyre Festival doc made Jerry Media an Emmy nominee - Quartz director All Rights Reserved. way the movie was produced suggests that FuckJerry used the film to McFarland, and their Fyre Media business, PR company 42West and marketing agency Matte Projects are named as defendants. The new studios first project was Fyre, which was FuckJerrys first ever film production. Now that it's a viral joke, Jerry Media and advertising company Matte Projects have contributed their . Flying in, the water looked beautiful but I was almost immediately warned not to go near it because of a rampant shark problem. Billy McFarland (fraudster) - Wikipedia In addition, celebrity lawyer Mark Geragos(Chris Brown, Michael Jackson) files a proposed $100 million class-action lawsuit against the Fyre team on behalf of client Daniel Jung. The key difference between the Hulu The . They are doing it again, just under It's produced by Library Films, Jerry Media, Matte Projects and VICE Studios. He then proceeded to give "background" on why he and his friends did this, claiming the tents were empty anyway. Fyre Festival was the kind of When Jerry Media CEO Mick, was seeking Michaels participation, both for footage and a possible interview in the Netflix film, he wrote in an email I have final cut on the film and will not be approving anything that is not done with integrity. Regrettably, and after much careful and difficult consideration, we want to let you know that we wont be performing at Fyre Fest in the Bahamas this weekend and next weekend, a tweet from the bandsaccountread. The two movies ended up about insidious digital marketing, corporate irresponsibility, and the misdeeds however, a new source of intrigue has emerged. (He also plead guilty to two counts of wire fraud, including one for NYC VIP Access, the bogus ticketing scheme he created while out on bail.) performing fellatio on a customs official to extract a detained shipment of While Hulu's seemed to be openly mocking the influencer culture that contributed to the mess happening in the first place, Netflix gave a more behind-the-scenes look into how McFarland was able (and enabled, in some ways) to keep the scheme afloat until it was too late and a cheese sandwich went viral. Great music festivals can delight the senses in so many ways: with killer sets from your favorite artists (plus special guests), delicious food, a lush setting, crazy creative amenities, unexpected collaborations, celeb sightings, and so on. The day the movie premiered fuckjerry donated $10,000 to Maryann Rolles GoFundMe, the restaurant owner who gave a tearful interview about being screwed out of her savings. And were Jerry Media now, according to Swaigen. It was easy for most of us to mock the Instagram influencers and trust-fund millennials who were duped into attending Fyre Festival, the 2017 "immersive music festival" that turned out to be little more than a handful of disaster tents and slapped-together cheese sandwiches on a strip of rubble in the Bahamas.But Fyre director Chris Smith wasn't interested in "a movie that made fun of . He's not a horrible guy. Brett Kincaid, a director at Matte Projects, was hired by Fyre Media to do all the marketing and advertising for the event. Three of six executive producers appeared in the Netflix documentary. Others should do the same explaining that agency was paid $30k (still owed over $150k from Fyre Festival) adding wed be pretty bad fraudsters if we were complicit. Fortunately, a GoFundMe campaign was able to help Rolle out, raising more than its initial $123,000 goal, with many of the organizations and individuals behind the festival making donations. shape your opinions. of Netflixs announcement, the producer list had become dominated by personnel Fyre Festival documentary - 9 questions we need answered - Cosmopolitan National Event Services v. Fyre Festival et al. Both men say they havent been able to access those funds since. 2023 E! its involvement in a catastrophe. The spot promisesthe best in food, art, music and adventure amid footage of luxury yachts, jet skis and yet more models cavorting on the boundaries of theimpossible.. The festival's marketing agency also co-produced the film, resulting in a misleading version of who bears responsibility for the fraud. felt particularly wrong to us for him to be benefiting from an interview But we would like to fully explain what happened. He also says that comments were screen-grabbed then deleted but this is a distortion of the truth. Both movies Fyre Festival con man Billy McFarland is ready to entertain again. Hulus money (125k or less, rumored to be between 50100k [Hulu spokesperson declined to comment]) in theory would to go his victims. From Matte Projects/Courtesy of Fyre. some heavy hitters were interested in making a documentary, including Brendan Journal; About; . employee Oren Aks has said that the company was aware of Fyre Festivals presided over by the occupant of the White House. The Jerry Media CEO took part on and off screen in the Netflix documentary, appearing on camera to explain his company's part in the festival's promotional strategy on social media. Thesuit claims that organizers kept offering VIP upgrades and encouraging attendees to put money on their cashless Fyre Band bracelets even after it was clear there would be no concert. Theyve readied the excursions, provided the jet skis for rent, made the yacht marinas available, and tapped the University of Bahamas culinary division to prepare food. knew absolutely nothing.(Update: Vice claims Smith at this time had read everything that was available regarding Fyre Festival.) Purzycki has pivoted Netflix to Release Fyre Festival Documentary: Watch Teaser Video - Variety He licensed the failed redemption footage with permission of Billy and received an Associate Producer credit. Title Design: Shreya Chopra CEO of FuckJerry, Mick Purzycki, who was a producer of Fyre, also claimed to have final cut over the documentary while Gabrielle He is a forensic video consultant and writes in his spare time. It was to organize the most expensive, the most exclusive festival on our planet. "Fyre Festival levels of hype w/ Fyre Festival levels of execution," someone summed up. mysteriously quiet on that issue, instead highlighting eye-poppingly nefarious would ever have been sold if it hadnt been for FuckJerrys efforts to spam If you cant get enough of Fyre: subscribe to Dumpster Fyre Podcast. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google, Visit Billboard Pro for music business news, Adam Lambert Soars Back to American Idol With Cover of I Cant Stand theRain, Tim Bachman, Guitarist/Co-Founder of Bachman-Turner Overdrive Dies at71, Aerosmith Reveal Peace Out Farewell North American TourDates. April 27: A day before the fest was slated to begin, Blink pulled out, telling fans on Twitter thatthey were concerned festival organizers werent ready to provide the production necessary for their performance. The festival was meant to promote the new Fyre music booking app, and they hired . FuckJerry) and the advertising Matte Projects, two companies . Netflix, which announced up in jail for wire fraud. Fitzgerald, who launched the Viceland cable channel (he eventually left the company).*.