As someone who works at Glastonbury Festival every year, when I heard about the chaos that was the 2017 Bahama island based Fyre Festival, I was both greatly amused and desperate to know more. This documentary is exactly what I wanted. Beautifully shot, talks you through the whole story from beginning to end and interviews with a wide range of people involved in the planning of the festival.
What makes this story a documentary director’s dream is that the whole thing was captured in real-time. In part thanks to the maniacal con-man and co-founder Billy McFarland and his business partner Ja Rule (yes, that Ja Rule) hiring an incredibly talented production team to film everything from their side up until the day of the festival, and the victims / festival punters (some paying up to $250,0000 for their ticket package) filming everything around them as the insta-generation tends to do.
Watching Netflix’s documentary is an emotional journey which will fill you angst, rage and laughter. Whether it’s the disbelief that people kept giving Billy McFarland more money for what was clearly a ridiculously impossible project, the shock and rage at how much money people will spend on curated instagrammable experiences or sympathy for those that suffer as a result of the ego-driven Silicon Valley ideals (the islanders & Fyre staff, not the punters, you can laugh at them) this documentary opens the doors wide and lets you see the great scope of which the actions of a few affected the lives of many.
To say any more will take away from the experience of schadenfreude that this film provides. At only 90 minutes, and 1/3 of the film being beautifully shot images of sandy white beaches and beautiful models laughing and dancing, this is one of those movies that’s perfect for having on whilst enjoying drinks with friends at home, as you won’t really miss much (and if you do you can just rewind, the joys of Netflix releases).
The fact this movie exists infuriates me as it’s the embodiment of everything negative people say about my generation. However the fact this movie exists also fills me with hope, as it seems that if films like this, American Meme and Ingrid Goes West are becoming more common, one could hope that the tide is turning and the selfie generation are realising that all that is #nofilter is not gold.
This delivers everything you could hope for and looks great doing so, don’t miss out on the Woodstock of our generation.
FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened 5/5
