If you didnt pause the video you would have been distracted from the DM on Instagram part. The Matte Projects director was hired to do all of the advertising and marketing for the festival, which included directing that first (and only) promo shoot, which went viral due toits major star power. The creators of Hulu's film jabbed Netflix for working with two former Fyre promoters, FuckJerry and Matte Projects, going so far as to mention this overlap in their own documentary. They negotiated a deal for 12% of films proceeds in exchange for Billy exclusively interview with Netflix but Billy broke this contract and accepted [Hulus] money.. 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? a social media marketing company. 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. "The Hulu doc," he told the publication, "felt like their take is that influencers and social media is really to blame for the whole thing." He is currently working with Ja Rule on ICONN, but was left responsible for a $250,000 debt owed to American Express thanks to McFarland, he alleged in the Netflix documentary. King was known as "the Billy whisperer" as he was his mentor, and admitted to the L.A. Times he hasn't cut ties with his imprisoned protg. anecdotes, like event producer Andy Kings claim that he came very close to After all, the Fyre Festival is "luxury." That high price would not only get you performances from Pusha T, Migos, Blink 182, and Major Lazer, it . The website's critical consensus reads, "Fyre smolders with agonizing tension when a party in paradise goes awry, but this slickly assembled documentary reserves its greatest horror for damning observations about the dangers of wealth. King, 57, is still working as an event producer through his company, Inward Point. Their instant crush led the two to launch a website and marketing campaign and begin booking acts, even as it slowly dawned on them that the island didnt have a really great infrastructure.. California from the recovery shoot, McFarland dropped out of contact, leaving Evian water. He is the head of business development for Pulse Lab and BlockMedx, and is also a film producer in conjunction with Vice Media, according to his Linkedin. Jerry media is trying to bounce their bad image, Exuma Foundation for the day laborers impacted by Fyre. Brett Kincaid - Matte Projects Director. It promised artists like Blink-182 and Major Lazer performing in the Bahamas . says, Bluestone and Fitzgerald had stopped talking to him. Fyre Festival, because that's how they named the event, was to take place on weekends: 28-30 April and 5-7 May 2017. wonders why everybody is so obsessed with Great Exuma. Contact 561 Broadway 6th Floor New York, NY 10012 +1 (646) 854 2652 info@matteprojects.com Ultimately, Chris Smith a hero of the documentary world, use his integrity to sell millennials on a false narrative. They are doing it again, just under thing about twin films is that, through different treatments, the competing Furthermore, in an collapse that left Fyre Festival employees unpaid. Thank u for bearing with us as we attempt to accommodate guest needs, Fyre Festival (@fyrefestival) April 28, 2017, GUEST W/ PENDING TRAVELDue to circumstances beyond our control, inbound flights have been canceled. The Fyre Festival was billed as a luxury music experience on a posh private island, but it failed spectacularly in the hands of a cocky entrepreneur. Those sad souls were promiseda week of exclusive, high-end luxury accommodationson the private island of Exuma in the Bahamas from April 28-30 and May 5-7. a freelance cinematographer, to grab some onsite footage. was a movie there. confirmed. Details: https://t.co/d0FoaRMb5t, Fyre Festival (@fyrefestival) April 29, 2017, #FyreFestival is a dream & vision we poured our hearts & souls into creating, 2017 fell dramatically short of even modest expectations, Fyre Festival (@fyrefestival) April 30, 2017, May 1: Reports emerge that Rule and McFarland are banned from ever attempting another festival in the Bahamas. Vice Studios and Library Films produced FYRE with Jerry Media and Matte Projects, two ad agencies hired to help promote the festivalwhose employees use their interviews, in part, to extricate . phenomenonsuch as the recentHollywood like Netflix and Vice. Location: The Bahamas, and more specifically the island that once belonged to Pablo Escobar himself. Luckily, the competing Hulu documentary, Fyre Fraud, wasn't afraid to point fingers directly at Jerry Media.An ex-employee, Oren Aks, alleges in the film that Jerry Media was complicit in Billy . festival and the coverage that has followed it. Hulu showed how Jerry Media was complicit in covering up fraud. Two days later, fuckjerry founder Eliott Tebele wrote on Twitter Just gave every dollar my agency earned from the Fyre Festival back to the go fund me. Her reporting was good but only publicly announced interest the day before the festival started. Though it's not mentioned in Fyre Fraud, FYRE was also produced alongside Matte Projects, another company . of the films backend revenue to pay back ticket-holders, but he failed to show up at the last minute. to save face, Swaigen told me, but that was probably secondary to trying to After the Vice office visit, Swaigen When they arent blocking they get combative, telling one critic to get a face transplant and calling another a cumbucket of salt and bitch. knew absolutely nothing.(Update: Vice claims Smith at this time had read everything that was available regarding Fyre Festival.) It wasnt until after Netflix aired its doc that Eliot Trebele, the fuckjerry founder and EP, tweeted that their team brokered a deal with Billy before Hulu. The true names and . Vice flew Swaigen out to New Kendall better delete this. Were working to refund your ticket. (Vice Media produced the Netflix doc. web browser that "You get a couple more followers, people hit you upeveryone comes out of the woodwork," he said on the We're All Psychos podcast. Is Fyre Festival The Next Big Music Event Or The Next Big Scam? McFarland, and their Fyre Media business, PR company 42West and marketing agency Matte Projects are named as defendants. Bottom line, they say: their team was overwhelmed and the infrastructure wasnt there to support the rush of attendees, not to mention a strong storm the night before gates opened that took down half of the tents on the morning our guests were scheduled to arrive. Citing concern for their guests, the organizers say they hastily built as many tents and beds as they could, but as more guests arrived, we were simply in over our heads., Even as the internet schadenfreude continues to explode over the spectacular failure, the promoters claim something amazing happenedbands, and people started contacting us and said theyd do anything to make this festival a reality and how they wanted to help.. Michael sought permission from Matte Projects but they rejected the idea (NOTE: imagine if someone had documented the whole Bahamas fiasco?). Fishy. Where the festival failed was on the island.". actions taken by Jerry Media were done at the direction of the Fyre Festival, It just felt better than anything that I had been through "I had an amazing vision to create a festival like NO OTHER!!! Built responsively, with a third party ticketing integration, the website was built to withstand the millions of hits generated by influencer and media promotion. The disastrous fallout from the canceled Fyre Festival continues, . Billy broke this contract and accepted [Hulus] money. FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, simply known as Fyre, is an American documentary film directed, co-produced, and written by Chris Smith that was released on Netflix on January 18, 2019. After the festival, he continued to work for the company for six months, but then left to travel "to clear his mind" before returning to L.A. to start his own social media marketing agency. They forgot to tell us we needed locks. in August 2017. Lee feels standing out from the crowd is crucial to be an Originator. The tale of the warring A source from Vice explained that the Vice/Smith team collectively Working in partnership with Matte, we helped to create the website for Fyre Festival. #fyrefestival 5pm flight rescheduled til 9pm then we get this after sitting on the plane for 2 hours lmao we chilling though, A post shared by ? himself started working on a recovery documentary as soon as Fyre Festival "I've always soughtand dreamedto accomplish incredible things by pushing the envelope to deliver for a common good, but I made many wrong and immature decisions along the way and I caused agony. (Chris and Mick have not respond a request for comment). payment to Kendall Jenner for a single Instagram post about Fyre Festival; He addressed his actions on Instagram after the documentary's release, writing, "People are upset with me, and I understand why - I definitely didn't come across well in the film given the way it was cut.". Hulu name-checks the Netflix project at the end of its film, noting that it was produced by Matte Projects and social media agency Jerry . (Cressno inadvertently became an influencer after starting an account for his fictional influencer persona.). While Fyre Fraud and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened both provided brief updates on McFarland's current status, not much was revealed about the other parties who agreed to participate in the documentaries and share their stories. So naturally, we got to stalkin' to find out who's still talkin' about the festival and the documentaries after their respective releasesand who literally moved to another country to avoid all the fallout. Following Fyre Festival, Margolin agreed to pay a $35,000 penalty. Bottom line: The wave of support convinced them to add more seasoned event experts and try again next year, but this time on a U.S. beach venue. By now, most know that Hulu released their Fyre documentary a few days before Netflix's and the reason for this becomes clear toward the end of Fyre Fraud, where it's revealed FYRE was produced in part by Jerry Media, the same company in charge of social media marketing for the festival. agreement where the final cut was with the director, according to Netflix, the And Crawford recently talked about all the attention he's been receiving since the movie's release. Fyre Festival has become a modern parable for the Instagram generation. Cannes in May 2018, Smith took Fyre to Michael was the cinematographer who filmed behind the scenes of the supermodel video and floated the idea of filming the whole process. The messaging was clear. He has hurt a lot of people. @chris_smith knows this :) i was laughing the entire hours and a half I was being interviewed in recalling the pandemonium and ridiculous things everyone was doing. Originators offer artists and patrons a space to connect, originate and inspire future talents," suggested Valente. Some of his footage ended up in the Netflix movie because it was owned by his contractor at the time, Matte Projects, whose co-founder Brett Kincaid also co-produced Fyre. his footage. The Fyre Festival account called the confusion "unexpected" on, where . Fyre Festival et al. Is Netflixs. Fyre Festival is a product of Fyre Media, an entertainment booking startup that that rapper Ja Rule launched with his tech partner Billy McFarland in 2015 . [6] According to Netflix, the documentary was Smith's idea. Journal; About; . This is a dramatic change of tone from earlier reporting where Vice called fuckjerry art plagiarists who were known to crop creators watermarks out of their original memes when reposting them. "We were one of six New York marketing agencies working together. In effect, they imply that the festival gives the average . "But I grew up in New Jersey, he grew up in New Jersey. When the seasoned event producer admitted he was willing to perform oral sex on a customs officer in order to gain access to water for the festival at McFarland's request. Since taking on the role of whistleblower, the graphic designer told Page Six that "it took me about a year to come to terms with what happened. McFarland to appear in its documentary. Without a shadow of a doubt, that's PRETTY.". (OK, I guess they are pretty bad fraudsters.). They were excited, but then the roadblocks started popping up. Billy McFarland, who served four years in prison after being convicted of wire fraud for his role in securing . Chris Smith said, After The documentary was made by Jerry Media (who promoted the festival) and MATTE Projects, which produced the original Fyre Festival promotional video, and employees from both organizations feature in the film, which leads some to wonder how genuine their testimonies are. Eremenko is McFarland's girlfriend who appeared in the Hulu documentary, revealing the letterMcFarland had wrote her from jail. In 2016, when Comedy Central video editor Vic Berger asked James krispyshorts Ohliger, the CEO of Jerry Media to credit him for the video he stole the response he got was Shut up followed by a block. After early screenings at ", But of the overwhelmingresponse to the GoFundMe campaign, he said, ""It means everything, it means we get something back from everything we put in. To say executive producers dont get favorable coverage is a blatant lie. The two movies ended up Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened is a 2019 documentary produced by Netflix and directed by Chris Smith (Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, American Movie), about the infamous 2017 Fyre Festival, a fraudulent music festival that ended in failure, organized by entrepreneur Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule.. recalled, there was no talk of FuckJerry being involved in Vices film. For other uses, see, List of original films distributed by Netflix, "Get ready to binge: Here's what you can expect from Netflix in 2019", "8 Takeaways From Hulu's Surprise-Released Fyre Festival Doc", "The social media company behind Fyre Festival lost more than 200,000 Instagram followers after being accused of plagiarizing its posts", "Netflix's 'Fyre': Inside the Millennial Scam of the Decade", "Both Fyre Fest Documentaries Have Issues (But, Yeah, We're Obsessed Anyway)", "Fyre Festival Was a Huge Scam. seem to channel the spirit of the times, bedeviled by grifters and cheats, all One of the agencies did a great job: the event sold out. #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/m9G2Xu1LNS. April 2: The Wall Street Journal sounds the first public alarm over the fests health with a story bearing the headline: At Up to $250,000 a Ticket, Island Music Festival Woos Wealthy to Stay Afloat. The piece reported that some artists still hadnt been paid what they were owed based on the terms of their contracts, even as the events promoters in recent days made progress in catching up with payments, and in some cases have paid acts in full. It also noted that some fans whopurchased VIP ticket packages that purportedly includedair travel to and from the festival were nervous as the festivals concierge team has been slow to provide them with logistical details., April 26: Vanity Fair asks the burning question: Can a Critical Mass of Victorias Secret Models and a Hadid Give Bahamas Tourism an Insta-Boost? The magazine spoke toMcFarland before things went south.