Frye Festival

Dr. K posted a link to Fyre Festival's business packet, outlining all of the interesting, cool, hip, and up-and-coming aspects to this new music festival. It was to be hosted on an island in the Bahamas and they had gotten some of the top models in the world to advertise for it. At the same time that I saw this posted in our Blackboard site, I had also just finished watching the documentary on Netflix that explained everything they were trying to do, got away with, and failed at.

Initially, I had no idea what this event was. I heard a buzz about it on social media, but I'm not really into music festivals, nor can I afford to attend one as lavish as this seemed to be. Yet, I was intrigued to learn about their downfall and what was expected to be created. From the film, I learned that Billy (the head of the entire operation) had created a music festival concept, got the top models to advertise it, and got people to pay and sign up to attend, without ever actually planning the festival. Once Billy and the team realized that people were coming, they began to plan for the festival but quickly realized that it was going to cost them billions of more dollars than they expected and they were short on funds, plus they only had 6-8 weeks to put it together, which was not enough time. Furthermore, they had promised people lodging, yachts, and food and because they were on an island, they were unable to actually create what they had intended or thought they could create. These men were so focused on the social media presence and the press that they never actually thought through planning the entire festival (set for several thousand people) and ended up hurting their customers (who actually showed up to mud pit lodging), the Bahamians (who helped them night and day to create everything and never got paid), and the other business people (who had no idea what was actually going on and worked every day to put this festival on). It was the definition of a train wreck and honestly, sad to watch because so many good people were hurt.

From Billy and the team's initial advertising, they did an amazing job. Their video editing, Instagram feed, and business plan were impressive, intellectual, and clean. They had really thought through the image they wanted to portray and they nailed it on the head. This was proven by the fact that they sold out of the festival in a few days, even the $250,000 yacht spots were sold out. People went wild over their advertising. Their video made others want to be there and want to have an experience like they saw. This clearly shows the huge impact social media has on society and society's reaction to clear-cut, enticing products. If anything is to be learned from this experience (besides the obvious failure of the actual festival) it is that people respond positively to platforms that give them what they want to hear and see. People want a life they can edit on social media and giving them chances like Fyre festival is the perfect window to creating the perfect social media life most people are trying to conceive on their own. While I do not condone the heartache and career breaking actions of Billy and his team, I do congratulate him on a well done social media endeavor. He got what he wanted... and also what he did not (he's in jail).

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