Althouse: "A Bahamas festival backed by a host of A-list models and with packages costing up to £10,000 ($13,000) has descended into chaos..."

April 28, 2017

"A Bahamas festival backed by a host of A-list models and with packages costing up to £10,000 ($13,000) has descended into chaos..."

"... amid reports guests have been stranded at an unfinished site overrun by feral dogs. The boutique Fyre Festival, due to start today and run over two weekends, was billed as a 'cultural moment created from an alchemic blend of music, art, and food'... While the website promised 'chef-curated culinary pop ups' one reveller posted a picture of a basic cheese sandwich served out of a polystyrene box. Paying guests were told they could expect to stay in 'modern, eco-friendly, geodesic domes.' But some online likened the 'cabanas' to disaster zone relief tents...."

Reports The Daily Mail.

Why is that so much fun to read? The top-rated comment there with 980 up votes and only 9 down votes is just, in its entirety, "LOL."

85 comments:

Matt Sablan said...: Change dogs to zombies and you have a standard horror movie plot.; 4/28/17, 8:46 AM
CJ said...: Some of my hipster acquaintances are down there but they seem to be having a great time judging by their Instagram posts.; 4/28/17, 8:48 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Once went to an event. Not well planned. Kibbles for lunch; cement blocks for bed. Wrote scathing tweet to mastermind, who never tweeted back. Couldn't be agitated.; 4/28/17, 8:58 AM
Saint Croix said...: have a baby in the mud you Woodstock wannabes!; 4/28/17, 8:58 AM
Saint Croix said...: cheer up!

you're in the Bahamas; 4/28/17, 9:00 AM
Saint Croix said...: Why is that so much fun to read?

$10,000 for that very sad cheese; 4/28/17, 9:02 AM
richlb said...: 'He said basically it was worse than a refugee camp.'

Me thinks he's never been to a refugee camp before.; 4/28/17, 9:03 AM
Once written, twice... said...: Sort of like the Trump presidency.; 4/28/17, 9:05 AM
Owen said...: What is Bahamian for "Schadenfreude"?; 4/28/17, 9:06 AM
Fernandinande said...: Darn, I would've thought that medieval chemical philosophy would be perfect for the Bahamas.; 4/28/17, 9:07 AM
bwebster said...: First guy: "You know that Burning Man thing in the desert in Nevada?"
Second guy: "Yeah, it's gotten massive."
First guy: "Let's do the same thing, but in the Bahamas! Much nicer! No dust!"
Second guy: "Yeah, all the rich types who have a hard time getting into Burning Man, or who don't want to eat dust for a week, will come!"
First guy: "We'll call it something different...uh Fire Festival. No, 'F-Y-R-E' Festival."
Second guy: "Sounds great. I know a guy who knows a guy who knows the guy who can lease us the location on an island."
First guy: "We pull this off, we'll live like kings!"; 4/28/17, 9:08 AM
robother said...: "Feral Dogs and A-List Models." The script almost writes itself, kind of like "Snakes on a Plane." Plays to multiple levels of consciousness/markets. Horror Flick or Satirical Commentary on Horror Flicks.; 4/28/17, 9:09 AM
Michael K said...: Trump is living rent free in once written's head.

It is amusing to see leftists obsess on this.; 4/28/17, 9:11 AM
Anonymous said...: "You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
You can't always get what you want
But if you try sometimes well you might find …"
You get what you deserve.; 4/28/17, 9:14 AM
Rae said...: I shouldn't be as amused by this as I am. Truthfully, if I paid 10 grand for that, I'd be pissed too.; 4/28/17, 9:14 AM
Limited blogger said...: lol; 4/28/17, 9:15 AM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: The starvation diet is working.; 4/28/17, 9:18 AM
Rae said...: /r/fyrefestival is hilarious.; 4/28/17, 9:18 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: Their ire is understandable. Imagine how Marie Antoinette and the Versailles ladies would have felt when they played at being milkmaids if their cottages had resembled actual peasant cottages.; 4/28/17, 9:19 AM
Anonymous said...: Bob Ellison said...
Once went to an event. Not well planned. Kibbles for lunch; cement blocks for bed.

LOL, My first 5 months in Vietnam...

Got shot at...

Got to stay up all night and sleep during the 100+ degree days

Lived in a Conex, whose inside temp sometimes reached 130. without me inside...

The high point of the week was taking a shower under a 5 gallon can of rusty water (the dry season)

The low point was $hit burning day...; 4/28/17, 9:21 AM
Bob Boyd said...: They were going to serve a nice Asian salad, but they had to re-curate at the last minute because racism.; 4/28/17, 9:23 AM
exiledonmainstreet, green-eyed devil said...: You mean to tell me Bernie backer Emily Ratajkowski doesn't actually want to experience how life is for ordinary people under Communism? They'd kill for that cheese sandwich in Venezuela.; 4/28/17, 9:25 AM
Rae said...: My favorite tweet:

"Real friends don't let friends pay $10k to see Blink 182."; 4/28/17, 9:26 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Somebody's getting fyred.; 4/28/17, 9:26 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "have a baby in the mud you Woodstock wannabes!"

I was going to compare it to Woodstock, but...

1. Woodstock was free (or $17).

2. Woodstock offered and delivered great, great music (and this thing wasn't even offering great music).

3. Woodstock didn't advertise itself using female models as if they were provided as part of the entertainment. Woodstock attracted both males and females into the audience, and the audience entertained each other.

4. Woodstock was mythologized after the fact. Many people who attended in fact found it physically unpleasant, but they had not been lured in by any promise of luxury accommodations. You knew you were roughing it and risking getting caught in rain.; 4/28/17, 9:33 AM
Fernandinande said...: According to the Metro, Atkins [Ja Rule's ex-wife] said: “He wrote all them love songs and still don't know how to treat a bitch... We spent ten-plus years building our marriage but it only took him two to decide he'd rather suck a dick than be with his wife.”
...
Ja Rule, 37, was released from prison earlier this year. He was incarcerated in Ray Brook jail, New York, after being sentenced to 28 months for failing to pay £710,000 in taxes. He was also sentenced to two years in jail for illegally possessing a semi-automatic handgun, discovered by police in his car after he played a concert in the city in 2007.

The same year, the star came under fire after making a series of homophobic comments, which also saw him publicly lambast MTV: the same network that broadcast the documentary in question, Married Life After Prison.; 4/28/17, 9:34 AM
Drago said...: Inga: "You get what you deserve."

I agree completely that the nation, after 8 years of nonsense, deserved a Neil Gorsuch.

He seems awfully wise in a real and substantive way as opposed to that standard lefty identity politics way.; 4/28/17, 9:37 AM
Drago said...: Chefs and dogs, eh?

Sounds like a party for one of our ex-presidents!; 4/28/17, 9:40 AM
I Callahan said...: Sort of like the Trump presidency.

So is "once" now living in a refugee camp?

Here's a little link for "Once":

Nope, still not Hitler; 4/28/17, 9:42 AM
Michael K said...: A fool and her money are soon parted.; 4/28/17, 9:44 AM
Todd said...: Inga said...

You get what you deserve.

4/28/17, 9:14 AM

I try to give credit where it is due. Good one, Inga!; 4/28/17, 9:58 AM
BillyTalley said...: One wonders why the virtue signalers among them haven't thought of rescuing the dogs yet.; 4/28/17, 10:07 AM
n.n said...: Choice. Travel. Inconvenience. Planned Poverty.; 4/28/17, 10:12 AM
n.n said...: Climate models' relationship with the real world in the scientific domain. Chaotic. Unpredictable.; 4/28/17, 10:13 AM
Once written, twice... said...: Like Trump, they over-promised and added a lot of fake glitz and fraud. And like Trump, the Hillbillies (Beverly Hills style) lapped it up.

Trumps first hundred days looks like that beach.; 4/28/17, 10:14 AM
Dagwood said...: Will someone please pass "once written" the Preparation H?; 4/28/17, 10:21 AM
Richard Dolan said...: Sign of the times, both in how it has turned out for those who attend and how it's perceived by those who don't. As Woodstock was in its day.; 4/28/17, 10:21 AM
gspencer said...: "But some online likened the 'cabanas' to disaster zone relief tents...."

"Don't you know who we are! We're A-listers. We deserve the best."

LOL,; 4/28/17, 10:28 AM
furious_a said...: "SURVIVOR NASSAU"; 4/28/17, 10:39 AM
Ron Winkleheimer said...: To answer The Professor's question, a touch of class envy.

People who are unable to afford to spend thousands of dollars, hoping to mix with the "beautiful people" (in this case, quite literally) suspect that the people who do have that kind of money and are willing to spend it that way are vacuous and contemptuous of those who aren't part of the correct set. So this is seen as a comeuppance. Or Nemesis punishing them for their hubris. You know, the whole pride coming before the fall thing.; 4/28/17, 10:39 AM
Jaq said...: I thought that the feral dogs we're part of the charm.; 4/28/17, 10:40 AM
Laslo Spatula said...: Like the models were even going to walk around topless.

I am Laslo.; 4/28/17, 10:40 AM
furious_a said...: Chuck Schumer's "first 100 Days" OTOH had him and his caucus gaping slack-jawed while Jeff Sessions provided the 51st vote for Betsy Devos before being confirmed himself as AG.; 4/28/17, 10:42 AM
Michael said...: once written....

How's that Dow Jones Industrial Average doing for you? Licked your wounds? Bound to crash..bound to..any. day now.; 4/28/17, 10:45 AM
furious_a said...: "And the bottled water was STILL, not SPARKLING. We were in HELL."; 4/28/17, 10:48 AM
donald said...: The entire Bahamas are sullen.; 4/28/17, 10:50 AM
Michael said...: Exuma, by the way, is a nice enough island: hard to get to, arid. To give a sense of its recent destiny the Four Seasons on Exuma was acquired by an all inclusive hotel chain. In other words: not upscale.

Anything planned in the Bahamas, from New Providence to the remotest island, is going to take four or five times longer than it should. Every island has a mayor, a city council and on and on and they are delighted to waive you in but slow about the details. It is a country that has seen the loss of many many fortunes. A magnet for dreamers it eats them for lunch.; 4/28/17, 10:51 AM
MrCharlie2 said...: "Okay this Bella person needs some food. Now. And not a cheese sandwich- I'm thinking biscuits and gravy. And Emily needs a shot of Narcan immediately"; 4/28/17, 10:53 AM
Ron Winkleheimer said...: @Michael

I see you have been to the Bahamas as well. We hired a guide who took us on a tour that included a large number of failed projects. And the history anecdotes were often about someone losing a fortune.; 4/28/17, 10:57 AM
tcrosse said...: It reminds me of one of Guy Grand's pranks in Terry Southern's The Magic Christian.; 4/28/17, 11:03 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Class-envy driven schadenfreude is always gratifying. Especially when the class in question are the doucheoisie.; 4/28/17, 11:11 AM
madAsHell said...: I had never heard of Exuma. I found it using Google maps. The island is criss-crossed with roads cut through the jungle like an abandoned sub-division.

I'm fairly confident that several fortunes have been lost on Exuma. Spell checker doesn't like it either.; 4/28/17, 11:14 AM
Drago said...: Once: "Trumps first hundred days looks like that beach."

Obambi's 8 years not only look like but actually is Detroit.

I'll take the beach. But then, I was a West coast lad.; 4/28/17, 11:16 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Stranded Celebrities Resort To Chef-Curated Cannibalism - Dine On Wild Dogs, Supermodels -
"Ridiculous" Cheese Sandwiches Untouched; 4/28/17, 11:19 AM
cubanbob said...: Once... five will get you ten not one of the pretentious fools who blew ten grand on this voted for Trump. That level of hipster idiocy can only vote for a Hillary.; 4/28/17, 11:19 AM
J. Farmer said...: Growing up in Florida, the Bahamas were a frequent vacation destination, especially with my father working in the maritime industry. Nice beaches, beautiful water. There's just one small problem with the Bahamas...it's full of Bahamians.; 4/28/17, 11:23 AM
RBE said...: Been there. Gorgeous island. All the islands in the Exuma chain are breathtakingly beautiful.; 4/28/17, 11:24 AM
RBE said...: Michael is correct in his description of how things gets done! Not surprised it was a disaster.; 4/28/17, 11:30 AM
Etienne said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/28/17, 11:38 AM
Clyde said...: One wonders how many were Hillary donors.; 4/28/17, 12:00 PM
MaxedOutMama said...: "Rich kids of Instagram meets Lord of the Flies?" Come on - that's hilarious.

Everyone enjoys feeling superior for a moment if no one dies or gets hurt! They've done most of us a great favor.

The old folks referred to those who would get suckered into something like this as having "More money than sense."; 4/28/17, 12:17 PM
David-2 said...: The thing that _really_ makes me angry rather than gleeful about this is that we taxpayers are on the hook for most of this. All those kids spending $500-%1000 or more on this scam: They aren't (all) trust fund babies. Most just took it right out of their student loans for "college expenses". Eventually these idiots will default.; 4/28/17, 12:27 PM
MaxedOutMama said...: "But we saw pictures of models!"

Thanks for the comedy break.

"A fool and his money are soon parted."; 4/28/17, 12:28 PM
Earnest Prole said...: Why is that so much fun to read?

Nothing is more hilarious than the disparity between hope and reality. Plus it takes our minds off things like today’s trainwreck of the Republicans' second attempt to repeal Obamacare.; 4/28/17, 12:34 PM
Owen said...: This story is getting air on NPR. And pretty snarky.; 4/28/17, 12:48 PM
Michael said...: J Farmer
Correct. Except until about a decade ago the out islands were a step back into the 1950s and the people were laid back friendly and passive. Very passive. Drugs and hip hop have invaded and the younger Bahamians are not exactly hostile but not exactly as friendly as their parents.

Remember that the government nationalized the hotels back in the 1960s and they stayed that way for a couple of decades. The guests were an imposition on the workers, of course. There is no culture of service in the country.; 4/28/17, 12:58 PM
J. Farmer said...: @Michael:

There is no culture of service in the country.

Agreed.; 4/28/17, 1:08 PM
Henry said...: A British woman has told MailOnline how she and 30 others had spent £1,000 each on flights believing they were about to enjoy the experience of a lifetime. But a friend who travelled out early described the site as 'worse than a refugee camp.'

That sounds memorable.; 4/28/17, 1:36 PM
J. Farmer said...: Well, you can't say they weren't warned...

At Up to $250,000 a Ticket, Island Music Festival Woos Wealthy to Stay Afloat

"Fyre Festival organizers push to keep it from fizzling after delays paying artists, confirming guests’ charter flights" 2 Apr 2017; 4/28/17, 1:43 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: Nothing says eco-friendly like traveling thousands of miles by jet.

Next time somebody wants to borrow my eco-friendly geodesic dome (aka tent) I'm going to give them a deal for only $5K.; 4/28/17, 2:24 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Bob Boyd said...

Stranded Celebrities Resort To Chef-Curated Cannibalism - Dine On Wild Dogs, Supermodels -
"Ridiculous" Cheese Sandwiches Untouched

I think there is more meat on the cheese sandwiches then on one of those supermodels. Not saying I wouldn't nibble on one, given the chance...; 4/28/17, 2:36 PM
J. Farmer said...: @JaimeRoberto:

Nothing says eco-friendly like traveling thousands of miles by jet.

To be fair, the event had nothing to do with eco-friendliness or any other social justice issue. It was billed as a weekend long music festival that apparently suffered godawful management and implementation. Certain celebrities on Instagram were paid fees to market the event.; 4/28/17, 2:41 PM
JaimeRoberto said...: @J. Farmer

Maybe the festival as a whole wasn't meant as some eco-friendly thing, but when organizers describe the lodgings as 'modern, eco-friendly, geodesic domes' they certainly are trying to give people the green warm fuzzies.; 4/28/17, 2:52 PM
cubanbob said...: Am I the only one enjoying these pretentious fools getting fleeced?; 4/28/17, 3:02 PM
J. Farmer said...: @JaimeRoberto:

Maybe the festival as a whole wasn't meant as some eco-friendly thing, but when organizers describe the lodgings as 'modern, eco-friendly, geodesic domes' they certainly are trying to give people the green warm fuzzies.

I don't think it had anything to do with eco-friendliness. It was just a litany of buzzwords meant to convey a certain luxe. It's the same way restaurants describe food items as "artisanal."

@cubanbob:

Am I the only one enjoying these pretentious fools getting fleeced?

What about them makes them "pretentious fools?"; 4/28/17, 3:45 PM
Anonymous said...: It looked so squalid that I had to do a quick google to try and find out what pipeline project they were trying to block.; 4/28/17, 4:48 PM
Birches said...: Wow. That AS I article was really interesting. If they didn't have their crap together at the beginning of the month, how did they expect to pull it off. I also wonder if the organizers expected to send checks to get the infrastructure built without anyone doing day to day supervising.; 4/28/17, 5:14 PM
urbane legend said...: J. Farmer said...
@cubanbob:

Am I the only one enjoying these pretentious fools getting fleeced?

What about them makes them "pretentious fools?"

If you have to ask that . . .

. . . feral dogs.
That wasn't the band? I thought alchemic music was their specialty.; 4/28/17, 5:42 PM
Jim at said...: "Trumps first hundred days looks like that beach."

And yet? It's still better than Hillary.; 4/28/17, 5:49 PM
J. Farmer said...: urbane legend:

If you have to ask that . . .

Why don't you humor me and go ahead and explain it anyway. Seems like people took a trip where one thing was promised and something all together different was delivered. It's a common consumer pitfall.; 4/28/17, 6:01 PM
urbane legend said...: @J. Farmer:

Ok, but it seems so obvious. Anything involving 'chef-curated culinary pop ups' just shouts pretentious. Pick up any dictionary. There is a picture with the definition of pretentious.; 4/28/17, 7:30 PM
J. Farmer said...: @urbane legend:

Ok, but it seems so obvious. Anything involving 'chef-curated culinary pop ups' just shouts pretentious. Pick up any dictionary.

I don't deny that the advertisements were full of a lot of pretentious buzz words. I made this point six hours ago: "It was just a litany of buzzwords meant to convey a certain luxe. It's the same way restaurants describe food items as "artisanal."

Cubanbob referred to the customers as "pretentious fools." I think that's pretty unfair. The event was billed as a music festival, so I imagine that a good portion of them were simply interested in traveling to a tropical location and enjoying a festival. That the festival managers were so inept and ill prepared does not seem any reason to trash the people who were basically lied to.; 4/28/17, 8:52 PM
Anonymous said...: I share fully in the schadenfreude.

At the same time, however, it was apparently seriously awful. Worse than cheese sandwiches -- more like being mugged by a security who takes your wallet, or surrendering your passport to a random official without any assurance of actually getting on a flight.

Page Six says that the organizers tipped off all of the A-listers not to come, but didn't bother to tell the single-millions hoi polloi.; 4/29/17, 12:06 AM
Lewis Wetzel said...: They should have bailed ten days ago:
http://pagesix.com/2017/04/17/are-fyre-festival-organizers-in-over-their-heads/

Reps for the April 28-30 and May 5-7 event assure us there’s lodging, and say it’s “going to be one of the biggest and most exclusive events of the year. The island is ready, and our partners and the performers are stoked.”

A website’s been updated to indicate guests will stay in “modern, eco-friendly, geodesic domes.” The festival, featuring groups like Migos and blink-182, is catering to the jet set: One package costs $12,499 per person and offers a yacht.

The Wall Street Journal reported this month that the fest missed deadlines to pay musical acts. (We hear the bands have since been paid.) The report added folks were “nervous, as the festival’s ‘concierge’ team has been slow to provide them with logistical details.”

"Biggest" and "most exclusive."
Okay!; 4/29/17, 1:22 AM
lonetown said...: Kind of a metaphor for what will happen after the breakdown of society. The rich will be clueless clutching their pearls as the thugs consume the alcohol.; 4/29/17, 6:30 AM