Eng Fyre (2019)

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Okay. On you go.

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All right, Jason's here on Fyre Cay,

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showing him the newly purchased property.

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-I like it, man.
-Getting set up for the Fyre festival.

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I like your life, man,
I like what's goin' on.
-I'm ready, man.

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-You have.

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All right, cool,
that's all I need to know.

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-Biggest event in a decade, I promise you.
-I'll be there.

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<i>When did you first become</i>
<i>aware of Fyre?</i>

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I started seeing people posting
kind of the promo video.

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It was this very slick production
that promised

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that it was Pablo Escobar's private island

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and that<i> </i>they were flying in
thousands of people on private jets.

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It was just the coolest party
that you'd ever seen advertised.

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My agency contacted me

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and was like, "Hey, there's this
new festival coming up.

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It's really exclusive."

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The most insane festival

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the world has ever seen.

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<i>All these models, like,</i>

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<i>in the Bahamas.</i>

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Acts like Major Lazer, Disclosure, Tyga...

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This is the first weekend
this has ever happened,

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so, literally, I was excited.

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But we didn't know anything.

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<i> It's become one of the most</i>
<i>talked-about dramas on social media.</i>

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<i>A glamorous,</i>
<i>luxurious Caribbean <i>...island getaway</i>
<i>turned disaster--</i></i>

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<i>...quickly spiraling into chaos.</i>

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<i>Now, the event's co-founder</i>
<i>is facing up to 20 years in prison.</i>

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<i>Are you sorry?</i>
<i>Do you have anything to say for yourself?</i>

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Thank you, guys,
I'll arrange a comment later. Thank you.

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<i>Hey, Billy?</i>

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<i>There's a bunch of people</i>
<i>who's filing lawsuits</i>

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<i>against you today in federal court.</i>
<i>Did you hear about that?</i>

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<i>It just became much more</i>
<i>than anybody ever dreamed it would be.</i>

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<i>I mean, you know the saying,</i>
<i>"Desperate people do desperate things."</i>

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And now I hope Billy doesn't go to prison
for it, but I don't know.

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We are here at the Web Summit...

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I remember that
it was a big deal that Ja and Billy

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were going to the Web Summit
to talk about Fyre.

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It was the first real piece of press.

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Well, I'm gonna let
my partner in crime here, Billy McFarland,

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give you all the introduction
of what Fyre is.

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Billy and Ja met because
Billy's previous company, Magnises,

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he would have parties and special events
and invite the members,

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and one of the events,
he tried to book Ja Rule,

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and apparently,
that was a very difficult task.

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I went to Instagram
and found this guy named Reggie Muscles

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and he says, "Give me 500 bucks
and I'll get you Ja Rule."

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I paid Reggie Muscles.

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The next day, Reggie Muscles
brings in a guy named Gunner.

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Gunner's a little smarter now,
so Gunner asked for $1,000 and he said,

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"I'll get you Ja Rule."
So, I gave Gunner $1,000.

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And Gunner called me a week later saying,

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"Ja Rule hates your offer."

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So one of the problems
that we're really tackling is...

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the nasty business of booking.

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So, Billy actually pitched me
the idea,let me know he was

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working with Ja Rule
and they were recruiting engineers

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to build this marketplace.

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You go to the website, you can
scroll through various types of talent.

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Somebody who wants to have Ja Rule
at a birthday party

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could, through the app,
book Ja Rule for that event

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and that's sort of the type of thing
that you could never do before Fyre.

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What these guys did was identify...

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I think, a really beautiful "blindspot"
in the industry that...

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The way the trifecta
between the three of us worked

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is that I oversaw product,
ran the design development of the app,

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Ja was the entertainment
industry connection

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and Billy had connections through
what he told us was VC funding.

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Every single thing
that goes into the booking process

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is right then and there...

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I thought that this was
a functioning platform,

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something that was really going--
That had the opportunity

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to revolutionize the way,
you know, the industry worked.

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The Fyre app had the potential
to be a billion-dollar platform.

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After working on the app
for three to five months,

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we were starting to figure out ways
to promote it

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and in a meeting,
I had actually mentioned,

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"Why don't we throw a festival,
a concert for industry professionals?"

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That idea, Billy kind of hooked onto
and then it morphed

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pretty dramatically
outside of any input from me or Ja

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into what became the Fyre Festival.

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<i>Let me fix you up, man.</i>

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Let me fix you up a little bit, a'ight?

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A little sandy. That's a'ight.

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We're sandy 'cause we're on
our fuckin' island havin' a good time.

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A'ight?

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Originally, when Billy called me,
he said,

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"I've bought an island in the Bahamas

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and we're hosting a music festival
down there."

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And I said, "What island?"

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And he said, "Pablo Escobar's island,"

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and I said, "Oh, my gosh!"

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-A year and a half ago...
-Talk to them.

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...Ja and I were flying over the Exumas
and we saw this unmanned runway.

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We tried dialing it and no one responded,
so we landed there.

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Turns out it was Norman's Cay.

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When I met Billy, it was like,

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"Man, this guy is stinking rich.
He's bringing all his friends down here

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and he's paying for everything."

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Four jet skis, four boats,

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and, you know, all having a wild-out time.
You know. I think the idea just popped up
in his head like,

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"Ping! We're gonna throw a festival here."

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They were going to have
celebrities there,

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it would be
this big consumer-facing thing

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and that they were going
to do buried treasure.

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A real-life treasure hunt.

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Win a piece of land on the island,
your own private island,

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right here, with the Fyre Cay team.

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From a pure concept standpoint,
it holds water.

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<i>An amazing experience</i>
<i>in a beautiful location</i>

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<i>with beautiful people and great music.</i>
<i>You can't ask for more.</i>

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<i>This is going to be</i>
<i>the most incredible fuckin' shit.</i> -The Magic Bird.
-The Magic Bird.

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"The Magic Bird" is a phrase
that me and Billy coined.

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The impact that Magic Johnson
and Larry Bird had on the NBA.

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It changed the way people saw
and thought about basketball.

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And me and Billy are going to change
the way people look at

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a young tech entrepreneur

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and a hip-hop mogul come together
and create something incredible.

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Billy was kind of nerdy,
but clearly smart,

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clearly an incredible entrepreneur.

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We interacted a lot.

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He seemed very charismatic,
very trustworthy.

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I thought that he had a vision.

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<i>He was able to maneuver</i>
<i>and conduct himself around investors</i>

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<i>and then build teams</i>
<i>to build his products.</i>

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We were hired to do all the advertising
and marketing for the festival.

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They were hiring the best of the best
in each category.

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<i>Best talent, best distribution,</i>

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<i>best social media company.</i>

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Fuckjerry had just launched
a new marketing agency

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and<i> </i>we were hired by Fyre
to basically run all the social media.

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We've got major news.

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Ja Rule just called us,
basically said he wants us to pitch him

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for his new app, Fyre.

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This is Fuckjerry?
Yeah.

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That was an amazing meeting.

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They just bought an island
and they're going to have a party in April

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for 10,000 people.

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It felt like they were basically doing
a music festival to draw attention to

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this bigger brand that would end up being
the Uber of booking talent.

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Who was playing,
what the food was gonna be,

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all the things that typically sell
a music festival wasn't the sales point.

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This was like selling a dream,
selling a vacation, selling a concept.

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We knew that there was a place

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and we knew that there was an idea
of having a music festival

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and that was pretty much it.

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I directed the commercial.

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When I saw the call sheet,
I was like, "That's crazy!"

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<i>Basically, like, ten of the top</i>
<i>supermodels in the world.</i>

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<i>It was the titans</i>
<i>of the modeling industry -</i>

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<i>Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski,</i>
<i>Hailey Baldwin.</i>

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Supermodels,
I'm talking about supermodels.

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I thought it was the best thing ever.
"It can't get no  bigger than this."

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He's recording us!

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<i>One camera crew is shooting</i>
<i>with the models,</i>

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<i>and they had a dedicated film crew, like,</i>

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<i>shooting the dialogue</i>
<i>between Billy and his people.</i>

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So, we ran into a little issue today.

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-Sorry, cut. Talk to me.
-Okay.

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Start, one more time.

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-We ran into an issue today.
-No. Start again.

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[Brett There was no,
"This is the story we want to tell."

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There was just, "Capture everything."

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We need genuine shots.

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We need genuine people interacting,
having a good time.

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I need a wide yacht shot.

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We have to do the cave underwater,
we need the boats in a flying-V formation.

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Could we tell Herbie to have
a big, big, big bonfire tomorrow night?

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Like a huge bonfire?

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Grant was a neurotic person.

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He was a-- He's a smart dude.

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He was just overwhelmed.

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I'm our chief marketing officer.

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I wouldn't call myself a perfectionist,
but everything must be perfect, you know?

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<i>I mean,</i>
<i>it was like a job of five people.</i>

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<i>And he had no experience</i>
<i>in doing music festivals</i>

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<i>no experience in doing events.</i>
<i>But he did work hard.</i>

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So I know Billy wants to go see the pigs
and this is the only way to make it work.

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<i></i>
<i>But we can't shoot it, dude.</i>

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Fair-- So I--

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<i>...and you know we don't need to shoot it.</i>

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Real talk. Like,
we're spending a lot of fucking money.

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If we want to go fucking see the pigs,
we go see the pigs.

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'll find a way to make it work.

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That's it.

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If we wanna fucking see the pigs.
the girls wanna go see the pigs,

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we go fucking see the pigs.

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<i> It was like,</i>
<i>"We're gonna scratch the pigs now</i>

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<i>and we're going to shoot it."</i>

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<i>We were the production company</i>

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but we didn't have the authority
to organize it like we were supposed to.

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Here go the shots, come on.

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Hey, yo. Catch this, get this.

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Billy didn't have no rules.

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He had everyone drinking, open bar

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wilding out. It was more of a party
than a promotional shoot.

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Yeah, let me fly the drone.

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<i>Our guys were partying non-stop.</i>
<i>Sunup to sundown, gettin' loose.</i>

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Billy fell asleep on the beach,
literally, just broad daylight.

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Out like a light.

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I flew here with Billy,
just for a holiday

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and now this has ballooned
into a full production team

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of girls and cameras.

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There was this crazy pilot, Keith.
He made the plane go zero gravity.

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I don't know how he did it.

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Near take-off, he's like,
"I bought this plane six months ago,

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I just got my license."

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I ended up teaching myself and you can use
Microsoft Flight Simulator.

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Microsoft Flight Simulator
has lessons and it's excellent.

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Once in the air, I was like,
"What are we gonna do?"

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<i>He was pulling off the end of the runway</i>
<i>and going straight up into the thing</i>

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<i>and killing the engine.</i>

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You know, whenever I'm with Billy,
I have to...

216
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do at least three zero Gs.

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Billy and Ja made their famous toast.

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That's when I was introduced to the toast.

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Here's to living like movie stars,

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partying like rock stars...

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Billy?

222
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And fucking like porn stars.

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<i> It was definitely, like,</i>
<i>a trying work environment.</i>

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<i>One night, they wanted to turn the bonfire</i>

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00:11:31,565 --> 00:11:34,110
<i>into, like, the Billy and Ja party</i>
<i>on the beach,</i>

226
00:11:34,402 --> 00:11:35,653
and that's all on camera.

227
00:11:36,112 --> 00:11:36,987
Come on, baby.

228
00:11:37,071 --> 00:11:38,656
We about to create art.
Get over here.

229
00:11:38,739 --> 00:11:39,865
Just get in the water.

230
00:11:39,949 --> 00:11:43,160
If y'all don't want to put on a bikini,
it don't matter. Let's get in the water.

231
00:11:43,244 --> 00:11:44,912
Hell, no, I'm not getting in no water.

232
00:11:44,995 --> 00:11:47,289
Yeah,
get in the fucking water, Chanel.

233
00:11:48,374 --> 00:11:50,126
They wanted to get everyone in the water,

234
00:11:50,209 --> 00:11:51,919
<i>So they made it sound</i>
<i>as if it was a scene,</i>

235
00:11:52,002 --> 00:11:54,004
<i>but nobody was there directing that scene.</i>

236
00:11:54,088 --> 00:11:56,424
Guys, what's the purpose
of what you're trying to do We're gonna jump in,
then the girls will follow us in.

237
00:11:58,926 --> 00:12:00,344
This is the money shot!

238
00:12:00,428 --> 00:12:02,471
Us jumping after you?

239
00:12:02,847 --> 00:12:05,349
<i> It was them partying with talent</i>

240
00:12:05,433 --> 00:12:08,060
<i>that didn't really know</i>
<i>what they were there to do.</i>

241
00:12:08,561 --> 00:12:10,438
<i>But in the end, it didn't matter.</i>

242
00:12:10,521 --> 00:12:13,149
We're selling a pipe dream
to your average loser.

243
00:12:13,232 --> 00:12:17,069
-Selling a pipe dream to fucking buyers.
-Your average guy in middle America.

244
00:12:17,153 --> 00:12:20,406
<i>They were selling a vision</i>
<i>of what people want.</i>

245
00:12:22,199 --> 00:12:25,286
We should tell all the girls to post
one picture of them on the beach today,

246
00:12:25,369 --> 00:12:27,997
or on jet skis,
#fyrefestival before five o'clock.

247
00:12:28,080 --> 00:12:30,791
Could y'all, like,
hashtag some Fyre Festival shit?

248
00:12:32,126 --> 00:12:36,005
<i>The models posted a lot</i>
<i>of their own pictures from the weekend</i>

249
00:12:36,088 --> 00:12:37,673
<i>that they spent shooting there.</i>

250
00:12:37,840 --> 00:12:39,675
They need to be fucking tagging us.

251
00:12:40,760 --> 00:12:43,387
Why aren't these people tagging us?
This is bullshit.

252
00:12:43,596 --> 00:12:45,765
One of the women had posted...

253
00:12:46,348 --> 00:12:48,017
the Mannequin Challenge that they did.

254
00:12:49,143 --> 00:12:51,437
<i>And so Ja Rule is there</i>
<i>and Billy was there</i>

255
00:12:51,520 --> 00:12:53,856
<i>and then ten of the top models...</i>

256
00:12:54,565 --> 00:12:58,652
The power of celebrity really there was,
like, "Whoa!"

257
00:12:59,195 --> 00:13:01,822
The press of the trip

258
00:13:02,072 --> 00:13:06,035
got picked up just by those girls
being there all together as a group.

259
00:13:06,285 --> 00:13:09,830
So, <i>The Daily Mail</i> talks about
how they're hashtagging "Fyre Festival"

260
00:13:09,914 --> 00:13:12,666
and that Shanina Shaik says, "It's lit."

261
00:13:12,750 --> 00:13:15,044
I knew it would do that,
I knew with the buzz...

262
00:13:15,127 --> 00:13:17,963
If you're constantly going to be
taking pictures here,

263
00:13:18,047 --> 00:13:20,925
make sure you fucking, "Fyre Festival,"

264
00:13:21,008 --> 00:13:26,096
because it's gonna create a small buzz
that can be a big buzz. It's free press.

265
00:13:26,180 --> 00:13:27,723
You can't pay for that kind of press.

266
00:13:31,769 --> 00:13:33,896
They captured a ton of footage
that was just,

267
00:13:33,979 --> 00:13:36,190
really, from a marketing perspective,
second to none.

268
00:13:36,857 --> 00:13:40,528
<i>And it was the thing that gave</i>
<i>all of the New York agencies</i>

269
00:13:40,611 --> 00:13:42,530
<i>some insight</i>
<i>into what was happening down there.</i>

270
00:13:43,739 --> 00:13:46,408
<i>They would all have a tan and be smiling</i>

271
00:13:46,492 --> 00:13:48,285
<i>and talk about these experiences</i>
<i>that they had,</i> <i>which almost gave us a little bit of like,</i>

272
00:13:50,246 --> 00:13:53,123
FOMO: we're wondering what we hadn't seen
or what we're missing out on

273
00:13:53,916 --> 00:13:59,004
<i>and Fyre very quickly</i>
<i>became one of our most important clients.</i>

274
00:13:59,380 --> 00:14:03,050
<i>They were trying to tap into a culture</i>
<i>and a zeitgeist that they believed in,</i>

275
00:14:03,425 --> 00:14:06,595
<i>and they were uncompromising</i>
<i>when it came to marketing.</i>

276
00:14:09,181 --> 00:14:11,350
Today's the big day. Five o'clock.

277
00:14:11,433 --> 00:14:12,935
We have what will be known

278
00:14:13,018 --> 00:14:16,063
as the best coordinated
social influencer campaign ever.

279
00:14:16,146 --> 00:14:18,107
We have 400 of the biggest people
around the world,

280
00:14:18,190 --> 00:14:22,069
influencers, models, comedians,
artists, actors, actresses,

281
00:14:22,152 --> 00:14:26,574
all at the same time posting
the ambiguous burnt orange Fyre tile.

282
00:14:26,866 --> 00:14:29,577
They came up with
the idea of the orange tile.

283
00:14:29,660 --> 00:14:31,704
Fyre handled
all of the major models

284
00:14:31,912 --> 00:14:34,498
and then we and a number of other agencies

285
00:14:34,582 --> 00:14:36,876
were reaching out to any influencer
we knew in our network.

286
00:14:37,167 --> 00:14:40,170
And there's the caption saying,
"Join me @fyrefestival.com,"

287
00:14:40,254 --> 00:14:42,506
so we're expecting millions
to come and visit our site,

288
00:14:42,590 --> 00:14:44,049
see the video, showing people that

289
00:14:44,133 --> 00:14:46,385
for three or four days,
you can escape reality

290
00:14:46,468 --> 00:14:48,846
and come experience
Pablo Escobar's old island.

291
00:14:49,388 --> 00:14:51,932
The commercial globally got launched
while there.

292
00:14:52,224 --> 00:14:53,684
We had a whole edit team there.

293
00:14:53,767 --> 00:14:57,313
We were editing the commercial
and had a launch strategy in the Bahamas,

294
00:14:57,396 --> 00:15:00,441
which is crazy, 'cause there's no internet
and no infrastructure, nothing there.

295
00:15:01,066 --> 00:15:04,069
Billy was like, "Man,
let's catch a plane to Nassau

296
00:15:04,153 --> 00:15:06,030
and go on the phone and internet there,

297
00:15:06,113 --> 00:15:08,824
because Kendall Jenner is
about to announce this live thing

298
00:15:08,908 --> 00:15:10,242
on Instagram.

299
00:15:10,743 --> 00:15:13,621
Kendall Jenner was paid,
I think, $250,000

300
00:15:13,704 --> 00:15:17,124
by wire transfer
just to post that one post.

301
00:15:18,667 --> 00:15:21,503
When I saw the video,
my first reaction was confusion.

302
00:15:21,837 --> 00:15:24,131
I wasn't sure who was the target market
of the festival.

303
00:15:24,214 --> 00:15:26,800
If you go, will there be Instagram models
lounging around

304
00:15:26,884 --> 00:15:28,302
to feed you grapes?

305
00:15:28,385 --> 00:15:31,722
So, it was a combination of confusion
and excitement.

306
00:15:32,556 --> 00:15:34,683
As soon as the models
started posting,

307
00:15:34,767 --> 00:15:37,269
the Fyre Instagram account
just started to blow up.

308
00:15:37,561 --> 00:15:39,605
Overnight, basically,

309
00:15:39,688 --> 00:15:43,567
this massive influx of enthusiasm
and awareness,

310
00:15:43,651 --> 00:15:45,861
a PR storm like you've never seen.

311
00:15:45,945 --> 00:15:49,782
I had brand sponsors who had invested
millions of dollars into Coachella

312
00:15:50,282 --> 00:15:53,786
asking if they could figure out a way
to get their investment out of Coachella

313
00:15:53,869 --> 00:15:55,329
and put it over towards Fyre.

314
00:15:55,955 --> 00:15:59,249
They advertised these incredible
ticket packages.

315
00:15:59,959 --> 00:16:04,672
They had the "rustic tent," that was
supposed to be kind of like a Coachella,

316
00:16:04,755 --> 00:16:06,423
glamorous scenario.

317
00:16:06,840 --> 00:16:09,009
And then they had private homes

318
00:16:09,343 --> 00:16:12,429
and then it went up to like 250 grand for,

319
00:16:12,680 --> 00:16:16,517
you know, a private yacht
with a private chef on board.

320
00:16:17,142 --> 00:16:18,602
Within 48 hours,

321
00:16:18,686 --> 00:16:20,771
they sold 95% of their tickets.

322
00:16:21,271 --> 00:16:25,693
I think people thought
that this was one of the new hot things

323
00:16:25,776 --> 00:16:29,697
that was starting to take over
the American and global market.

324
00:16:29,863 --> 00:16:31,281
So now, you know,

325
00:16:31,699 --> 00:16:34,034
we hope everybody comes and enjoys...

326
00:16:34,118 --> 00:16:37,121
the cultural experience of the decade,
Fyre Festival.

327
00:16:41,583 --> 00:16:44,003
I remember I first heard
about Fyre Festival

328
00:16:44,086 --> 00:16:47,006
at a music festival conference
in Las Vegas.

329
00:16:47,089 --> 00:16:49,091
Ja Rule was a keynote speaker

330
00:16:49,341 --> 00:16:52,594
and he unveiled this festival
that they were doing in the Bahamas

331
00:16:52,678 --> 00:16:55,597
and everyone at the table
I was sitting with just started laughing.

332
00:16:55,973 --> 00:16:57,891
They were like, "Yeah, good luck, Ja Rule,

333
00:16:57,975 --> 00:17:00,394
build a music festival
'cause it's so easy."

334
00:17:00,477 --> 00:17:04,064
And there was this tinge of resentment,
kind of humoring it and all that.

335
00:17:04,148 --> 00:17:06,191
The industry insiders were laughing.

336
00:17:06,275 --> 00:17:09,194
Fast forward two months later,
before I was introduced to Billy,

337
00:17:09,319 --> 00:17:11,739
and I'm meeting with my friend Max
at Matte Productions,

338
00:17:11,822 --> 00:17:14,116
who produced the influencer video.

339
00:17:14,324 --> 00:17:15,951
And when I when I saw that video,

340
00:17:16,035 --> 00:17:19,496
I was like, "These guys are
either completely full of shit

341
00:17:19,580 --> 00:17:21,373
or they're the smartest guys in the room."

342
00:17:21,915 --> 00:17:23,125
So, I spoke to Max...

343
00:17:23,625 --> 00:17:25,085
and I asked him what the deal was

344
00:17:25,169 --> 00:17:27,337
and he's like, "No, they're legit

345
00:17:27,421 --> 00:17:29,548
and they sold out the festival."

346
00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:33,260
So, as a first-time festival producer
to sell out your music festival,

347
00:17:33,844 --> 00:17:35,304
it's a huge accomplishment.

348
00:17:37,431 --> 00:17:41,977
So we tried to fit 800 people here
and a concert for about 5,000 people.

349
00:17:42,061 --> 00:17:43,687
So, Norman's Cay is on this end.

350
00:17:44,021 --> 00:17:47,900
I knew the island. I've been going
to Bahamas for the past ten years,

351
00:17:47,983 --> 00:17:51,945
so my role in the beginning was just to
try to map it out and do the logistics.

352
00:17:52,029 --> 00:17:54,531
It's forty acres, right?
So one inch is a hundred feet.

353
00:17:54,615 --> 00:17:56,492
So, this is about 200 feet.

354
00:17:56,617 --> 00:17:59,161
You're going to write off--
-Shit. My bad.

355
00:17:59,828 --> 00:18:02,289
On the floor plans.

356
00:18:02,372 --> 00:18:04,124
You ruined my sewage calculations.

357
00:18:05,709 --> 00:18:09,421
Instead of thinking about models,
you have to think about toilets.

358
00:18:09,505 --> 00:18:10,714
We must buy lots of toilets.

359
00:18:10,798 --> 00:18:14,093
We gotta go to Home Depot
and buy a thousand toilets. I mean...

360
00:18:14,551 --> 00:18:15,969
The number of tickets they'd sold,

361
00:18:16,053 --> 00:18:18,972
they couldn't physically fit
that many people on the island,

362
00:18:19,056 --> 00:18:21,308
let alone build
some sort of insane infrastructure

363
00:18:21,391 --> 00:18:24,937
that could support them
from a bio-waste standpoint.

364
00:18:25,104 --> 00:18:28,273
I didn't think it was possible to fit
over 1,000 people on that island

365
00:18:28,357 --> 00:18:30,692
so I had made a plan to get a cruise ship.

366
00:18:30,984 --> 00:18:34,655
The tricky part is getting drunk people
off the island at night.

367
00:18:34,780 --> 00:18:37,491
to go to sleep on a cruise ship
on a little dinghy.

368
00:18:37,991 --> 00:18:39,952
We're not doing
a cruise ship anymore.

369
00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:41,703
You're not doing the cruise ship?

370
00:18:41,787 --> 00:18:43,789
Everybody is gonna be on the islands.

371
00:18:48,335 --> 00:18:49,920
I'm not kidding.

372
00:18:50,003 --> 00:18:52,422
-Okay.
-They said it's possible.

373
00:18:53,590 --> 00:18:57,928
They really wanted to do tents,
so what I did is I took my wife

374
00:18:58,011 --> 00:19:00,514
and we tried to sleep in a tent
for one night

375
00:19:00,597 --> 00:19:03,308
and... it was so terrible,

376
00:19:03,392 --> 00:19:07,146
that, you know, this tent is just not
going to be safe and it's so loud,

377
00:19:07,437 --> 00:19:08,730
so many mosquitoes,

378
00:19:09,106 --> 00:19:12,109
To do these tents without air conditioning
is pretty brutal.

379
00:19:12,442 --> 00:19:14,862
It's just not possible, so I...

380
00:19:16,363 --> 00:19:18,991
I strongly recommended against the tents.  Keith raised a lot of concerns
about these things

381
00:19:23,078 --> 00:19:26,832
and then I think he was asked
to no longer be part of it.

382
00:19:28,667 --> 00:19:32,880
It's just Billy at some point
told me, "Listen, you need to step back.

383
00:19:32,963 --> 00:19:36,967
You know, we're going to go
with different people and...

384
00:19:38,760 --> 00:19:41,471
Yeah, thanks for your help so far
and, you know..."

385
00:19:41,972 --> 00:19:46,185
I wasn't the only one
that was changed out in February, March.

386
00:19:51,064 --> 00:19:53,192
They asked me to fly down
to the Bahamas to meet them.

387
00:19:54,067 --> 00:19:55,652
And I flew down there.

388
00:19:55,736 --> 00:19:58,030
When I was introduced to them
I was super excited

389
00:19:58,113 --> 00:20:02,326
to, you know, to participate in what
could be a really special event,

390
00:20:02,409 --> 00:20:05,454
if it was even half of what
they had promised their guests.

391
00:20:06,788 --> 00:20:08,665
Flying over the islands from Miami

392
00:20:08,749 --> 00:20:11,752
and you see this water and it was magic.

393
00:20:11,835 --> 00:20:13,837
I mean, I can't even describe it to you.

394
00:20:14,129 --> 00:20:16,256
We were contacted perhaps...

395
00:20:17,049 --> 00:20:19,676
forty-five days out.

396
00:20:20,385 --> 00:20:23,597
We were asked to take a shot
at putting together a production for them.

397
00:20:24,097 --> 00:20:25,641
The timeframe was very short,

398
00:20:25,724 --> 00:20:29,019
but there was definitely a chance
of putting it all together.

399
00:20:31,146 --> 00:20:34,107
Billy talked to us, talked to me
and I loved his vision.

400
00:20:34,191 --> 00:20:36,902
I loved his ideas, his energy.

401
00:20:38,070 --> 00:20:42,282
We sat down and basically put together
a budget for him in a day,

402
00:20:42,366 --> 00:20:43,700
presented to him the next day.

403
00:20:43,784 --> 00:20:46,745
"Here are your hard facts,
here are your costs associated do this.

404
00:20:46,828 --> 00:20:48,580
And they said,
"This is fine. We can do this."

405
00:20:49,122 --> 00:20:51,458
<i>And so roughly,</i>
<i>what was that number?</i>

406
00:20:51,541 --> 00:20:53,669
I think it was maybe 38?

407
00:20:54,086 --> 00:20:55,629
<i>Thirty</i>
-Yeah.

408
00:20:55,879 --> 00:20:59,049
Billy came and said, "Can you book
the lineup for the festival?"

409
00:20:59,132 --> 00:21:04,471
I'm a 22, 23-year-old kid,
I've never booked talent for...

410
00:21:04,554 --> 00:21:06,056
Forget about for a festival.

411
00:21:06,765 --> 00:21:10,060
I remember the first artist I got
was Major Lazer.

412
00:21:10,560 --> 00:21:12,938
I mean, grossly overpaid.

413
00:21:13,522 --> 00:21:16,233
And then Disclosure, Blink-182.

414
00:21:16,817 --> 00:21:20,821
The talent alone was three and a half,
four million dollars was spent.

415
00:21:21,238 --> 00:21:23,073
Most of the artists they were working with

416
00:21:23,156 --> 00:21:26,159
were expecting
a certain level of production,

417
00:21:26,618 --> 00:21:28,120
a sufficient lighting package...

418
00:21:28,954 --> 00:21:30,622
a good enough sound system

419
00:21:30,706 --> 00:21:32,958
and, you know, we realized that

420
00:21:33,166 --> 00:21:37,713
they didn't really have any idea
of what it meant to book the artists

421
00:21:37,796 --> 00:21:38,839
that they were booking...

422
00:21:39,298 --> 00:21:41,550
what it meant to put up a show like that. You know"

423
00:21:44,845 --> 00:21:47,306
"He's the visionary behind Magnises."

424
00:21:47,472 --> 00:21:49,474
That's what they told me.

425
00:21:49,725 --> 00:21:52,060
"The visionary behind Magnises."

426
00:21:52,144 --> 00:21:53,562
What the hell is Magnises?

427
00:21:53,645 --> 00:21:56,315
Jessica,
you're chasing the story about

428
00:21:56,398 --> 00:21:59,735
the millennials' version
of the black card. What have you got?

429
00:21:59,818 --> 00:22:01,737
This is Magnises.

430
00:22:01,820 --> 00:22:04,156
It's the newest, coolest credit card.

431
00:22:04,239 --> 00:22:05,407
The original vision was simple.

432
00:22:05,490 --> 00:22:08,285
We were just kids,
we'd figured out a way to turn

433
00:22:08,368 --> 00:22:10,454
boring, plastic cards into

434
00:22:10,537 --> 00:22:13,707
nice-looking, sleek,
stainless steel credit cards.

435
00:22:13,915 --> 00:22:15,500
It was black, the thing was metal.

436
00:22:15,584 --> 00:22:17,836
It would make a big clank
when you put it down.

437
00:22:17,919 --> 00:22:20,881
The girls were like, "Holy hell,
what is that"

438
00:22:20,964 --> 00:22:22,299
We gained traction.

439
00:22:22,382 --> 00:22:25,135
We start growing across
the 1,500-member mark.

440
00:22:25,260 --> 00:22:27,554
We then decided to turn it
into a real membership club.

441
00:22:27,929 --> 00:22:31,058
Looking back to when I moved to
New York, I was looking for a community.

442
00:22:31,141 --> 00:22:33,143
I wanted perks and guidance and, really,

443
00:22:33,226 --> 00:22:35,145
I wanted to be told what to do,
where to go

444
00:22:35,228 --> 00:22:36,605
where to find great things in my city.

445
00:22:37,022 --> 00:22:38,690
So, we created Magnises.

446
00:22:39,024 --> 00:22:41,318
Billy really is one of
the world's greatest salesmen.

447
00:22:41,735 --> 00:22:43,862
He can convince anyone
of pretty much anything.

448
00:22:43,945 --> 00:22:46,990
Billy, I'm looking forward to the
day when I'll be working for you.

449
00:22:47,074 --> 00:22:50,285
I've known Billy probably
since he was 20 years old

450
00:22:50,369 --> 00:22:52,662
and Billy is an amazing entrepreneur.

451
00:22:53,455 --> 00:22:57,334
This is a young kid who figured out
how to get these millennials

452
00:22:57,709 --> 00:22:59,086
and lock them in.

453
00:22:59,169 --> 00:23:00,879
So we take everybody who has a card

454
00:23:00,962 --> 00:23:02,839
and create a lot of
networking opportunities.

455
00:23:02,923 --> 00:23:04,591
And we're partners
with local merchants -

456
00:23:04,674 --> 00:23:06,718
fashion stores, restaurants, gyms.

457
00:23:06,927 --> 00:23:08,595
They offer deals and discounts,

458
00:23:08,678 --> 00:23:11,431
and the big thing they had
was this clubhouse in West Village.

459
00:23:11,515 --> 00:23:15,394
You could take dates and friends there
and that's where they had the events.

460
00:23:15,727 --> 00:23:19,064
I helped Billy design wine tasting series
and lecture series

461
00:23:19,147 --> 00:23:22,025
and many different things
that brought these kids together

462
00:23:22,109 --> 00:23:23,527
with a sense of community.

463
00:23:23,902 --> 00:23:27,656
The parties were unbelievable.
They had live music, booze and food...

464
00:23:27,739 --> 00:23:29,533
I saw Ja Rule a bunch.

465
00:23:29,866 --> 00:23:32,244
Ja Rule is taking his talents
to a new business.

466
00:23:32,619 --> 00:23:36,581
<i>The rapper lending his creative mind</i>
<i>to an elite credit card for millenials.</i>

467
00:23:36,706 --> 00:23:39,668
What we're doing with Magnises
is growing very fast.

468
00:23:39,793 --> 00:23:43,630
We built on an app, went digital.
We crossed the 10,000-member mark.

469
00:23:43,713 --> 00:23:46,425
We were taking in close to $2 million
in membership fees.

470
00:23:48,427 --> 00:23:50,262
As we kept moving with Magnises,

471
00:23:50,345 --> 00:23:52,973
he wanted to penetrate
the New York upper class.

472
00:23:53,181 --> 00:23:56,476
He thought that the Maserati
and flying to meetings in private jets

473
00:23:56,560 --> 00:24:00,147
were necessary in his pursuit
of changing his external image

474
00:24:00,230 --> 00:24:04,317
and he thought that image would also be
a serious driver for the company.

475
00:24:05,152 --> 00:24:07,904
I hosted probably 40 events
for Magnises

476
00:24:07,988 --> 00:24:10,949
and a lot of the members enjoyed
being a part of that community.

477
00:24:12,159 --> 00:24:15,412
That audience, I think, was the audience
that Billy was focused on

478
00:24:15,495 --> 00:24:17,456
as far as Fyre was concerned as well...

479
00:24:17,664 --> 00:24:20,709
but it was a vision that was so big...

480
00:24:21,376 --> 00:24:24,087
that it was not something
that was going to be easy to pull off.

481
00:24:29,926 --> 00:24:32,095
Could you imagine trying to host
a music festival,

482
00:24:32,179 --> 00:24:35,432
even on Miami Beach or in Boston or LA?

483
00:24:35,515 --> 00:24:39,144
Almost impossible without an
incredibly big infrastructure.

484
00:24:39,227 --> 00:24:43,064
So, dial it up to a small island
in the Bahamas.

485
00:24:43,565 --> 00:24:46,651
It would probably be
the most difficult place you could do it.

486
00:24:47,777 --> 00:24:49,946
Billy called me and he said, "Listen,

487
00:24:50,280 --> 00:24:53,366
I need your help and I need you to get
to the Bahamas as soon as possible."

488
00:24:53,783 --> 00:24:57,913
And I flew in, not in any role,
except sort of subtly

489
00:24:58,288 --> 00:25:01,208
being the new leader and being kind of...

490
00:25:01,875 --> 00:25:03,084
Billy's whisperer.

491
00:25:05,170 --> 00:25:07,005
To do a proper music festival,

492
00:25:07,088 --> 00:25:09,341
I would say you should try to start the...

493
00:25:09,716 --> 00:25:13,470
the design and the fundraising,
everything at least 12 months out.

494
00:25:13,553 --> 00:25:17,098
The true core team
that came in literally had

495
00:25:17,182 --> 00:25:19,976
six to eight weeks to build this thing
and put it together.

496
00:25:23,605 --> 00:25:26,608
<i>Were you ever aware that</i>
<i>they said they had bought an island?</i>

497
00:25:26,691 --> 00:25:28,818
Yeah.

498
00:25:29,402 --> 00:25:30,654
It's like you couldn't...

499
00:25:31,112 --> 00:25:33,281
differentiate what was true

500
00:25:33,365 --> 00:25:34,950
and what wasn't true.

501
00:25:36,451 --> 00:25:37,911
I think we chose the right island.

502
00:25:39,538 --> 00:25:40,747
We got ours for ten million.

503
00:25:40,956 --> 00:25:43,124
Freehold land, no lease.
We own the land forever.

504
00:25:43,416 --> 00:25:45,627
I think it was like,
he had to put a million down

505
00:25:45,710 --> 00:25:48,922
and then pay the rest
by a certain amount of time.

506
00:25:49,589 --> 00:25:52,008
I don't know
if that million was ever paid.

507
00:25:53,009 --> 00:25:55,637
This was Pablo Escobar's island
twenty-five years ago.

508
00:25:55,762 --> 00:25:58,932
So we're taking the dream
for your average person in America

509
00:25:59,015 --> 00:26:00,934
or wherever they are and saying,
"For three days,

510
00:26:01,017 --> 00:26:02,310
you can become Pablo Escobar."

511
00:26:03,353 --> 00:26:05,897
<i> Billy was dealing</i>
<i>with Pablo Escobar's lawyer,</i>

512
00:26:05,981 --> 00:26:08,483
<i>he was dealing with family members.</i>

513
00:26:09,818 --> 00:26:12,529
Norman's Cay is rich in history

514
00:26:12,612 --> 00:26:15,907
with cocaine drug lords
running their drugs through the Bahamas.

515
00:26:16,783 --> 00:26:17,951
The owner of the Cay,

516
00:26:18,201 --> 00:26:20,662
he wanted a new reputation for his Cay.

517
00:26:21,121 --> 00:26:23,623
They were told not to use the word
"Pablo Escobar"

518
00:26:23,790 --> 00:26:26,293
and then they used that
in the first social media tweets.

519
00:26:26,835 --> 00:26:29,546
The new owner saw
the first video promotion

520
00:26:29,963 --> 00:26:31,881
and he kicked us off in one shot.

521
00:26:32,424 --> 00:26:34,259
Like, no questions asked.

522
00:26:34,884 --> 00:26:35,927
They were kicked off.

523
00:26:36,720 --> 00:26:38,054
Six or eight weeks out,

524
00:26:38,138 --> 00:26:40,724
he had to find a new location
on a neighboring Island...

525
00:26:41,224 --> 00:26:43,268
and then start the whole process
all over again.

526
00:26:44,603 --> 00:26:48,064
We were constantly trying to move,
like, trying to find a new location

527
00:26:48,148 --> 00:26:49,774
and trying to find what fits.

528
00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:52,694
Man, it just started to get hectic.

529
00:26:53,111 --> 00:26:56,823
Then I went to another island,
until you finally got to Great Exuma,

530
00:26:57,449 --> 00:27:00,368
where it was at least the biggest island
in the Exumas

531
00:27:00,452 --> 00:27:01,995
so it had, you know...

532
00:27:02,787 --> 00:27:03,747
plumbing.

533
00:27:11,254 --> 00:27:15,800
American rapper, singer and actor Ja Rule,
also known as Jeffrey Atkins,

534
00:27:15,884 --> 00:27:18,094
is in the Bahamas
with his business partners

535
00:27:18,178 --> 00:27:21,473
to discuss the details
of a concert next month.

536
00:27:22,557 --> 00:27:27,354
Fyre was like the thing of the island.
Renting so much, rent-a-cars,

537
00:27:27,771 --> 00:27:29,773
big jets are flying in.

538
00:27:30,482 --> 00:27:33,735
Everybody was saying, "Hey, that's Fyre,
they have lots of money.

539
00:27:33,818 --> 00:27:35,612
They could do anything."

540
00:27:36,404 --> 00:27:38,782
We hope this is the first of many steps

541
00:27:38,865 --> 00:27:42,786
to bring entertainment
and bring value back to the Bahamas.

542
00:27:43,203 --> 00:27:46,706
I was waiting for some shit like this
to happen in the Bahamas, to be real.

543
00:27:46,873 --> 00:27:50,168
You know, we never had
that many American artists,

544
00:27:50,251 --> 00:27:51,753
you know, on one stage.

545
00:27:52,170 --> 00:27:55,382
This was supposed to go on
for five years, every year.

546
00:27:56,132 --> 00:28:00,011
So, if you do good,
you were asked for five years.

547
00:28:00,095 --> 00:28:03,682
You got the contract, so you wanted
to live up to the expectations.

548
00:28:06,559 --> 00:28:08,061
They had the site.

549
00:28:08,395 --> 00:28:10,063
They let us onto the property...

550
00:28:10,438 --> 00:28:11,940
and we looked at it.

551
00:28:12,023 --> 00:28:14,234
And that's when some of the questions
started to rise.

552
00:28:14,734 --> 00:28:15,610
The site...

553
00:28:16,152 --> 00:28:17,946
was on a hill...

554
00:28:18,238 --> 00:28:19,406
and at the base,

555
00:28:19,698 --> 00:28:23,576
what I saw was, pretty much,
a housing development

556
00:28:23,660 --> 00:28:24,994
construction site...

557
00:28:25,453 --> 00:28:30,291
that was hazardous in many ways
and that needed a lot of work.

558
00:28:30,667 --> 00:28:34,212
You know there's going to be hiccups,
there's gonna be things to be addressed.

559
00:28:34,295 --> 00:28:38,216
It's a first-year festival
on an island and you find solutions.

560
00:28:38,299 --> 00:28:40,176
We said,
"Here's what you should think about,

561
00:28:40,635 --> 00:28:42,387
you know, here's what your tenting is,

562
00:28:42,470 --> 00:28:43,972
you know, the geodesic domes...

563
00:28:44,055 --> 00:28:45,682
Here's what it's going to cost to set up."

564
00:28:45,765 --> 00:28:46,766
And...

565
00:28:46,850 --> 00:28:47,767
away we went.

566
00:28:51,104 --> 00:28:53,982
What's crazy is they booked the festival

567
00:28:54,607 --> 00:28:57,944
during the busiest weekend
of the year on Great Exuma.

568
00:28:58,027 --> 00:28:59,195
It's like the Superbowl there.

569
00:28:59,279 --> 00:29:01,239
It's called the National Regatta,

570
00:29:01,448 --> 00:29:04,033
and the island basically doubles
in population size

571
00:29:04,367 --> 00:29:08,288
and all of the hotels get booked months,
maybe a year in advance.

572
00:29:09,372 --> 00:29:11,124
Billy had sold a villa package,

573
00:29:11,458 --> 00:29:14,043
and these people were essentially staying
in an Airbnb,

574
00:29:14,836 --> 00:29:18,798
so we had to find houses
all across the island for 500 guests.

575
00:29:19,924 --> 00:29:21,885
To make it worse, they had oversold

576
00:29:22,135 --> 00:29:23,845
their "Lodge" packages,

577
00:29:23,928 --> 00:29:26,097
which were these tents on the main site.

578
00:29:27,182 --> 00:29:28,808
And then the word comes down from the top

579
00:29:28,892 --> 00:29:31,644
that all influencers will get housing
for free.

580
00:29:32,979 --> 00:29:34,272
So I start calling influencers.

581
00:29:34,355 --> 00:29:36,649
I was the first voice that they had heard

582
00:29:36,983 --> 00:29:38,318
since they posted.

583
00:29:38,401 --> 00:29:42,405
Each influencer,
and there were about 250 influencers,

584
00:29:42,489 --> 00:29:44,240
were promised, for a post,

585
00:29:44,783 --> 00:29:45,867
for one post...

586
00:29:46,367 --> 00:29:49,537
a one-bedroom,
three-person villa on the beach...

587
00:29:51,372 --> 00:29:52,582
that didn't exist.

588
00:29:53,958 --> 00:29:55,460
I started talking to Billy...

589
00:29:55,543 --> 00:29:57,212
and from the get-go, it was, you know,

590
00:29:57,295 --> 00:30:00,131
we were all running around, scrambling,
every day to find new houses.

591
00:30:00,215 --> 00:30:02,634
"We need help from you guys,
start to cut people.

592
00:30:03,009 --> 00:30:05,220
These people aren't paying
for the experience.

593
00:30:06,137 --> 00:30:07,388
Tell them not to come."

594
00:30:07,597 --> 00:30:10,725
And it was a constant battle
because what they cared most about

595
00:30:11,309 --> 00:30:12,644
was the influencers.

596
00:30:13,353 --> 00:30:16,314
So I'm imploring them to cancel
paying guests at this point.

597
00:30:16,397 --> 00:30:19,818
"They're not gonna have a place to stay."
And the response from Billy was,

598
00:30:19,901 --> 00:30:23,071
"We're not a problems focus group.
We're a solutions-oriented group.

599
00:30:23,154 --> 00:30:26,241
We need to have a positive attitude
about this. We need a good attitude."

600
00:30:26,324 --> 00:30:30,453
And he was unflappable
but he was also entirely delusional.

601
00:30:30,912 --> 00:30:34,874
So it was this constant battle
in my mind between,

602
00:30:35,166 --> 00:30:38,086
"Is this guy a genius or is he a madman?"

603
00:30:38,253 --> 00:30:42,131
Because he just would not take "no"
for an answer and he wouldn't take advice.

604
00:30:42,215 --> 00:30:44,133
<i>Where do you stand now?</i>

605
00:30:44,551 --> 00:30:45,510
He's a liar.

606
00:30:51,850 --> 00:30:55,478
Billy McFarland first got
on my radar living here in New York.

607
00:30:56,563 --> 00:30:58,523
He was running a company called Magnises.

608
00:30:58,857 --> 00:31:02,694
I had a number of friends then
that did get the Magnises card

609
00:31:02,777 --> 00:31:04,362
when they started offering

610
00:31:04,654 --> 00:31:09,492
access to elite tickets
at a cost well below the market rate.

611
00:31:10,243 --> 00:31:12,078
The whole thing didn't make sense to me.

612
00:31:13,788 --> 00:31:16,207
People that I've spoken to
that were cardholders

613
00:31:16,291 --> 00:31:19,502
recount having their reservations
canceled at the last minute,

614
00:31:19,586 --> 00:31:21,629
so it seemed very hard
for people to actually

615
00:31:21,713 --> 00:31:24,173
access any of the benefits
that they were promised

616
00:31:24,591 --> 00:31:28,595
And so, this guy was always out there,
just running hustles...

617
00:31:28,928 --> 00:31:30,513
that were sort of slick,

618
00:31:30,597 --> 00:31:35,184
but then not necessarily, in my mind,
something that was by the book.

619
00:31:37,645 --> 00:31:40,940
I vividly remember
the Fyre festival video.

620
00:31:41,608 --> 00:31:43,484
This video was everywhere on Facebook

621
00:31:43,568 --> 00:31:47,614
and I see a few of the bands
that I actually work with

622
00:31:47,697 --> 00:31:50,450
listed as headliners for this festival.

623
00:31:51,075 --> 00:31:53,036
So I immediately called the agents
and I say,

624
00:31:53,119 --> 00:31:55,455
"Hey, look,
this thing doesn't make sense to me,"

625
00:31:55,538 --> 00:31:58,458
and they start saying,
"It doesn't make sense to us either.

626
00:31:58,541 --> 00:32:02,629
These guys are promising to pay
two X what our market value is."

627
00:32:02,837 --> 00:32:05,632
I say, "Have they sent the money?"
and they say, "Funny that you ask,

628
00:32:05,715 --> 00:32:07,592
No, they haven't sent the money
for it yet."

629
00:32:07,675 --> 00:32:09,761
I say, "Okay. This is interesting."

630
00:32:10,637 --> 00:32:13,389
I take a more active role

631
00:32:13,806 --> 00:32:17,393
in investigating everything
that was going on with Fyre Festival.

632
00:32:18,353 --> 00:32:23,358
What I realized was that they had rented
an area north of Sandals Resort

633
00:32:23,441 --> 00:32:27,946
and then effectively photoshopped out
the bottom portion of the map

634
00:32:28,029 --> 00:32:30,615
to make it look like
they were on a deserted island.

635
00:32:30,698 --> 00:32:33,493
I thought, "The world's gotta know
what's going on."

636
00:32:33,576 --> 00:32:38,122
So I create the now-infamous
Twitter account, FyreFraud.

637
00:32:41,417 --> 00:32:43,836
I thought, "Okay, I'm going to
put this out there

638
00:32:43,920 --> 00:32:45,380
and people are going to see this

639
00:32:45,463 --> 00:32:47,298
and everyone's going to know it's bogus,"

640
00:32:47,382 --> 00:32:49,133
and nothing happened.

641
00:32:49,217 --> 00:32:53,346
I got maybe two or three clicks
on Twitter and that was it.

642
00:32:53,429 --> 00:32:56,140
So I said, "All right,
we gotta hit 'em a little harder."

643
00:32:57,850 --> 00:33:00,937
What we ended up doing was taking
a plane down there

644
00:33:01,020 --> 00:33:04,273
and photographing the development
and what they were working on.

645
00:33:05,233 --> 00:33:07,193
One of the things that really struck me

646
00:33:07,276 --> 00:33:09,612
was that they were erecting
these dome tents

647
00:33:09,696 --> 00:33:12,615
that were pitched as "luxury villas"
that I realized

648
00:33:12,699 --> 00:33:15,743
were leftover hurricane tents
from Hurricane Matthew.

649
00:33:17,328 --> 00:33:21,749
That is a far stretch
from a luxury villa on a deserted island.

650
00:33:22,333 --> 00:33:25,169
I realized very quickly
that there was no way

651
00:33:25,294 --> 00:33:28,006
that these guys were going to be able
to pull this off.

652
00:33:34,929 --> 00:33:36,806
We were building
a city within a city

653
00:33:37,181 --> 00:33:39,225
in terms of waste disposal,

654
00:33:39,308 --> 00:33:41,602
in terms of restrooms, water.

655
00:33:42,186 --> 00:33:43,604
It was a fucking shit show,

656
00:33:43,938 --> 00:33:46,899
but we were doing everything
that we could possibly do.

657
00:33:47,191 --> 00:33:50,361
They're frantically building the site.

658
00:33:51,279 --> 00:33:55,324
You know, 100 day laborers
working around the clock, no sleep.

659
00:33:55,533 --> 00:33:59,203
It was just this mass,
big crew of local workers.

660
00:33:59,579 --> 00:34:03,291
Billy paid them off and then he was like,
"You know, we need more guys.

661
00:34:03,624 --> 00:34:04,959
We need more workers."

662
00:34:05,043 --> 00:34:07,545
Billy paid them
for the next three days and then...

663
00:34:07,628 --> 00:34:10,548
Billy's like, "Bring more workers.
We need more workers."

664
00:34:10,631 --> 00:34:13,301
And then it was starting
to get too much for me to handle.

665
00:34:13,384 --> 00:34:17,055
They had every living soul
on the island of Exuma

666
00:34:18,222 --> 00:34:21,309
who could lift a towel, working.

667
00:34:21,976 --> 00:34:26,147
My gosh, there had to have been,
probably at some point, 200 people.

668
00:34:26,564 --> 00:34:28,649
I had to feed all the staff.

669
00:34:28,733 --> 00:34:33,821
Basically, that was taking on
the whole Fyre operation under my wings.

670
00:34:34,864 --> 00:34:37,325
I'd gone down to the Bahamas
with some friends

671
00:34:37,575 --> 00:34:42,080
and just coincidentally we actually
ran into Ja Rule and Billy down there

672
00:34:42,163 --> 00:34:46,501
and then they offered to take us
on a little tour of the site.

673
00:34:47,919 --> 00:34:51,547
It was beautiful, you know,
but it's just like a big giant bluff

674
00:34:51,631 --> 00:34:54,842
overlooking the ocean.
There are no buildings, there's no...

675
00:34:55,426 --> 00:34:59,347
access to electricity or running water
or any of that type of stuff.

676
00:35:00,223 --> 00:35:01,599
We were just kind of like,

677
00:35:01,933 --> 00:35:04,769
concerned, really, there was
no infrastructure in place, you know,

678
00:35:04,852 --> 00:35:08,064
but at the same time,
they sounded fairly confident

679
00:35:08,147 --> 00:35:11,317
about their ability
to get this thing done.

680
00:35:14,362 --> 00:35:16,405
How is it non

681
00:35:16,489 --> 00:35:19,117
When you guys are not the headlining act
at a bigger festival,

682
00:35:19,200 --> 00:35:22,703
you guys don't get top of billing.
I mean, in our contract...

683
00:35:24,747 --> 00:35:27,834
I understand. I mean, it's a font size.

684
00:35:29,252 --> 00:35:31,963
You had people working 24 hours a day.

685
00:35:32,171 --> 00:35:35,550
I had to work basically two days in one
because of Fyre Media

686
00:35:36,008 --> 00:35:37,635
and then Fyre Festival.

687
00:35:37,927 --> 00:35:41,389
I noticed the people that were involved
in going back and forth to the Bahamas,

688
00:35:41,472 --> 00:35:44,058
in the planning,
they were becoming growingly frustrated.

689
00:35:44,142 --> 00:35:45,518
They would come to me and like,

690
00:35:45,601 --> 00:35:47,436
"What are you working on
with the booking platform?

691
00:35:47,520 --> 00:35:50,314
I can't wait to get back
on this side of the business

692
00:35:50,398 --> 00:35:53,151
because the festival stuff
is just becoming chaotic."

693
00:35:53,317 --> 00:35:56,821
We just knew very little about what was
happening on the festival side,

694
00:35:56,946 --> 00:35:59,907
except, you know, the persistent feeling
of growing dread.

695
00:36:00,074 --> 00:36:02,952
Every single day,
it got endlessly more tense.

696
00:36:03,161 --> 00:36:06,372
We would be at standstill sometimes
for weeks

697
00:36:06,455 --> 00:36:09,000
not being able to get that final sign off
or move through on things

698
00:36:09,083 --> 00:36:12,795
because<i> </i>he was completely, you know,
succumbed to the festival needs.

699
00:36:13,296 --> 00:36:16,465
Spending money at an outrageous cost
and speed.

700
00:36:16,674 --> 00:36:20,636
I wasn't sure if it was startup woes,
just like "unorganization",

701
00:36:20,761 --> 00:36:24,640
or if it was actually financial trouble,
but sometimes payments would be late.

702
00:36:25,766 --> 00:36:27,268
Friday afternoon,

703
00:36:27,351 --> 00:36:31,147
our favorite topic is, "Did you get paid
and was it for the right amount?"

704
00:36:31,772 --> 00:36:36,777
and Michael once was like, "Yeah,
I got paid, but it was in a bag of cash."

705
00:36:38,112 --> 00:36:40,406
I knew that cash flow
was becoming an issue,

706
00:36:40,698 --> 00:36:43,034
but Billy handled all the finances.

707
00:36:43,784 --> 00:36:44,702
At that point,

708
00:36:44,785 --> 00:36:47,872
Billy had said, "Listen, we're into this
for 25 million bucks.

709
00:36:47,955 --> 00:36:50,333
I'm like, "Oh, my gosh, Billy, jeepers."

710
00:36:51,500 --> 00:36:55,171
The word from people that knew Billy
was that he was a magician fundraiser

711
00:36:55,296 --> 00:36:57,048
and he just kept pulling money in,
somehow.

712
00:36:57,798 --> 00:37:01,052
Billy would get on a jet,
he'd fly to New York and he'd come back

713
00:37:01,135 --> 00:37:03,262
and somehow have another
three million bucks

714
00:37:03,346 --> 00:37:07,183
in his pocket to pull off
the next level of needs.

715
00:37:08,434 --> 00:37:10,853
Carola was one of
the many investors.

716
00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:13,189
She was a big believer in Billy.

717
00:37:13,439 --> 00:37:17,735
She was there from his earliest venture,
Magnesis, and then Fyre.

718
00:37:18,152 --> 00:37:20,821
She had always been around,
always supporting this kid

719
00:37:20,905 --> 00:37:24,617
and always believing in his ability
to become the next big entrepreneur.

720
00:37:24,951 --> 00:37:28,120
We can figure out how to make an extra
three, four, five million dollars.

721
00:37:28,663 --> 00:37:30,790
Whether it's higher-tier artist passes,

722
00:37:30,873 --> 00:37:33,876
food and alcohol passes, VIP party passes,

723
00:37:34,043 --> 00:37:37,296
the Kendall Jenner yacht party
for $10,000 a head for 100 people.

724
00:37:37,380 --> 00:37:40,716
Billy had a vision, you know,
and he was definitely thinking

725
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:45,096
of every little twist
that he could come up with

726
00:37:45,179 --> 00:37:46,973
to raise the money to make it happen.

727
00:37:47,056 --> 00:37:50,476
There's two things going for us:
one, an audience who has cash,

728
00:37:50,559 --> 00:37:52,645
and us, we have the celebrity,
we have the island.

729
00:37:52,728 --> 00:37:55,231
There's ways we can monetize both,
we're gonna make that happen.

730
00:37:55,314 --> 00:37:56,732
I overheard a conversation,

731
00:37:56,816 --> 00:37:59,318
"Let's put up a cabaña for $50,000

732
00:37:59,402 --> 00:38:00,987
and see if anyone buys it."

733
00:38:01,821 --> 00:38:03,990
And I remember thinking,
"Do you have a cabaña to sell?

734
00:38:04,073 --> 00:38:07,076
Because I'm feeling concerned
that you're not thinking about that

735
00:38:07,159 --> 00:38:10,454
before you are putting it live on the site
for someone to buy."

736
00:38:17,962 --> 00:38:21,632
So, this website came out.
It was, like, "fyrecay.com."

737
00:38:22,008 --> 00:38:25,386
And the site's sole purpose
was to destroy this festival.

738
00:38:25,803 --> 00:38:28,514
It was getting fed direct information
and photos

739
00:38:28,597 --> 00:38:30,808
of the site that was totally unfinished.

740
00:38:31,267 --> 00:38:33,436
News that was happening
by the day that only

741
00:38:33,519 --> 00:38:36,522
pretty senior people in the festival
knew what was happening.

742
00:38:38,274 --> 00:38:39,900
It was almost like WikiLeaks.

743
00:38:39,984 --> 00:38:43,362
We were having these confidential meetings
and then things from that meeting

744
00:38:43,446 --> 00:38:45,364
were actually getting out, word for word.

745
00:38:46,824 --> 00:38:49,410
So we knew someone actually
in the meeting had been wired up.

746
00:38:49,702 --> 00:38:52,413
So we were all called to the war room
to have a meeting

747
00:38:52,705 --> 00:38:54,874
and it was basically a witch hunt meeting.

748
00:38:55,166 --> 00:38:57,543
It was, "If you are the person

749
00:38:57,835 --> 00:39:01,005
or people that are sending
this information to this website,

750
00:39:01,339 --> 00:39:03,132
we will pursue legal action,

751
00:39:03,299 --> 00:39:05,509
you will leave this island,
you will not get paid

752
00:39:05,593 --> 00:39:06,927
and we'll come after you."

753
00:39:07,345 --> 00:39:10,639
The guy that put together Fyrecay
was extorting Billy.

754
00:39:11,057 --> 00:39:12,892
Billy wanted him
to take the website down.

755
00:39:12,975 --> 00:39:16,354
He said he would only do it
if the Fyre Festival

756
00:39:16,437 --> 00:39:19,315
started releasing actual photos
of the campsites.

757
00:39:19,398 --> 00:39:21,108
And I just kept saying to Billy,

758
00:39:21,192 --> 00:39:26,947
"We need to get the messaging out now
that this is not a luxury music festival.

759
00:39:27,031 --> 00:39:29,367
People aren't staying on yachts,
at least, most aren't,

760
00:39:29,450 --> 00:39:30,910
many are not staying in villas

761
00:39:30,993 --> 00:39:34,705
and if you can get that messaging out now,
we will be able to manage expectations."

762
00:39:34,789 --> 00:39:36,624
You know?
Like here's the reality. Just do it

763
00:39:36,999 --> 00:39:39,335
and people will make
their own decisions on it.

764
00:39:39,418 --> 00:39:40,961
But you have got to be honest.

765
00:39:41,045 --> 00:39:43,506
Here's what it is.
Here's the tents, you know?

766
00:39:43,589 --> 00:39:45,800
People are going to find out
sooner or later, so, like,

767
00:39:46,008 --> 00:39:47,676
why are you walking around...

768
00:39:48,719 --> 00:39:50,304
trying to dodge the inevitable?

769
00:39:54,767 --> 00:39:57,061
We were gearing up.
We were ready to go.

770
00:39:57,144 --> 00:40:00,064
We're, like, going to the gym,
having this grand old time.

771
00:40:00,815 --> 00:40:04,318
We would go on these jogs every morning
to get ready for Fyre Festival.

772
00:40:04,402 --> 00:40:07,822
Like, powering around town.
"We're going on this great vacation.

773
00:40:07,905 --> 00:40:09,323
We're going to have such a blast.

774
00:40:09,407 --> 00:40:11,534
We're going to meet all these people
and have this...

775
00:40:11,617 --> 00:40:13,786
just truly fantastic experience."

776
00:40:13,869 --> 00:40:15,538
I mean, it was so exciting.

777
00:40:18,958 --> 00:40:21,377
On April 22nd, I get an email.

778
00:40:21,836 --> 00:40:24,672
"I noticed you hadn't created
your Fyreband account yet.

779
00:40:24,755 --> 00:40:27,716
It is your wallet for the weekend,
so load it appropriately.

780
00:40:27,800 --> 00:40:31,470
The majority of our guests
have added $3,000 for the weekend.

781
00:40:31,929 --> 00:40:36,225
But if you want to reserve tables
or take part in the add-on experiences,

782
00:40:36,559 --> 00:40:38,519
you will want to put on much more."

783
00:40:38,602 --> 00:40:44,150
Billy wanted the engineers to set up
payment through this RFID bracelet.

784
00:40:44,233 --> 00:40:48,654
We all said that was insane based
on the wireless communication issues.

785
00:40:48,737 --> 00:40:50,739
I mean, this was never tested out.

786
00:40:50,865 --> 00:40:53,993
The urgency wasn't,
"Let's make this a cashless experience

787
00:40:54,076 --> 00:40:55,911
for our festival attendees."

788
00:40:55,995 --> 00:40:58,998
It was, "We can't put on the Fyre Festival
because we don't have any money."

789
00:41:00,291 --> 00:41:03,252
I received a call from a woman

790
00:41:03,377 --> 00:41:06,547
asking me, I would say, very aggressively

791
00:41:06,630 --> 00:41:09,592
to put money on my wristband.

792
00:41:09,675 --> 00:41:13,554
They wanted you to buy jet ski things,
a private plane.

793
00:41:14,221 --> 00:41:16,140
It was a staggering amount
of money.

794
00:41:16,223 --> 00:41:18,100
The first batch of kids had loaded...

795
00:41:19,852 --> 00:41:23,189
$800,000 on these wristbands.

796
00:41:23,272 --> 00:41:25,232
You know, you've spent all this
money on a ticket,

797
00:41:25,316 --> 00:41:28,194
and now the same amount of money
on the wristband, it seemed...

798
00:41:28,277 --> 00:41:29,278
sort of peculiar.

799
00:41:32,156 --> 00:41:35,868
So now we're down to probably ten
days left to the festival at this point.

800
00:41:36,202 --> 00:41:40,915
They didn't have enough tents
and 350 people would have nowhere to stay

801
00:41:40,998 --> 00:41:43,959
and by the way, houses that we sourced
weren't getting paid.

802
00:41:46,212 --> 00:41:49,298
So this was now becoming clear
that there wasn't any money.

803
00:41:49,590 --> 00:41:52,635
Because homeowners were like,
"You sent me a wire...

804
00:41:53,010 --> 00:41:55,387
five days ago
and I haven't received any funds."

805
00:41:55,596 --> 00:41:58,557
I had an explicit phone call
from one of the management team

806
00:41:58,641 --> 00:42:01,352
to stop telling Carola
about the housing situation,

807
00:42:01,435 --> 00:42:03,562
because they were trying to get
more money from her...

808
00:42:04,104 --> 00:42:06,106
and that my emails were alarming her...

809
00:42:06,482 --> 00:42:09,151
and they outright told me to be dishonest.

810
00:42:10,569 --> 00:42:13,781
And you have to realize I got paid 30%
of my fee, so they're hanging--

811
00:42:13,864 --> 00:42:15,866
My fee's not due
until the day of the event,

812
00:42:15,950 --> 00:42:19,119
so they're hanging 70% of my fee
over my head like a carrot.

813
00:42:20,329 --> 00:42:22,623
Every day,
something else would happen.

814
00:42:22,706 --> 00:42:24,792
Every hour, something else would happen.

815
00:42:25,376 --> 00:42:27,127
Every minute, there'd be another obstacle.

816
00:42:27,836 --> 00:42:29,505
We had a $6 million  contract

817
00:42:29,588 --> 00:42:31,674
with Star Catering
to handle all the food service

818
00:42:31,757 --> 00:42:34,301
and we only had $1 million allocated.

819
00:42:34,385 --> 00:42:36,178
And Billy fired them over the phone.

820
00:42:36,262 --> 00:42:39,306
And then he hung up the phone.
I stood there and he said...

821
00:42:40,266 --> 00:42:41,559
"Can you salvage this?"

822
00:42:41,642 --> 00:42:44,395
And I said, "Oh, my gosh,
I have two weeks to come up...

823
00:42:44,728 --> 00:42:48,566
with food service for 6,000 kids?
This is going to be fascinating."

824
00:42:50,025 --> 00:42:51,527
Grant, who was on the call,

825
00:42:51,610 --> 00:42:53,737
pulled out the proposal
from Star and said,

826
00:42:53,821 --> 00:42:56,574
"I told them I wanted
sushi chefs coming in,"

827
00:42:56,657 --> 00:42:59,743
and, "I needed to see Indian cuisine,"

828
00:42:59,827 --> 00:43:03,247
and I thought, "Gosh, Grant,
you've missed the boat here."

829
00:43:03,497 --> 00:43:06,500
We are not spending $6 million,
we can only spend $1 million

830
00:43:06,584 --> 00:43:08,669
and I'm eliminating all of that."

831
00:43:11,880 --> 00:43:13,299
At this point in time,

832
00:43:13,382 --> 00:43:16,051
there had been no progress pictures,
no updated videos.

833
00:43:16,760 --> 00:43:19,471
They were using the same footage
and photographs

834
00:43:19,805 --> 00:43:21,849
from that first promotional video

835
00:43:21,932 --> 00:43:25,102
in all of the subsequent
promotional content.

836
00:43:25,269 --> 00:43:27,313
The media and marketing companies
in New York,

837
00:43:27,396 --> 00:43:31,275
we didn't have any visibility into what
was happening on the production side.

838
00:43:31,859 --> 00:43:36,822
We're building out this vision that was
based around this kind of visual facade.

839
00:43:37,740 --> 00:43:41,577
We noticed quite quickly that
all of the original sketches of the rooms

840
00:43:41,660 --> 00:43:44,079
that we had signed up for
got taken off the page.

841
00:43:44,413 --> 00:43:48,250
That was sort of when we started
trying to dig a little bit more and see,

842
00:43:48,792 --> 00:43:51,420
"Oh, can you send us pictures
of the accommodations?"

843
00:43:51,712 --> 00:43:55,758
You had people asking
very legitimate questions on Instagram.

844
00:43:56,342 --> 00:43:59,762
They were trying to book flights,
trying to understand logistics.

845
00:44:00,638 --> 00:44:03,557
We just started getting bombarded
with all these questions.

846
00:44:04,558 --> 00:44:07,102
Grant was trying to use our employees
for customer service,

847
00:44:07,186 --> 00:44:09,355
but that wasn't what we were hired to do.

848
00:44:09,980 --> 00:44:12,983
The only thing we could do
was to just keep telling people,

849
00:44:13,359 --> 00:44:16,654
"Email concierge@fyre.com."

850
00:44:16,862 --> 00:44:19,073
And then we would get
another request saying,

851
00:44:19,156 --> 00:44:20,908
"concierge@fyre.com didn't respond."

852
00:44:22,368 --> 00:44:25,204
The unanswered questions
turned to people criticizing...

853
00:44:25,663 --> 00:44:27,331
It was very annoying.

854
00:44:27,498 --> 00:44:29,375
I was like,
"This is terrible customer service.

855
00:44:29,458 --> 00:44:33,045
They need to know better.
They're throwing this luxury festival..."

856
00:44:33,629 --> 00:44:36,090
And then you'd have Grant
reaching outand saying,

857
00:44:36,173 --> 00:44:37,675
"These comments are killing us.

858
00:44:37,758 --> 00:44:40,260
What do we do about all the people
that are talking shit?"

859
00:44:41,220 --> 00:44:45,349
The decision was to screenshot
all of the legitimate questions

860
00:44:45,432 --> 00:44:47,434
and forward that over to the Fyre team

861
00:44:47,768 --> 00:44:50,270
and then delete
all of the negative comments

862
00:44:50,354 --> 00:44:51,980
that were degrading the brand.

863
00:44:52,690 --> 00:44:54,692
I saw them actively deleting comments

864
00:44:54,942 --> 00:44:57,152
and then turning comments off entirely

865
00:44:57,528 --> 00:45:00,406
so that you wouldn't have
3,000 people saying,

866
00:45:00,489 --> 00:45:04,034
"Hey, I don't have my flight information.
Where do I need to go?"

867
00:45:12,751 --> 00:45:15,754
So as me and Billy was riding back
towards the site...

868
00:45:17,297 --> 00:45:21,051
You know, he was like....
Kinda like panicky look, you know?

869
00:45:21,552 --> 00:45:22,428
So he's like,

870
00:45:22,886 --> 00:45:26,140
"What do you think?
You think we can get this done?

871
00:45:26,348 --> 00:45:27,725
I said, "What do you mean?"

872
00:45:27,808 --> 00:45:30,644
"You think we can get everything done
before Thursday?"

873
00:45:31,395 --> 00:45:32,229
So...

874
00:45:32,354 --> 00:45:34,314
Me saying to myself right there, I say,

875
00:45:34,773 --> 00:45:37,776
"You want to lie to him
or you just want to speak the truth?"

876
00:45:37,860 --> 00:45:40,821
'Cause sometimes the truth
can come pretty,

877
00:45:40,904 --> 00:45:43,282
and then sometimes
the truth can just come ugly.

878
00:45:43,449 --> 00:45:44,616
So, I was like,

879
00:45:45,784 --> 00:45:48,412
"Billy, being honest,
I think we could do it.

880
00:45:48,495 --> 00:45:51,206
But we need some more time.
We need to do some overtime

881
00:45:51,373 --> 00:45:55,169
and we need to just push...
We need to do more hours."

882
00:45:57,463 --> 00:45:59,590
Every day we met,
every day, we would talk about,

883
00:45:59,673 --> 00:46:02,426
"Okay, should we pull the plug
or should we keep this thing going?"

884
00:46:02,509 --> 00:46:03,927
And every day, Billy would say,

885
00:46:04,011 --> 00:46:07,055
"We can't pull the plug.
We've got to keep this thing going."

886
00:46:07,139 --> 00:46:10,934
"You can't have people come,
this is not going to work."

887
00:46:11,018 --> 00:46:13,145
Verbatim. It was like...

888
00:46:13,228 --> 00:46:15,105
"If you want to leave, you can leave.

889
00:46:15,272 --> 00:46:18,358
If you're not going to leave,
we're here to find solutions."

890
00:46:18,442 --> 00:46:21,570
And I would step outside,
right after each meeting,

891
00:46:21,653 --> 00:46:25,365
literally go out on the porch
and burst into tears.

892
00:46:25,741 --> 00:46:29,828
Never in my career did I ever do this,
but there I would be, thinking,

893
00:46:29,912 --> 00:46:30,996
"Holy shit."

894
00:46:32,164 --> 00:46:33,165
So I sent an email.

895
00:46:33,665 --> 00:46:35,334
"Guys, we're running out of time.

896
00:46:35,417 --> 00:46:39,129
I've tried to warn you multiple times,
but my words have fallen on deaf ears.

897
00:46:39,713 --> 00:46:42,382
We are one day out
without enough beds to safely house

898
00:46:42,466 --> 00:46:45,219
our staff, our VIP guests
and our paid customers.

899
00:46:45,594 --> 00:46:48,388
You need to cancel more guests,
immediately."

900
00:46:48,472 --> 00:46:52,309
I was basically like, "I know that
you're worried about press blowback,

901
00:46:52,601 --> 00:46:56,939
but imagine a scenario where 350 people
arrive onto a remote island,

902
00:46:57,022 --> 00:46:59,066
are herded onto yellow school buses,

903
00:46:59,149 --> 00:47:01,318
brought to a festival site
that's unfinished

904
00:47:01,401 --> 00:47:03,278
and realize they've no place to sleep

905
00:47:03,529 --> 00:47:06,114
and to make it worse,
they have no way to get home,

906
00:47:06,198 --> 00:47:08,784
because we don't have any charter flights
booked back for them.

907
00:47:08,867 --> 00:47:13,247
I know you're worried about the press,
but there's no worse situation than that."

908
00:47:13,914 --> 00:47:15,040
And the response?

909
00:47:15,541 --> 00:47:16,583
The response was,

910
00:47:16,750 --> 00:47:19,586
"At least they'll see
your smiling face and yoga skills."

911
00:47:21,338 --> 00:47:23,882
'Cause I was supposed to be
the yoga instructor for the event.

912
00:47:25,259 --> 00:47:26,260
Okay.

913
00:47:26,385 --> 00:47:28,720
Like, what am I supposed to do?
You know? Like, I'm...

914
00:47:30,472 --> 00:47:31,431
"All right, sure."

915
00:47:37,312 --> 00:47:39,815
Billy was under such immense
financial pressure

916
00:47:40,190 --> 00:47:42,526
that he effectively
had to put this festival on because otherwise he wasn't going
to be able to repay

917
00:47:45,028 --> 00:47:48,907
any<i> </i>of the<i> </i>factor receivables
that he had raised money from.

918
00:47:49,575 --> 00:47:52,953
It's the same thing as an individual
going to a loan shark.

919
00:47:53,537 --> 00:47:56,498
No matter what happened,
this money was going to be owed.

920
00:47:57,541 --> 00:48:00,419
They had told investors
who had already given money

921
00:48:00,502 --> 00:48:03,213
that, in the event of a cancellation,
that they would be covered

922
00:48:03,297 --> 00:48:04,548
when in fact they weren't.

923
00:48:04,631 --> 00:48:08,552
And they didn't have festival insurance,
so canceling really wasn't an option.

924
00:48:09,928 --> 00:48:11,805
I mean, this was truly a disaster.

925
00:48:12,306 --> 00:48:14,099
And events always feel like a disaster.

926
00:48:14,182 --> 00:48:17,352
They always feel like everything's
going wrong and you're putting out fires.

927
00:48:18,061 --> 00:48:23,525
The draw, the appeal was to be part
of creating something that was special.

928
00:48:23,609 --> 00:48:29,114
And that desire overcame my inner wisdom,
which was like, "This is a mess."

929
00:48:29,823 --> 00:48:32,701
The atmosphere that was cultivated there
was that...

930
00:48:33,076 --> 00:48:35,662
nobody, no matter what,

931
00:48:35,746 --> 00:48:38,290
was able to cross them
and tell them, "No."

932
00:48:38,916 --> 00:48:41,627
Had we not pulled off
these kind of crazy things

933
00:48:41,710 --> 00:48:45,505
like Andy finding this caterer
with no time left,

934
00:48:45,797 --> 00:48:47,341
then there would've been no festival.

935
00:48:47,841 --> 00:48:50,260
It's possible that by solving problems,

936
00:48:50,344 --> 00:48:55,015
we were just enabling them
to continue to create this monster.

937
00:49:00,437 --> 00:49:03,148
Did Andy ever tell you
how he had to get the water out?

938
00:49:03,690 --> 00:49:04,608
Oh, yeah.

939
00:49:05,609 --> 00:49:07,778
Did Andy tell you
how they had to get the water out?

940
00:49:08,320 --> 00:49:09,154
Yeah.

941
00:49:09,821 --> 00:49:12,783
It was, like, fucking crazy.

942
00:49:13,492 --> 00:49:15,702
I'm not going to talk about that.

943
00:49:15,786 --> 00:49:17,621
Let me tell you something. We had...

944
00:49:17,704 --> 00:49:19,998
four containers filled...

945
00:49:20,082 --> 00:49:24,002
Four 18-wheeler trucks
filled with Evian water,

946
00:49:24,086 --> 00:49:26,213
but I had left the week before
for two days to go to meetings in Bermuda
for the America's Cup.

947
00:49:28,507 --> 00:49:32,177
And when I came back,
I'd missed the big meeting with Customs,

948
00:49:32,260 --> 00:49:34,596
and of course Customs
had said to Billy and the gang,

949
00:49:34,680 --> 00:49:38,725
"You need to pay us $175,000 in cash today

950
00:49:38,809 --> 00:49:40,477
for us to release the water."

951
00:49:41,728 --> 00:49:42,729
I went down.

952
00:49:42,980 --> 00:49:44,106
Well, Billy called me.

953
00:49:44,272 --> 00:49:46,483
I'm gonna speak completely, you know...

954
00:49:46,817 --> 00:49:49,069
This won't go that far, I'm sure, but...

955
00:49:49,277 --> 00:49:52,614
Billy called and said, "Andy, we need you
to take one big thing for the team."

956
00:49:52,739 --> 00:49:53,740
And I said...

957
00:49:54,449 --> 00:49:56,868
"My gosh, I've been taking something
for the team every day."

958
00:49:56,952 --> 00:50:00,872
He said, "Well,
you're our wonderful gay leader,

959
00:50:01,081 --> 00:50:03,709
and we need you to go down. Will you...

960
00:50:04,251 --> 00:50:05,085
suck...

961
00:50:05,544 --> 00:50:06,503
dick...

962
00:50:07,170 --> 00:50:08,922
to fix this water problem?"

963
00:50:09,006 --> 00:50:11,925
And I said, "Billy, what?"
And he said, "Andy,

964
00:50:12,009 --> 00:50:14,553
if you will go down
and suck Cunningham's dick,

965
00:50:14,636 --> 00:50:16,388
who's the head of Customs,

966
00:50:16,722 --> 00:50:20,517
and get him to clear
all of the containers with water,

967
00:50:20,809 --> 00:50:22,269
you will save this festival."

968
00:50:22,352 --> 00:50:26,231
And I literally drove home, took a shower,

969
00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:28,775
I drank some mouthwash.

970
00:50:28,859 --> 00:50:31,778
I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I'm really..."
And I got into my car

971
00:50:31,903 --> 00:50:34,948
to drive across the island
to take one for the team...

972
00:50:35,323 --> 00:50:39,202
and I got to his office,
fully prepared to suck his dick.

973
00:50:39,953 --> 00:50:42,122
He couldn't have been nicer.
He's like, "Andy, listen,

974
00:50:42,622 --> 00:50:45,459
I will release all the water,
I will let you serve it,

975
00:50:45,625 --> 00:50:48,378
but I want to be want to be
one of the first people to be paid

976
00:50:48,462 --> 00:50:52,549
this import fee for what you're doing,"
and I said, "Okay, great."

977
00:50:52,632 --> 00:50:55,969
And I got back
and I had all the water that we needed.

978
00:50:58,013 --> 00:51:01,099
Can you imagine,
in my 30 years of a career,

979
00:51:01,516 --> 00:51:03,351
that this is what I was going to do?

980
00:51:03,435 --> 00:51:06,688
I was going to do that, honestly,
to save the festival.

981
00:51:08,398 --> 00:51:11,276
Major news in the vlog today.
Tomorrow morning, 5:30,

982
00:51:11,359 --> 00:51:14,571
half of the Jerry Media crew is going
to Fyre Festival in Bahamas

983
00:51:14,738 --> 00:51:16,031
on a remote island.

984
00:51:16,114 --> 00:51:18,116
We've been doing their marketing
for the last couple of months,

985
00:51:18,200 --> 00:51:19,701
so excited to see this thing take off.

986
00:51:19,785 --> 00:51:21,203
I think it's going to be f... epic.

987
00:51:22,621 --> 00:51:24,956
We went down with about four
of the teammates

988
00:51:25,040 --> 00:51:27,000
the day before the festival.

989
00:51:27,292 --> 00:51:30,295
Mick, the good news about this plane?
If we want to leave, just...

990
00:51:30,670 --> 00:51:32,798
take the window off and just head out.

991
00:51:32,881 --> 00:51:34,925
This is great. This is a great flight.

992
00:51:35,008 --> 00:51:38,386
I remember the feeling,
getting off the plane, we were so excited.

993
00:51:38,470 --> 00:51:40,180
"Finally here, this is happening."

994
00:51:41,765 --> 00:51:43,892
There's literally no cars on the island.

995
00:51:43,975 --> 00:51:47,270
We couldn't rent one.
They didn't hook us up with one, so...

996
00:51:47,521 --> 00:51:50,732
this is us. We're hitch-hiking
for the next couple of days.

997
00:51:50,941 --> 00:51:52,526
I was down there yesterday

998
00:51:52,818 --> 00:51:56,279
and I said, "Man, this ain't gonna
be finished for no Friday."

999
00:51:56,613 --> 00:51:58,907
So much work, so much things!

1000
00:51:59,658 --> 00:52:00,992
And so little time.

1001
00:52:01,493 --> 00:52:03,620
So, none of this was here.
All this sand is new.

1002
00:52:03,703 --> 00:52:05,872
-This was all put down...
Yeah, I can tell.

1003
00:52:05,956 --> 00:52:07,457
...a few days ago. Can you?

1004
00:52:09,501 --> 00:52:12,546
It's all peaking on this last day
because it's going to happen.

1005
00:52:12,629 --> 00:52:14,923
We all know now
that this is an inevitability,

1006
00:52:15,006 --> 00:52:17,551
that this event is going to happen,
no matter what.

1007
00:52:18,009 --> 00:52:19,386
I'm working with this Navy SEAL

1008
00:52:19,469 --> 00:52:21,471
who's telling me
this is like a clusterfuck.

1009
00:52:21,596 --> 00:52:24,224
That's what he called it.
"An elephant of a clusterfuck."

1010
00:52:24,307 --> 00:52:26,852
He's laughing and not even laughing,

1011
00:52:26,935 --> 00:52:31,148
just disturbed at how fucked up this is
and...

1012
00:52:31,731 --> 00:52:34,359
and he's a Navy SEAL, like, come on!

1013
00:52:34,442 --> 00:52:37,237
The last 24 hours were unbelievable.

1014
00:52:37,320 --> 00:52:39,990
All I kept thinking about was Woodstock.

1015
00:52:40,407 --> 00:52:42,200
Think of that music festival.

1016
00:52:42,284 --> 00:52:45,412
Does anybody talk about the hundreds
and hundreds of cars

1017
00:52:45,495 --> 00:52:47,706
that were stuck on the thruway for days?

1018
00:52:47,956 --> 00:52:50,041
Does anybody talk about the mudslides?

1019
00:52:50,625 --> 00:52:54,713
How many people died of drug overdoses?
Does anybody talk about the lack of food?

1020
00:52:54,796 --> 00:52:55,797
Almost no water.

1021
00:52:55,881 --> 00:52:58,383
Absolutely not.
And I thought, "You know what?

1022
00:52:58,466 --> 00:53:02,888
If Woodstock could get through that
and, from a publicity perspective,

1023
00:53:03,388 --> 00:53:04,848
land where it did,

1024
00:53:05,265 --> 00:53:06,641
FyreFestival can make it."

1025
00:53:07,642 --> 00:53:09,811
Well, actually we didn't sleep that night.

1026
00:53:09,895 --> 00:53:13,064
'cause I remember exactly
what happened, so...

1027
00:53:13,148 --> 00:53:16,735
we're standing outside
on the porch of this mansion,

1028
00:53:16,860 --> 00:53:19,779
looking out at the ocean
and it's a full moon or something

1029
00:53:20,238 --> 00:53:21,364
and it starts...

1030
00:53:21,448 --> 00:53:23,158
pouring rain.

1031
00:53:24,451 --> 00:53:25,535
Pouring rain.

1032
00:53:26,411 --> 00:53:27,537
Thunder and lightning.

1033
00:53:28,705 --> 00:53:30,290
And we just start laughing.

1034
00:53:31,166 --> 00:53:33,210
Like, belly laughs...

1035
00:53:34,753 --> 00:53:37,005
and look at each other and...

1036
00:53:37,589 --> 00:53:39,174
To this point, I'm so delirious

1037
00:53:39,257 --> 00:53:42,886
that I still am not sure
that this is 100% entirely true,

1038
00:53:42,969 --> 00:53:45,096
but I remember one of our group saying, "At least they won't
get away with it now."

1039
00:53:47,766 --> 00:53:50,477
I honestly remember that
and I don't know that that's--

1040
00:53:50,727 --> 00:53:52,103
But that's what I remember.

1041
00:53:53,146 --> 00:53:55,565
So you have to realize
the site's unfinished.

1042
00:53:55,815 --> 00:53:59,361
There's mattresses
all over the place getting soaked.

1043
00:53:59,903 --> 00:54:02,781
Any tent that was done is now unlivable.

1044
00:54:03,156 --> 00:54:04,783
And the guests are still coming.

1045
00:54:05,200 --> 00:54:06,826
And we have nowhere to put them.

1046
00:54:07,035 --> 00:54:09,287
The rainstorm that morning
killed us.

1047
00:54:09,829 --> 00:54:13,083
Because I know the work
we had done that morning and...

1048
00:54:14,084 --> 00:54:15,252
I could have cried.

1049
00:54:16,336 --> 00:54:17,587
I think I did.

1050
00:54:18,421 --> 00:54:21,424
The other funny thing that happened
was we were laughing and we were like,

1051
00:54:21,508 --> 00:54:23,718
"Well at least
nothing is on time in the Bahamas.

1052
00:54:23,802 --> 00:54:25,679
At least this rain...
The guests will be late."

1053
00:54:25,762 --> 00:54:29,140
They were supposed to come at 6:50,
the first flight got there at 6:20.

1054
00:54:29,224 --> 00:54:30,433
It was like a sick joke.

1055
00:54:31,893 --> 00:54:32,894
So...

1056
00:54:33,645 --> 00:54:36,314
So...

1057
00:54:39,901 --> 00:54:41,486
Fyre Festival, baby. Here we go.

1058
00:54:42,988 --> 00:54:44,781
About to go to...

1059
00:54:45,573 --> 00:54:46,533
Miami.

1060
00:54:46,616 --> 00:54:49,828
Miami for, like, four hours.
And then where are we going?

1061
00:54:50,120 --> 00:54:52,163
-Bahamas.
-Bahamas.

1062
00:54:52,247 --> 00:54:53,540
Check out my ice, baby.

1063
00:54:54,124 --> 00:54:56,835
Bahamas. We're coming for you, baby.

1064
00:54:57,502 --> 00:55:00,714
We are here in the... "private jet."

1065
00:55:01,089 --> 00:55:03,300
We thought we were going to get
on one of those propeller planes,

1066
00:55:03,383 --> 00:55:04,718
like a tiny little propeller plane

1067
00:55:05,176 --> 00:55:07,095
that was in all of the video footage.

1068
00:55:07,178 --> 00:55:11,433
I didn't realize what plane we were going
to be on until we were boarded.

1069
00:55:11,516 --> 00:55:13,101
And, I mean, it was like a 737.

1070
00:55:13,184 --> 00:55:17,439
My understanding, it was supposed to be
this "branded jet experience,"

1071
00:55:17,522 --> 00:55:19,024
which I think was a...

1072
00:55:19,232 --> 00:55:21,860
I don't know where they got it from.
It was just...

1073
00:55:22,193 --> 00:55:25,322
"Oh, let's slap a logo on it
and call it a day" type of thing.

1074
00:55:25,822 --> 00:55:28,408
It's actually worse than, like, really...

1075
00:55:28,491 --> 00:55:31,661
Like being low economy class.

1076
00:55:31,745 --> 00:55:34,080
<i> It was about 4:30</i>
<i>when we're getting on the plane,</i>

1077
00:55:34,164 --> 00:55:36,624
<i>and that's when my friend</i>
<i>looked at his phone and said,</i>

1078
00:55:36,708 --> 00:55:38,752
<i>"Blink-182 just pulled out.</i>

1079
00:55:38,835 --> 00:55:41,129
<i>Do you still want to get on the plane?"</i>

1080
00:55:41,212 --> 00:55:43,298
<i>And their reasoning wasn't anything like,</i>

1081
00:55:43,590 --> 00:55:45,258
<i>"Don't go, it's a disaster."</i>

1082
00:55:45,342 --> 00:55:47,719
<i>It was just like, "We don't think</i>
<i>we can put on the show</i>

1083
00:55:47,802 --> 00:55:49,512
<i>that our fans would deserve."</i>

1084
00:55:49,596 --> 00:55:52,640
<i>I've never been to a Blink-182 concert</i>
<i>so I don't even know what that means.</i>

1085
00:55:52,724 --> 00:55:55,268
<i>So we were like, "It will be fine."</i>

1086
00:56:00,148 --> 00:56:03,651
We all got off
and landed on this beautiful island.

1087
00:56:03,735 --> 00:56:05,236
Still, nothing seemed amiss.

1088
00:56:05,320 --> 00:56:07,280
I do remember being presented a choice.

1089
00:56:07,364 --> 00:56:10,867
"Do you want to go to the campsite
or do you want to go to this restaurant,

1090
00:56:10,950 --> 00:56:11,993
this beachside restaurant?"

1091
00:56:12,077 --> 00:56:14,996
An executive decision was made,
I don't know by who,

1092
00:56:15,080 --> 00:56:17,665
but it was to essentially close down
the campsite

1093
00:56:17,749 --> 00:56:20,752
and to reroute all of the new attendees

1094
00:56:20,835 --> 00:56:21,961
to a separate bar.

1095
00:56:22,420 --> 00:56:26,966
It was never planned. I knew of it,
like, maybe 25 minutes

1096
00:56:27,050 --> 00:56:29,094
to them coming down to the restaurant.

1097
00:56:29,469 --> 00:56:32,889
Tons of buses,
bussing in hundreds of their guests.

1098
00:56:32,972 --> 00:56:35,683
And they were asking,
"Is this the Fyre Festival?"

1099
00:56:35,934 --> 00:56:38,520
They all thought
that they were at the first step

1100
00:56:38,603 --> 00:56:40,980
of what was going to be
a very exciting experience.

1101
00:56:41,272 --> 00:56:44,109
It's on this, like, beautiful beach.

1102
00:56:44,192 --> 00:56:45,735
A dock goes all the way out,

1103
00:56:45,819 --> 00:56:47,987
people are just dangling their legs,
having tequila.

1104
00:56:48,071 --> 00:56:51,491
I'm looking around and I'm like,
"This is the greatest decoy of all time."

1105
00:56:51,574 --> 00:56:54,327
The music playing,
and the guests was just cheering on.

1106
00:56:54,411 --> 00:56:56,621
They were dancing and having a good time.

1107
00:56:56,871 --> 00:57:00,125
<i>There was a lot of smiles and a lot</i>
<i>of happiness over at this other bar.</i>

1108
00:57:00,208 --> 00:57:03,503
<i>Quite frankly, it was probably</i>
<i>the best part of the entire experience.</i>

1109
00:57:03,586 --> 00:57:06,297
<i>What was happening on the campgrounds</i>
<i>was the exact opposite.</i>

1110
00:57:06,673 --> 00:57:09,467
Oh, my God.

1111
00:57:10,343 --> 00:57:12,262
They're soaking wet!

1112
00:57:12,637 --> 00:57:16,141
The tents are soaked,
mud is sliding on the carpets.

1113
00:57:16,224 --> 00:57:20,270
What was already this kind of
very loosely put together festival,

1114
00:57:20,353 --> 00:57:22,605
which was over-advertised,

1115
00:57:22,689 --> 00:57:25,817
has now devolved
into something much worse.

1116
00:57:25,900 --> 00:57:28,486
We didn't have enough drivers,
we didn't have enough houses,

1117
00:57:28,570 --> 00:57:31,114
we didn't have enough beds,
we didn't have enough site,

1118
00:57:31,197 --> 00:57:32,407
we didn't have enough staff.

1119
00:57:32,490 --> 00:57:35,034
It was just... We were overwhelmed.

1120
00:57:35,118 --> 00:57:37,120
So I'm getting phone calls.
I'm trying to charge my phone,

1121
00:57:37,203 --> 00:57:40,165
and the calls are to get me
to the blue production house.

1122
00:57:40,248 --> 00:57:43,918
So I get there and it's mayhem.
People are scrambling everywhere.

1123
00:57:44,002 --> 00:57:45,712
They're still outside
trying to build stuff.

1124
00:57:45,795 --> 00:57:47,714
Grant was like,
"You got the paper bags?"

1125
00:57:47,797 --> 00:57:50,592
Because he's like
hyperventilating in the bedroom.

1126
00:57:50,800 --> 00:57:53,011
People are crying
and it's all these emotions.

1127
00:57:53,094 --> 00:57:54,929
I was like, "Okay, get your shit done."

1128
00:57:55,013 --> 00:57:56,806
I'm literally getting now
physically pulled

1129
00:57:56,890 --> 00:57:58,558
in different directions by the assistants.

1130
00:57:58,641 --> 00:58:00,685
"Marc, this person arrived,
that person arrived.

1131
00:58:00,768 --> 00:58:02,103
We need to find them houses."

1132
00:58:02,187 --> 00:58:03,771
I thought something was wrong

1133
00:58:03,855 --> 00:58:06,941
after they held us on the beach
for six hours.

1134
00:58:07,025 --> 00:58:08,860
Kinda funneling tequila down our throats.

1135
00:58:12,155 --> 00:58:13,406
They started asking,

1136
00:58:13,490 --> 00:58:15,992
"Where can I go"

1137
00:58:16,075 --> 00:58:18,578
"How are we getting to the campsite?
Where is the campsite?

1138
00:58:18,661 --> 00:58:19,662
Where's my luggage?"

1139
00:58:19,746 --> 00:58:20,705
And I was like,

1140
00:58:21,539 --> 00:58:23,124
"What do I tell them?"

1141
00:58:23,208 --> 00:58:26,044
You know, Billy would be in the room
and he'd be kind of the CEO,

1142
00:58:26,961 --> 00:58:27,879
calling the shots.

1143
00:58:27,962 --> 00:58:31,007
Every now and then, he would walk out,
go get on his four-wheeler,

1144
00:58:31,341 --> 00:58:33,801
and just ride really fast
in, like, one direction.

1145
00:58:33,885 --> 00:58:35,220
Just take off.

1146
00:58:35,303 --> 00:58:38,806
And then he would come right back
and walk back in without, you know,

1147
00:58:38,890 --> 00:58:42,560
a lot to talk about, but you could see
he just had like bottled up energy.

1148
00:58:42,810 --> 00:58:44,646
It's time to let people in

1149
00:58:44,729 --> 00:58:46,606
and kind of see how it unfolds.

1150
00:58:53,488 --> 00:58:56,658
There was no one
from Fyre Festival on the bus.

1151
00:58:56,741 --> 00:58:59,619
The bus driver just knew where to go,
and he's telling us,

1152
00:58:59,702 --> 00:59:03,998
"Oh, yeah, they didn't start construction
on any of this until maybe a month ago."

1153
00:59:04,082 --> 00:59:08,169
Or, "Oh, yeah,
you're really in for something.

1154
00:59:08,253 --> 00:59:11,798
Just wait until you see
what you're getting yourselves into."

1155
00:59:11,881 --> 00:59:15,593
Which is a very concerning thing to hear
when you're on a bus

1156
00:59:15,677 --> 00:59:18,137
to you have no idea where

1157
00:59:18,221 --> 00:59:20,723
after taking a plane
to God knows what island

1158
00:59:20,807 --> 00:59:22,559
with who knows what people.

1159
00:59:22,642 --> 00:59:23,518
<i>No!</i>

1160
00:59:26,312 --> 00:59:27,730
<i>Turn around!</i>

1161
00:59:27,814 --> 00:59:30,900
<i>Turn this bus right around!</i>

1162
00:59:31,234 --> 00:59:36,322
We see this sea of white little tents.

1163
00:59:38,241 --> 00:59:40,118
There was a disbelief on the bus.

1164
00:59:40,201 --> 00:59:43,496
A lot of people thought,
"Maybe we're passing through this area.

1165
00:59:43,580 --> 00:59:45,331
Our villas are just on the other side."

1166
00:59:45,415 --> 00:59:49,961
And it was the bus driver who said,
"Oh, no. That's where you're staying."

1167
00:59:50,044 --> 00:59:52,880
It was like, "Oh, my God!"

1168
00:59:52,964 --> 00:59:56,426
<i>Look at the beds!</i>
<i>Oh, Jesus!</i>

1169
00:59:56,509 --> 00:59:59,387
<i>This festival is never happening again,</i>
<i>I hope they know that.</i>

1170
00:59:59,470 --> 01:00:01,556
<i>They kinda drive us around</i>
<i>the little lagoon</i>

1171
01:00:01,639 --> 01:00:04,851
<i>and we get to that blue house</i>
<i>that I guess was their headquarters,</i>

1172
01:00:04,934 --> 01:00:07,145
<i>and there was just a line</i>
<i>of hundreds of people.</i>

1173
01:00:07,228 --> 01:00:09,897
<i> </i>We have literally been
standing here for, like, an hour.

1174
01:00:09,981 --> 01:00:12,108
<i> We didn't know what</i>
<i>we were standing in line for,</i>

1175
01:00:12,191 --> 01:00:13,401
<i>but we kept standing there,</i>

1176
01:00:13,484 --> 01:00:16,279
<i>and some people</i>
<i>just had bottles of liquor.</i>

1177
01:00:17,739 --> 01:00:21,117
Billy came up to me and told me
to just blast the music.

1178
01:00:22,410 --> 01:00:24,579
As loud as I possibly could.

1179
01:00:24,662 --> 01:00:29,000
<i>That's one of the most annoying parts.</i>
<i>You could just hear this pulsating noise.</i>

1180
01:00:29,083 --> 01:00:31,753
And, you know, every five minutes
it would be...

1181
01:00:31,836 --> 01:00:34,631
Like, one of the hostesses or one
of the staff that would come,

1182
01:00:34,714 --> 01:00:38,426
"Please, we cannot hear anything
as we're trying to check in these people."

1183
01:00:38,509 --> 01:00:40,136
And so we would lower the music.

1184
01:00:40,219 --> 01:00:42,597
After five minutes, Billy would come back.

1185
01:00:42,680 --> 01:00:44,891
"Raise the music."

1186
01:00:45,433 --> 01:00:48,186
Everyone was, like, arguing, you know?

1187
01:00:48,269 --> 01:00:51,105
Everyone was making noise or like,
"Where I'm gonna stay?

1188
01:00:51,189 --> 01:00:53,316
What am I gonna do"

1189
01:00:53,733 --> 01:00:58,071
The attendees were looking towards
anything, anyone for direction.

1190
01:00:59,405 --> 01:01:00,865
Guys, stay here.

1191
01:01:01,783 --> 01:01:04,035
<i>Billy McFarland</i>
<i>stood up on a table.</i>

1192
01:01:04,118 --> 01:01:07,830
<i>So I just kind of walked up and I said,</i>
<i>"Where do you go if you have a villa?"</i>

1193
01:01:07,914 --> 01:01:10,792
<i>And he said, "Everybody that has a villa,</i>
<i>just go grab a tent."</i>

1194
01:01:10,875 --> 01:01:12,585
<i>And so this whole mass of people...</i> <i>I was like, "It's a free-for-all."</i>

1195
01:01:14,962 --> 01:01:18,341
<i> Everybody started sprinting,</i>
<i>running to their tents, grabbing bags.</i>

1196
01:01:18,424 --> 01:01:19,342
<i> We heard this voice,</i>

1197
01:01:19,425 --> 01:01:21,386
<i>we heard this rush,</i>
<i>then we heard the screaming.</i>

1198
01:01:21,469 --> 01:01:25,390
<i>We walked out and there was just</i>
<i>this mass of people going to tents.</i>

1199
01:01:25,473 --> 01:01:27,934
It's an absolute circus.
I don't know what's going on.

1200
01:01:28,017 --> 01:01:30,561
I'm not getting off this ship until I know
what's going on there.

1201
01:01:30,645 --> 01:01:35,191
It's 8:36 and people are now
just getting their luggage.

1202
01:01:35,358 --> 01:01:37,568
These are the lockers
that are just being set up.

1203
01:01:37,652 --> 01:01:41,489
They're taking off the plastic
that are supposed to hold our valuables.

1204
01:01:41,864 --> 01:01:44,992
<i> There was no one who planned out</i>
<i>luggage tags.</i>

1205
01:01:45,076 --> 01:01:47,412
<i>They brought out the luggage</i>
<i>in two big containers.</i>

1206
01:01:47,495 --> 01:01:50,373
<i>Like truck containers.</i>
<i>Eighteen-wheeler containers.</i>

1207
01:01:50,456 --> 01:01:53,835
<i>They just said, "Everyone, grab your bag."</i>
<i>And it was just a frenzy.</i>

1208
01:01:54,252 --> 01:01:56,254
Everyone was just looking for,
you know,

1209
01:01:56,337 --> 01:01:58,715
their black bag
amongst a sea of black bags.

1210
01:01:58,798 --> 01:02:00,341
And if they had to climb over you

1211
01:02:00,425 --> 01:02:03,177
and stomp over you to get
their piece of luggage, so be it.

1212
01:02:03,553 --> 01:02:07,306
This is an absolute disaster.

1213
01:02:07,932 --> 01:02:09,809
Where do you-- Yo!

1214
01:02:14,063 --> 01:02:16,691
We do not want to be on the perimeter,
I promise you.

1215
01:02:17,108 --> 01:02:18,359
We didn't want neighbors.

1216
01:02:18,443 --> 01:02:20,737
Our strategy from there
was to kind of ransack

1217
01:02:20,820 --> 01:02:22,238
all the tents around us.

1218
01:02:22,321 --> 01:02:24,615
Just started poking holes
and flipping mattresses.

1219
01:02:24,699 --> 01:02:26,659
My buddy pissed on a few of the beds.

1220
01:02:27,452 --> 01:02:28,494
Shit got crazy.

1221
01:02:28,578 --> 01:02:31,497
People was just walking
with mattresses on top of their head.

1222
01:02:31,914 --> 01:02:34,250
Walking from this one around to that one.

1223
01:02:34,333 --> 01:02:36,502
It became this
looting mentality.

1224
01:02:36,586 --> 01:02:40,298
One woman had a whole pallet
of toilet paper.

1225
01:02:40,381 --> 01:02:44,010
Somebody else had
this whole giant box of pillows

1226
01:02:44,093 --> 01:02:46,512
that she was lugging back to her tent.

1227
01:02:46,596 --> 01:02:49,682
It became very barbaric, in a sense.

1228
01:03:04,155 --> 01:03:09,202
<i> Driving around, it was</i>
<i>the most eerie feeling in the world.</i>

1229
01:03:09,285 --> 01:03:10,578
<i>There was no lights.</i>

1230
01:03:11,287 --> 01:03:13,164
<i> It looked like a horror scene.</i>

1231
01:03:13,247 --> 01:03:16,375
<i>People were scattered throughout</i>
<i>that area and spent one night.</i>

1232
01:03:16,459 --> 01:03:18,669
<i>My guess is most of them</i>
<i>never went to sleep.</i>

1233
01:03:19,670 --> 01:03:21,464
<i> Some woman came in</i>

1234
01:03:21,547 --> 01:03:24,884
<i>in a panic at one point</i>
<i>in the dead of night.</i>

1235
01:03:24,967 --> 01:03:26,803
<i>She couldn't find her friend.</i>

1236
01:03:26,886 --> 01:03:30,181
<i>She was lost, she seemed</i>
<i>like she was drunk. I mean...</i>

1237
01:03:31,849 --> 01:03:34,185
<i>But there's nothing you can do</i>
<i>to help a person like that.</i>

1238
01:03:34,268 --> 01:03:36,354
<i>You know, I don't know where I am either.</i>

1239
01:03:36,938 --> 01:03:40,233
<i>And there was a definite turning point,</i>
<i>I would say,</i>

1240
01:03:40,316 --> 01:03:41,776
<i>when the sun went down,</i>

1241
01:03:42,151 --> 01:03:43,903
when the camaraderie was over.

1242
01:03:44,862 --> 01:03:46,823
<i>All I know is that,</i>
<i>by the end of the night,</i>

1243
01:03:46,906 --> 01:03:48,324
<i>all of the tents were full.</i>

1244
01:03:48,407 --> 01:03:51,160
<i>And this is with one-third of the guests</i>
<i>we were supposed to have.</i>

1245
01:03:52,078 --> 01:03:53,788
<i> I remember just leaving this place</i>

1246
01:03:53,871 --> 01:03:56,415
<i>and looking at this image</i>
<i>of the campground</i>

1247
01:03:56,582 --> 01:04:00,795
<i>for the first time</i>
<i>feeling what an epic failure really is.</i>

1248
01:04:06,843 --> 01:04:09,178
So, as I was
tweeting about the event,

1249
01:04:09,262 --> 01:04:11,389
just to be like,
"This is what's going on."

1250
01:04:11,472 --> 01:04:14,517
I mean, "Here's the lockers,
here's the concierge stand.

1251
01:04:14,600 --> 01:04:16,477
This is what Fyre Festival is."

1252
01:04:17,311 --> 01:04:19,772
The tweets just started going viral.

1253
01:04:21,649 --> 01:04:25,194
It was just kind of the perfect thing
to consume in real-time.

1254
01:04:27,905 --> 01:04:30,741
Then I saw the Twitter post.

1255
01:04:31,617 --> 01:04:32,827
The cheese sandwich.

1256
01:04:34,996 --> 01:04:37,623
That was when I knew this was done.

1257
01:04:40,126 --> 01:04:42,295
I remember <i>The New York Times</i>
came out with an article

1258
01:04:42,378 --> 01:04:44,088
that talked
about this entire Fyre Festival.

1259
01:04:44,171 --> 01:04:45,798
They talked about it
very matter-of-fact,

1260
01:04:45,882 --> 01:04:47,174
from an operational perspective.

1261
01:04:47,675 --> 01:04:50,803
What they didn't talk about, which I think
was something that was missed,

1262
01:04:50,887 --> 01:04:54,557
was a couple of powerful models
posting an orange tile

1263
01:04:54,640 --> 01:04:57,727
is what essentially built
this entire festival,

1264
01:04:58,060 --> 01:05:01,022
and then one kid
with probably 400 followers

1265
01:05:01,105 --> 01:05:03,441
posted a picture of cheese on toast

1266
01:05:03,524 --> 01:05:06,235
that trended
and essentially ripped down the festival.

1267
01:05:06,527 --> 01:05:10,031
All I know is that people were stoked
to watch this thing go down.

1268
01:05:17,079 --> 01:05:19,040
There definitely was
kind of like

1269
01:05:19,123 --> 01:05:21,751
almost a gleeful response on social media

1270
01:05:21,834 --> 01:05:23,085
from people that weren't there.

1271
01:05:23,169 --> 01:05:25,588
The way that it seemed like it happened
is funny, you know?

1272
01:05:25,671 --> 01:05:30,134
A <i>Lord of the Flies</i> situation with,
you know, Instagram's top influencers.

1273
01:05:31,636 --> 01:05:35,264
Grant was still calling orders
and asking us to do things.

1274
01:05:35,765 --> 01:05:38,768
I said, "No, Grant,
we're not posting any more promises.

1275
01:05:38,851 --> 01:05:41,479
We're not trying to propel this vision
any further."

1276
01:05:41,562 --> 01:05:43,856
You know, "This thing is dead."

1277
01:05:44,315 --> 01:05:47,693
Then I think, like, three minutes later,
I get a text from Grant

1278
01:05:47,777 --> 01:05:51,113
introducing me
to their new social media team.

1279
01:05:51,197 --> 01:05:53,407
"Can you please send him over
the credentials?"

1280
01:05:55,159 --> 01:05:57,870
I just remember calling Ja -
he wasn't even there yet -

1281
01:05:57,954 --> 01:06:01,082
and saying, like,
"There's, like, no way this is happening.

1282
01:06:01,165 --> 01:06:04,460
I'm sending out the email.
I really don't care at this point."

1283
01:06:04,543 --> 01:06:07,088
And then I told Billy
I cancelled the acts

1284
01:06:07,171 --> 01:06:10,675
and at that point, he knew
everything had fallen apart already.

1285
01:06:11,676 --> 01:06:15,221
And he was pacing back and forth
out on the terrace.

1286
01:06:15,304 --> 01:06:17,640
I could see that there were tears
in his eyes,

1287
01:06:17,723 --> 01:06:20,935
but that was the first time
that any of us had seen that.

1288
01:06:21,018 --> 01:06:22,436
Through thick and thin,

1289
01:06:22,520 --> 01:06:25,564
he stayed so positive
and it wasn't until that day...

1290
01:06:26,357 --> 01:06:30,444
that things started to crumble,
that he really started to get it.

1291
01:06:31,529 --> 01:06:34,073
<i>I mean, he went from,</i>
<i>two days before,</i>

1292
01:06:34,156 --> 01:06:36,575
<i>thinking he was</i>
<i>the entrepreneur of our decade</i>

1293
01:06:37,118 --> 01:06:41,288
<i>to essentially being a massive</i>
<i>viral disgrace and joke.</i>

1294
01:06:41,580 --> 01:06:44,542
I go into the production house,
and, like, Grant's crying

1295
01:06:44,625 --> 01:06:48,671
and Carola just looks
like she's been like hit by a truck.

1296
01:06:49,213 --> 01:06:53,384
Grant stayed and he was talking
about drafting up their official response

1297
01:06:53,467 --> 01:06:57,471
to what had happened, and it was like,
"Due to circumstances out of our control,"

1298
01:06:57,555 --> 01:07:01,809
and I remember Jorge looks at him
and he's like, "Do not lie again.

1299
01:07:02,018 --> 01:07:04,437
This is your chance to tell the truth.

1300
01:07:05,354 --> 01:07:08,774
"Don't say 'out of our control.'
This was perfectly in our control."

1301
01:07:09,233 --> 01:07:10,234
Major update.

1302
01:07:11,736 --> 01:07:14,572
Fyre Festival is officially cancelled.

1303
01:07:16,657 --> 01:07:18,951
-Just got the news, guys.
Officially?

1304
01:07:19,035 --> 01:07:20,911
Is it really?
-It's what Mick said.

1305
01:07:21,245 --> 01:07:24,206
Apparently, there's no food on the island.
They're not letting people in.

1306
01:07:24,290 --> 01:07:26,917
<i>People who just landed here</i>
<i>have to go back to Miami.</i>

1307
01:07:27,376 --> 01:07:29,837
<i>They were just trying to get out</i>
<i>at that point.</i>

1308
01:07:30,004 --> 01:07:33,257
<i>Part of the problem was that</i>
<i>there weren't planes to take them out</i>

1309
01:07:33,340 --> 01:07:36,886
<i>and the airport was totally overwhelmed</i>
<i>with all these people</i>

1310
01:07:36,969 --> 01:07:39,013
<i>and they eventually locked them in</i>

1311
01:07:39,096 --> 01:07:42,349
<i>and kept them overnight</i>
<i>without any food or water.™ª</i>

1312
01:07:42,433 --> 01:07:44,643
Okay. How long until water comes?

1313
01:07:45,686 --> 01:07:46,687
And food.

1314
01:07:47,104 --> 01:07:48,731
<i>When do we get our money back?</i>

1315
01:07:49,356 --> 01:07:51,525
It was just this sort of real-time saga

1316
01:07:51,609 --> 01:07:54,153
that started at six o'clock
in the afternoon.

1317
01:07:55,112 --> 01:07:57,907
And in the morning,
the media started picking it up.

1318
01:07:58,407 --> 01:08:01,619
This morning, the organizers
of the failed Fyre Festival

1319
01:08:01,702 --> 01:08:02,787
are feeling the heat.

1320
01:08:02,870 --> 01:08:05,498
We took a big jump here, a big risk,

1321
01:08:05,581 --> 01:08:07,374
and V1 has failed.

1322
01:08:07,458 --> 01:08:10,169
People were making fun of it,
making fun of us.

1323
01:08:10,252 --> 01:08:13,672
Do you feel bad for the people
that did spend money and go to this--

1324
01:08:15,216 --> 01:08:20,846
If you had thousands of dollars
to go on a trip to see Blink-182...

1325
01:08:22,515 --> 01:08:25,559
that's on you.
That is Darwinism at its finest.

1326
01:08:29,146 --> 01:08:32,149
At that point,
all of their promises started to collapse,

1327
01:08:32,233 --> 01:08:35,986
so the car rental companies
came and took the keys,

1328
01:08:36,070 --> 01:08:40,991
the house owners came and demanded
that their properties were returned.

1329
01:08:41,075 --> 01:08:44,161
One of my head construction guys
came to me and said, "Andy,

1330
01:08:44,245 --> 01:08:46,372
I need $26,000 in cash,

1331
01:08:46,455 --> 01:08:47,998
and I want it right now."

1332
01:08:48,082 --> 01:08:50,960
He was a big guy and he followed me.

1333
01:08:51,252 --> 01:08:53,838
And then I went back to the tent
and he followed me.

1334
01:08:53,921 --> 01:08:56,590
I had the head
of the Bahamian Tourism Board,

1335
01:08:56,674 --> 01:08:58,634
the Minister of Finance

1336
01:08:58,717 --> 01:09:02,138
and the head
of the University of the Bahamas

1337
01:09:02,221 --> 01:09:05,558
waiting for $1 million
that they wanted to be paid.

1338
01:09:06,475 --> 01:09:10,146
There was a huge workforce of
people that had been working under the sun

1339
01:09:10,229 --> 01:09:14,191
for, you know, a month,
a month-and-a-half without being paid...

1340
01:09:14,275 --> 01:09:16,694
that as soon as realized that, you know,

1341
01:09:16,777 --> 01:09:19,113
all of this was collapsing,

1342
01:09:19,196 --> 01:09:22,491
started, rightfully so,
demanding their payment,

1343
01:09:22,575 --> 01:09:25,703
so there was a sort of a strike.

1344
01:09:26,328 --> 01:09:29,790
And we get word that there's
an angry mob of locals

1345
01:09:29,874 --> 01:09:31,584
coming down through the gates.

1346
01:09:31,917 --> 01:09:34,128
They're pissed off
and they want their money.

1347
01:09:35,713 --> 01:09:38,382
And it's now, like, five of us
in the production house

1348
01:09:38,465 --> 01:09:39,508
There was about,

1349
01:09:39,592 --> 01:09:42,469
I don't know,
I want to say 30 people coming down.

1350
01:09:43,929 --> 01:09:45,764
And Billy is nowhere to be seen.

1351
01:09:46,307 --> 01:09:49,101
There were constant rumors flying around
of where Billy was.

1352
01:09:49,185 --> 01:09:51,896
He was like Dr. Evil.
It was like, "Billy's on a yacht."

1353
01:09:51,979 --> 01:09:53,981
"Billy's been at the Grand Isle
the whole time."

1354
01:09:54,064 --> 01:09:55,691
"Billy's in Miami." "Billy's in jail."

1355
01:09:55,774 --> 01:09:58,110
Like, everyone was kind of like
guessing where Billy was.

1356
01:09:58,444 --> 01:10:00,487
I didn't even know where Billy went.

1357
01:10:00,571 --> 01:10:04,116
I went to the house
and it was, like, literally cleaned out,

1358
01:10:04,200 --> 01:10:06,952
and I was like, "Yo, where's Billy?"

1359
01:10:07,411 --> 01:10:10,664
After the locals realized
they weren't going to get paid,

1360
01:10:10,748 --> 01:10:12,750
some of them started putting hits out
on people,

1361
01:10:12,833 --> 01:10:14,877
either to take them hostage
and then get ransom

1362
01:10:14,960 --> 01:10:16,712
or just to hurt and injure.

1363
01:10:16,795 --> 01:10:18,672
The management team
looked left and right

1364
01:10:18,756 --> 01:10:24,011
and suddenly it was sort of...
The "save yourself" mode kicked in.

1365
01:10:24,428 --> 01:10:27,223
And I literally traded clothes

1366
01:10:27,556 --> 01:10:30,643
with one of the employees
that had been working with me

1367
01:10:30,726 --> 01:10:32,186
and I hid behind a urinal.

1368
01:10:32,269 --> 01:10:33,938
Someone pulled up in an old car,

1369
01:10:34,021 --> 01:10:36,398
I jumped into the back
and lay down on the back seat

1370
01:10:36,482 --> 01:10:38,651
so I could at least
get out of the village.

1371
01:10:38,817 --> 01:10:40,736
Because I couldn't play Mother Teresa.

1372
01:10:40,819 --> 01:10:42,404
I couldn't fix this problem.

1373
01:10:42,488 --> 01:10:45,950
But I needed to go somewhere
and find safety.

1374
01:10:46,617 --> 01:10:50,579
When they realized
this thing came to an abrupt stop,

1375
01:10:50,746 --> 01:10:53,791
they all leave those rent-a-cars running

1376
01:10:53,874 --> 01:10:55,834
with the keys in the ignition.

1377
01:10:55,918 --> 01:10:59,505
I talked to one guy who said
the door couldn't get open,

1378
01:10:59,588 --> 01:11:03,759
so a lady kicked the door
and ran to the airplane.

1379
01:11:03,842 --> 01:11:06,845
So they knew that trouble was ahead.

1380
01:11:10,099 --> 01:11:11,684
People started to come to me

1381
01:11:12,142 --> 01:11:13,644
for, like, money. Like...

1382
01:11:14,645 --> 01:11:15,688
"You owe us.

1383
01:11:16,063 --> 01:11:17,064
Where's the money?"

1384
01:11:17,940 --> 01:11:20,985
"I don't know, but they're gone.
I don't know what to do."

1385
01:11:21,485 --> 01:11:26,073
I called Billy, I was talking to Billy.
Billy said, "Don't worry, I'll handle it."

1386
01:11:26,198 --> 01:11:29,535
Day after day passed. You know,
people were pulling up to my house.

1387
01:11:29,618 --> 01:11:32,496
They were getting mad for this money.
Like, literally mad.

1388
01:11:32,997 --> 01:11:36,083
I thought it was going to end up
in some blows getting thrown.

1389
01:11:37,042 --> 01:11:39,503
I was like, "Fuck this, I'm out."

1390
01:11:40,170 --> 01:11:43,799
I packed my shit
and I was fucking on the next boat.

1391
01:11:43,882 --> 01:11:45,926
You know? "I can't handle it no more."

1392
01:11:54,059 --> 01:11:57,938
I definitely had
a post-traumatic syndrome,

1393
01:11:58,022 --> 01:12:01,191
like many of us did, for weeks and weeks

1394
01:12:01,275 --> 01:12:03,777
and a lot of it was a guilt feeling of,

1395
01:12:03,861 --> 01:12:05,821
"Did I abandon everybody?"

1396
01:12:07,698 --> 01:12:10,159
I was the one
that would continue to say, "Listen,

1397
01:12:10,242 --> 01:12:12,411
I have been working with Billy

1398
01:12:12,953 --> 01:12:15,247
for four or five years now. Trust him.

1399
01:12:15,331 --> 01:12:18,751
This kid is amazing
and I think we can pull this off."

1400
01:12:19,209 --> 01:12:22,796
And we didn't, and I felt definitely,

1401
01:12:23,255 --> 01:12:25,716
as I was able to reflect when I got home,

1402
01:12:25,799 --> 01:12:30,721
that I had probably led a lot of kids on.

1403
01:12:32,389 --> 01:12:34,975
You know, you just go with somebody's...

1404
01:12:35,351 --> 01:12:38,270
It's that energy, and the belief system,

1405
01:12:38,354 --> 01:12:40,606
and you just go and you go and you go.

1406
01:12:40,689 --> 01:12:42,983
And then when do you stop? And no,

1407
01:12:43,609 --> 01:12:45,652
I never thought it would end like this.

1408
01:12:46,278 --> 01:12:49,448
I don't think anybody did.
If we did, we wouldn't have done it.

1409
01:12:56,080 --> 01:12:58,207
<i>First, I just want to give</i>

1410
01:12:58,290 --> 01:13:01,919
<i>a big apology</i>
<i>for how the festival turned out.</i>

1411
01:13:02,503 --> 01:13:05,130
<i>This is obviously the exact opposite</i>

1412
01:13:05,214 --> 01:13:08,050
<i>of what we were all striving for.</i>

1413
01:13:08,133 --> 01:13:09,510
I made it back home Monday,

1414
01:13:09,593 --> 01:13:11,095
and came to the Fyre office,

1415
01:13:11,178 --> 01:13:13,180
and that's when we had
the teamwide meeting.

1416
01:13:13,847 --> 01:13:15,808
<i>We have to rebrand the platform.</i>

1417
01:13:16,100 --> 01:13:19,061
<i>My orthodontist</i>
<i>has read about the festival.</i>

1418
01:13:19,228 --> 01:13:21,355
<i>And he asked me</i>
<i>what I did on the festival.</i>

1419
01:13:21,688 --> 01:13:25,609
<i>Right now, yes, we are</i>
<i>the fucking laughing stock of everything.</i>

1420
01:13:25,692 --> 01:13:27,820
<i>We are the "Scam Fyre."</i>

1421
01:13:27,903 --> 01:13:32,157
<i>But that might not be the case</i>
<i>after we fucking put our plan in play</i>

1422
01:13:32,241 --> 01:13:33,826
<i>and start to spin it.</i>

1423
01:13:33,909 --> 01:13:38,288
They used Samsung as an example of how,
you know, "This is just some bad PR."

1424
01:13:38,497 --> 01:13:41,250
"Samsung's out here blowing
people's faces off with cell phones,

1425
01:13:41,333 --> 01:13:43,085
but they're still selling cell phones."

1426
01:13:43,168 --> 01:13:46,046
They were kind of trying to make it seem
like we would overcome this.

1427
01:13:46,130 --> 01:13:48,507
<i>We can't dwell on how we fucked up.</i>

1428
01:13:48,590 --> 01:13:50,843
<i>We can't dwell on what made it go wrong.</i>

1429
01:13:50,926 --> 01:13:53,345
<i>We gotta dwell on how</i>
<i>we make it better in the future.</i>

1430
01:13:53,429 --> 01:13:57,349
<i>The vast majority of us on this phone call</i>
<i>were not involved with the festival,</i>

1431
01:13:57,433 --> 01:14:00,686
<i>and then--</i>
<i>Or actively told not to be involved.</i>

1432
01:14:00,936 --> 01:14:01,770
So it was...

1433
01:14:02,271 --> 01:14:04,606
painful to be honest. We put, you know,

1434
01:14:04,690 --> 01:14:07,860
a big, very talented team,

1435
01:14:07,943 --> 01:14:10,404
put a ton of hours into that software.

1436
01:14:11,572 --> 01:14:13,615
The reality is that I just believed
in the core app

1437
01:14:13,699 --> 01:14:14,992
that we're building so much,

1438
01:14:15,075 --> 01:14:17,703
that I was blind to a lot
of what was going on internally

1439
01:14:17,786 --> 01:14:18,829
with what we were doing.

1440
01:14:18,912 --> 01:14:22,416
I mean, it was something
that we worked on for an entire year.

1441
01:14:23,375 --> 01:14:28,255
And because of the festival,
we lost everything within seconds.

1442
01:14:29,006 --> 01:14:31,258
<i>Is there any way</i>
<i>that the product can be built</i>

1443
01:14:31,341 --> 01:14:35,095
<i></i>
<i> <i>No. Absolutely not.</i></i>

1444
01:14:35,762 --> 01:14:39,433
He was saying, "We are a family,
it's time for us to band together."

1445
01:14:39,516 --> 01:14:42,853
And I was feeling like
that was so manipulative.

1446
01:14:42,936 --> 01:14:45,522
We're not a family,
you won't even tell me anything! You've completely violated
all the trust that we had

1447
01:14:48,275 --> 01:14:51,028
in the product, in the company,
in the brand and in you

1448
01:14:51,111 --> 01:14:55,240
and public reception is a separate
and almost unrelated problem.

1449
01:14:55,574 --> 01:14:56,408
<i>Come on, guys!</i>

1450
01:14:56,783 --> 01:15:00,412
<i>There's a lot of smart people</i>
<i>on this fucking phone call, man.</i>

1451
01:15:00,871 --> 01:15:03,749
<i>Let's think of how to dig ourselves</i>
<i>out of this shit, man.</i>

1452
01:15:04,500 --> 01:15:07,252
<i>We didn't kill anybody, nobody got hurt.</i>

1453
01:15:07,336 --> 01:15:09,838
<i>We made a mistake, we'll get past it.</i>

1454
01:15:10,422 --> 01:15:12,090
<i>I mean, granted, nobody died,</i>

1455
01:15:12,174 --> 01:15:15,594
<i>but we did flat-out lie to the public</i>
<i>about what we're giving them.</i>

1456
01:15:16,094 --> 01:15:17,346
<i>I mean, that's fraud.</i>

1457
01:15:18,472 --> 01:15:21,725
<i>Like, and that's not okay</i>
<i>as a company operates.</i>

1458
01:15:22,309 --> 01:15:23,519
<i>That's not fraud.</i>

1459
01:15:25,145 --> 01:15:26,313
<i>That's not fraud.</i>

1460
01:15:26,939 --> 01:15:30,192
<i>That is, uh... I would call that...</i>

1461
01:15:30,275 --> 01:15:31,652
<i>"false advertising."</i>

1462
01:15:35,322 --> 01:15:36,949
As we were getting on the plane,

1463
01:15:37,032 --> 01:15:40,786
I think I tweeted something like,
"See you later, Fyre Festival.

1464
01:15:40,869 --> 01:15:43,413
You'll be hearing from Stacy Miller,
my lawyer."

1465
01:15:43,497 --> 01:15:45,707
I thought to myself,
"That's a little strange."

1466
01:15:45,791 --> 01:15:48,377
So I looked on Facebook
and Facebook was going crazy

1467
01:15:48,460 --> 01:15:52,422
with this Fyre Festival,
of which I had never even heard about.

1468
01:15:52,506 --> 01:15:54,675
And,the day after, it was announced

1469
01:15:54,758 --> 01:15:58,011
that there was a $100 million
class action lawsuit that was filed.

1470
01:15:58,220 --> 01:16:00,389
In my experience
with class action lawsuits,

1471
01:16:00,472 --> 01:16:03,350
it was not going to get resolved
anytime soon.

1472
01:16:03,433 --> 01:16:05,310
So we decided to file independently.

1473
01:16:06,186 --> 01:16:08,272
The suit was for committing fraud

1474
01:16:08,355 --> 01:16:10,899
saying, "Look at how great,
this is going to be,"

1475
01:16:10,983 --> 01:16:13,694
when they knew all along
it was going to be

1476
01:16:13,777 --> 01:16:15,946
nothing close to what was advertised.

1477
01:16:16,530 --> 01:16:18,156
I feel very strongly that

1478
01:16:18,240 --> 01:16:19,908
if I had bought tickets to the festival,

1479
01:16:19,992 --> 01:16:24,162
I'd name every single one of the people
that advertised for it in the lawsuit.

1480
01:16:25,831 --> 01:16:27,874
<i>What made this so interesting</i>

1481
01:16:27,958 --> 01:16:30,002
<i>was they made it all look organic</i>

1482
01:16:30,085 --> 01:16:33,088
<i>and, like, a bunch of celebrities</i>
<i>and famous people</i>

1483
01:16:33,171 --> 01:16:35,507
<i>were planning to attend</i>
<i>this music festival.</i>

1484
01:16:35,591 --> 01:16:39,678
And that's why the impact and reach,
in my mind, was as great as it was.

1485
01:16:40,887 --> 01:16:42,639
That was
a big criticism of people.

1486
01:16:42,723 --> 01:16:45,183
"How could you market something
that wasn't real?"

1487
01:16:45,267 --> 01:16:46,643
You know? But it's like...

1488
01:16:46,727 --> 01:16:49,855
everything was real.
Everything looked real.

1489
01:16:50,939 --> 01:16:53,942
If you get hired to do a BMW commercial

1490
01:16:54,026 --> 01:16:56,403
and that BMW then has a faulty engine,

1491
01:16:56,486 --> 01:16:58,405
how the fuck can you possibly know

1492
01:16:58,488 --> 01:17:01,283
whether they'll do good
on what they said they were gonna do?

1493
01:17:01,533 --> 01:17:04,786
That's like saying the sound guy,
and the DP, and the location scout

1494
01:17:04,870 --> 01:17:07,122
has to do business due diligence
on whether or not

1495
01:17:07,205 --> 01:17:08,498
something's actually gonna happen.

1496
01:17:09,541 --> 01:17:11,877
How could we ask the models

1497
01:17:11,960 --> 01:17:15,005
to have the kind of awareness
of the Fyre Festival

1498
01:17:15,088 --> 01:17:18,425
that I myself didn't have,
being an employee of Fyre Media?

1499
01:17:21,136 --> 01:17:24,431
We certainly wanted to send the message
to influencers

1500
01:17:24,514 --> 01:17:26,558
that when you post a photograph,

1501
01:17:26,642 --> 01:17:29,478
and you don't say "#advertisement,"

1502
01:17:29,561 --> 01:17:32,981
there is some level of responsibility.

1503
01:17:33,815 --> 01:17:37,778
The government, because of this incident,
has been cracking down more and more.

1504
01:17:37,861 --> 01:17:41,198
Bella Hadid is now apologizing
to her fans.

1505
01:17:41,281 --> 01:17:43,408
"I initially trusted
this would be an amazing

1506
01:17:43,492 --> 01:17:45,702
and memorable experience for all of us."

1507
01:17:45,786 --> 01:17:49,581
I don't think that they knew
or were malicious in their intent.

1508
01:17:50,165 --> 01:17:52,751
I don't think anybody fully appreciated

1509
01:17:52,834 --> 01:17:55,462
the extent of Billy's fraud

1510
01:17:55,545 --> 01:17:57,381
and where he was gonna go with this.

1511
01:18:01,009 --> 01:18:02,386
They all kept working,

1512
01:18:02,803 --> 01:18:04,930
I think, a week or two after the festival,

1513
01:18:05,013 --> 01:18:07,265
and then Billy scheduled
an all-hands meeting

1514
01:18:07,349 --> 01:18:10,477
where he was going to debrief everyone
and explain what was happening.

1515
01:18:36,253 --> 01:18:38,338
The fact that he let, you know,

1516
01:18:38,422 --> 01:18:43,301
20 to 30 people<i> </i>just get completely let go
with zero remorse...

1517
01:18:44,302 --> 01:18:46,555
goes a lot to show you
what type of person he is.

1518
01:19:02,028 --> 01:19:05,532
An FBI agent showed up at the door
of my parents' apartment building

1519
01:19:05,615 --> 01:19:07,743
and gave his card to the doorman

1520
01:19:07,826 --> 01:19:09,786
and said, "I'm looking for Marc Weinstein.

1521
01:19:09,870 --> 01:19:11,872
He's not in trouble,
but have him call me."

1522
01:19:11,955 --> 01:19:13,331
I was happy to talk to him

1523
01:19:13,415 --> 01:19:15,959
because I felt that there was
some justice happening here.

1524
01:19:16,042 --> 01:19:17,878
I spoke to the FBI, yeah, of course.

1525
01:19:18,128 --> 01:19:20,422
That was the first time
I really understood

1526
01:19:20,756 --> 01:19:22,007
what Billy had done.

1527
01:19:23,049 --> 01:19:25,886
But I couldn't believe
what they were showing me.

1528
01:19:28,430 --> 01:19:29,973
Billy was...

1529
01:19:30,056 --> 01:19:32,601
frauding investors
who invested in Fyre Festival

1530
01:19:32,684 --> 01:19:35,479
based on how well we were doing
as a company

1531
01:19:35,562 --> 01:19:36,772
within Fyre Media.

1532
01:19:37,898 --> 01:19:40,066
My understanding is,
he'd been telling investors

1533
01:19:40,150 --> 01:19:42,527
that he booked Drake for $100,000,

1534
01:19:42,611 --> 01:19:44,529
which never happened.
We never booked Drake.

1535
01:19:44,613 --> 01:19:46,281
You know, he was lying to investors,

1536
01:19:46,364 --> 01:19:48,617
making it seem we were making money
when we weren't.

1537
01:19:49,785 --> 01:19:53,872
The original report showed
about $1.5 million in offers.

1538
01:19:53,955 --> 01:19:57,501
The report that was doctored
under Billy's instruction

1539
01:19:57,584 --> 01:19:59,878
showed closer to $35 milion.

1540
01:20:00,670 --> 01:20:03,924
<i>Billy claimed that they had been given</i>
<i>an island in the Bahamas</i>

1541
01:20:04,007 --> 01:20:06,635
<i>worth $8 million,</i>
<i>when, in fact, they had not.</i>

1542
01:20:06,968 --> 01:20:08,303
<i>Billy falsely claimed</i>

1543
01:20:08,386 --> 01:20:11,348
<i>that he had more than $2 million</i>
<i>in Facebook stocks,</i>

1544
01:20:11,431 --> 01:20:14,351
<i>when in fact he had about $1,500.</i>

1545
01:20:14,434 --> 01:20:17,229
<i> Billy McFarland</i>
<i>charged with wire fraud</i>

1546
01:20:17,312 --> 01:20:18,730
<i>in federal court.</i>

1547
01:20:18,814 --> 01:20:21,316
<i>McFarland allegedly sent fake documents</i>

1548
01:20:21,399 --> 01:20:23,735
<i>claiming the company made</i>
<i>millions in revenue.</i>

1549
01:20:23,819 --> 01:20:26,696
<i>He'd only earned less than $60,000.</i>

1550
01:20:28,365 --> 01:20:29,366
I knew Billy,

1551
01:20:29,449 --> 01:20:32,577
but I never knew he was capable
of doing something like that.

1552
01:20:33,036 --> 01:20:36,790
This guy really made me feel
like he was part of my family.

1553
01:20:36,873 --> 01:20:39,042
I invited him to dinners with my family,

1554
01:20:39,125 --> 01:20:41,628
and for him to do what he did, you know,

1555
01:20:41,711 --> 01:20:46,341
I lost that judge of character in people
that I thought, you know, I had,

1556
01:20:46,424 --> 01:20:49,052
and that was really difficult for me.

1557
01:20:49,135 --> 01:20:53,223
He really leveraged your existing
emotional investment in this team

1558
01:20:53,306 --> 01:20:56,601
and in this product
to extort you to investing even more.

1559
01:20:56,685 --> 01:20:57,936
This was Billy's charm.

1560
01:20:58,854 --> 01:21:01,314
Like, Billy could just sell you
on anything.

1561
01:21:01,648 --> 01:21:03,900
He's an operational sociopath.

1562
01:21:03,984 --> 01:21:06,319
The reason he racked up
millions of dollars

1563
01:21:06,403 --> 01:21:09,155
on the Fyre app AmEx card

1564
01:21:09,239 --> 01:21:12,617
was to pay for Magnises tickets

1565
01:21:12,701 --> 01:21:14,786
for his Magnises users.

1566
01:21:15,036 --> 01:21:16,746
He got almost all of it paid off,

1567
01:21:16,830 --> 01:21:19,749
except for the remaining $250,000,

1568
01:21:20,000 --> 01:21:23,628
which now I'm being sued by AmEx for.

1569
01:21:24,212 --> 01:21:30,302
He left $150,000 of<i> </i>outstanding bills

1570
01:21:30,385 --> 01:21:33,763
on my personal American Express
because of the festival as well.

1571
01:21:35,056 --> 01:21:38,018
We lost a lot of money. A lot of money.

1572
01:21:38,435 --> 01:21:39,561
A lot.

1573
01:21:39,644 --> 01:21:42,397
Hundreds of thousands of dollars,
without a doubt.

1574
01:21:42,898 --> 01:21:44,774
A lot of people didn't get paid.

1575
01:21:45,233 --> 01:21:47,360
A lot of my workers didn't get paid.

1576
01:21:47,861 --> 01:21:49,279
He kept on saying,

1577
01:21:49,654 --> 01:21:52,073
"The money is coming, J.R.,
the money is coming."

1578
01:21:52,157 --> 01:21:53,325
It never reached.

1579
01:21:53,408 --> 01:21:56,620
<i> So there was a group of Bahamian</i>
<i>locals that built the festival site.</i>

1580
01:21:57,454 --> 01:21:58,830
<i>They were never paid.</i>

1581
01:21:59,331 --> 01:22:00,582
<i>The estimate that I heard</i>

1582
01:22:00,665 --> 01:22:04,169
<i>was a quarter of a million dollars</i>
<i>was owed in day wages to them.</i>

1583
01:22:04,753 --> 01:22:07,839
I had ten persons
working directly with me,

1584
01:22:07,923 --> 01:22:12,010
just preparing food
all day and all night, 24 hours.

1585
01:22:12,510 --> 01:22:16,556
I had to literally pay all those people.
I am here as a Bahamian.

1586
01:22:16,640 --> 01:22:19,100
And they stand in my face every day.

1587
01:22:19,517 --> 01:22:22,812
I went through about $50,000 of my savings

1588
01:22:23,271 --> 01:22:25,440
that I could have had for a rainy day.

1589
01:22:26,858 --> 01:22:30,320
They just wiped it out
and never looked back.

1590
01:22:31,947 --> 01:22:35,784
Personally, I don't even like to talk
about the Fyre Festival.

1591
01:22:36,284 --> 01:22:40,830
Just take it away
and just let me start a new beginning.

1592
01:22:41,289 --> 01:22:43,959
'Cause they really hurt me.

1593
01:22:47,796 --> 01:22:49,839
I am really hurt from that.

1594
01:22:53,134 --> 01:22:56,972
To see nobody return to say,
"Let me take care of what she's done,

1595
01:22:57,055 --> 01:22:58,640
we know she has done right."

1596
01:23:03,269 --> 01:23:06,189
I just leave it alone,
'cause it really pains me

1597
01:23:06,272 --> 01:23:09,943
when I have to talk about it
so I just wipe it away.

1598
01:23:19,119 --> 01:23:20,453
<i>Are you sorry?</i>

1599
01:23:20,537 --> 01:23:22,956
Thank you, guys.
I'll arrange a comment later. Thank you.

1600
01:23:23,039 --> 01:23:27,002
<i>He was released on Saturday</i>
<i>on $300,000 bail.</i>

1601
01:23:27,085 --> 01:23:28,420
<i>He claims he is broke.</i>

1602
01:23:28,503 --> 01:23:30,922
<i>He has apparently moved back in</i>
<i>with his parents.</i>

1603
01:23:31,214 --> 01:23:34,300
Fortunately, I think Billy
is currently living in the basement

1604
01:23:34,384 --> 01:23:36,469
of his parents' New Jersey home.

1605
01:23:36,553 --> 01:23:38,179
He's no longer in his penthouse.

1606
01:23:38,263 --> 01:23:41,224
He's no longer riding around in Maseratis

1607
01:23:41,307 --> 01:23:43,268
and flaunting the wealth that he stole.

1608
01:23:51,860 --> 01:23:53,903
Coming back to the Fyre Festival
for a second.

1609
01:23:53,987 --> 01:23:56,614
You should make
a Fyre Festival game, dude.

1610
01:23:56,698 --> 01:23:57,949
'Cause you're going through--

1611
01:23:58,033 --> 01:24:00,076
They did the Fyre Festival
on Saturday Night Live.

1612
01:24:00,160 --> 01:24:01,411
I know!

1613
01:24:01,911 --> 01:24:03,955
You could turn this into so much.

1614
01:24:04,039 --> 01:24:06,082
You just gotta accept the Fyre Festival,

1615
01:24:06,166 --> 01:24:10,045
and you could turn this shit into gold,
like, a pot of gold and then run with it.

1616
01:24:10,128 --> 01:24:11,046
I'm not allowed.

1617
01:24:11,129 --> 01:24:13,006
-Angelo, help me.

1618
01:24:13,089 --> 01:24:14,424
Wait, why aren't you--

1619
01:24:14,507 --> 01:24:17,510
I hadn't spoken to Billy since he was...

1620
01:24:17,594 --> 01:24:20,055
arrested and released on bail.

1621
01:24:20,138 --> 01:24:21,931
So he asked us to come down

1622
01:24:22,015 --> 01:24:24,434
to this hotel where he was staying at,

1623
01:24:24,601 --> 01:24:27,270
and he asked us if we could bring
our video equipment,

1624
01:24:27,353 --> 01:24:28,855
we can do all of that stuff.

1625
01:24:28,938 --> 01:24:31,274
And we didn't really know
what we were gonna be filming.

1626
01:24:31,357 --> 01:24:33,902
Yeah, just film around the clock.

1627
01:24:33,985 --> 01:24:36,696
The one thing I've learned from this
is the more footage, the better.

1628
01:24:37,280 --> 01:24:39,491
How was he living
while he was out on bail?

1629
01:24:39,574 --> 01:24:40,742
He wasn't living like me.

1630
01:24:41,201 --> 01:24:44,204
Billy was living... He was living large.

1631
01:24:44,287 --> 01:24:45,872
That penthouse was beautiful.

1632
01:24:46,706 --> 01:24:49,709
I just had
a little bit of a confused face.

1633
01:24:49,793 --> 01:24:52,670
Like, "How are you able to pay
for all of this?"

1634
01:24:56,716 --> 01:24:58,343
There was a guy named Angelo.

1635
01:24:58,426 --> 01:25:01,471
And I don't know if it was Billy's PR guy,

1636
01:25:01,554 --> 01:25:03,723
but I know that this guy
was very connected.

1637
01:25:04,057 --> 01:25:05,892
That is the...

1638
01:25:10,855 --> 01:25:13,775
Just try to keep me out of your stuff
because my...

1639
01:25:14,275 --> 01:25:15,902
I can't say anything.

1640
01:25:16,361 --> 01:25:18,238
We're not saying anything bad.
You can talk.

1641
01:25:18,321 --> 01:25:19,989
You know, you can give me advice.

1642
01:25:20,824 --> 01:25:23,284
We talked about my experiences

1643
01:25:23,368 --> 01:25:24,744
in the legal system

1644
01:25:24,828 --> 01:25:27,872
and I'll never forget what he said to me.

1645
01:25:27,956 --> 01:25:30,583
He looked me dead in my face and said,

1646
01:25:31,167 --> 01:25:32,669
"I'm not going to jail."

1647
01:25:33,419 --> 01:25:36,756
Well, I was like, "This man
either knows something that I don't

1648
01:25:37,340 --> 01:25:39,676
or he is certifiably insane."

1649
01:25:44,305 --> 01:25:46,766
NYC VIP Access

1650
01:25:46,850 --> 01:25:50,311
was a company that reached out to me

1651
01:25:50,395 --> 01:25:52,480
December 15th, 2017...

1652
01:25:53,064 --> 01:25:56,860
with an offer
to the 2018 Masters tournament.

1653
01:25:56,943 --> 01:25:58,319
It was from a guy named Frank.

1654
01:25:58,403 --> 01:26:01,197
It just said,
"Hey, we've got these tickets

1655
01:26:01,281 --> 01:26:04,784
to the 2018 Masters.
It'd be great for you or your clients.

1656
01:26:05,160 --> 01:26:06,411
Let us know if you want."

1657
01:26:06,494 --> 01:26:10,123
And so I texted my friend Morgan,
"Did you guys get this Masters email?"

1658
01:26:10,206 --> 01:26:11,166
"Yeah. I got that too."

1659
01:26:11,249 --> 01:26:12,750
And so I'm like, okay, clearly

1660
01:26:12,834 --> 01:26:16,004
somebody's targeting
the Fyre Festival email list.

1661
01:26:17,422 --> 01:26:21,050
December 19th,
"Gift the gift of private flights."

1662
01:26:22,093 --> 01:26:26,055
December 21st, again from NYC VIP Access,

1663
01:26:26,139 --> 01:26:30,435
"Coachella 2018 VIP passes for $500.

1664
01:26:30,518 --> 01:26:33,646
"Please email me or call phone number
to reserve. Frank."

1665
01:26:34,105 --> 01:26:35,690
January 2nd,

1666
01:26:35,773 --> 01:26:40,486
"Meet Ed Sheeran, Demi Lovato,
DJ Khaled, Taylor Swift and more.

1667
01:26:40,570 --> 01:26:42,864
We want to one-up
your New Year's resolutions

1668
01:26:42,947 --> 01:26:45,200
by making your dreams become a reality.

1669
01:26:45,283 --> 01:26:48,203
Please email or call to reserve. Frank."

1670
01:26:48,620 --> 01:26:50,246
"Burning Man, 2018."

1671
01:26:50,330 --> 01:26:52,498
"Courtside at MSG

1672
01:26:52,582 --> 01:26:54,125
and dinner with LeBron."

1673
01:26:54,209 --> 01:26:57,587
"Victoria Secret Fashion Show," "Met Gala,

1674
01:26:57,670 --> 01:26:59,422
red carpet and gala tickets.

1675
01:26:59,505 --> 01:27:02,133
Please email, text or call me to reserve.

1676
01:27:02,217 --> 01:27:04,552
First come, first serve. Frank."

1677
01:27:05,970 --> 01:27:06,971
So we're basically

1678
01:27:07,055 --> 01:27:10,975
selling 2018 Grammy tickets.
VIP Access, baby.

1679
01:27:12,435 --> 01:27:13,645
What's the next number?

1680
01:27:15,271 --> 01:27:18,650
I first started hearing
about the NYC VIP Access emails

1681
01:27:18,733 --> 01:27:19,651
in December.

1682
01:27:19,734 --> 01:27:23,029
When I realized that multiple people
who had attended the festival

1683
01:27:23,112 --> 01:27:24,906
were getting the emails,

1684
01:27:24,989 --> 01:27:27,951
that was when I really started
to look at it more seriously.

1685
01:27:28,409 --> 01:27:30,620
<i>Met Gala tickets can't be purchased</i>

1686
01:27:30,703 --> 01:27:34,290
<i>and anyone who attends has to be approved</i>
<i>by Anna Wintour in advance.</i>

1687
01:27:34,499 --> 01:27:37,210
<i>The Victoria's Secret Show</i>
<i>hadn't even been cast yet.</i>

1688
01:27:37,293 --> 01:27:39,754
<i>Taylor Swift,</i>
<i>she's very open about the fact</i>

1689
01:27:39,837 --> 01:27:41,464
<i>that she doesn't do meet-and-greets.</i>

1690
01:27:41,547 --> 01:27:43,967
<i>Burning Man told me</i>
<i>that they had not sold any tickets</i>

1691
01:27:44,050 --> 01:27:47,262
<i>and that there were no sponsors</i>
<i>who would have tickets available.</i>

1692
01:27:47,428 --> 01:27:50,014
<i>Pretty much everything that they offered</i>
<i>was debunked</i>

1693
01:27:50,098 --> 01:27:52,141
<i>through just a quick phone call</i>
<i>or a Google search.</i>

1694
01:27:59,607 --> 01:28:01,401
That's fucking hustling right here.

1695
01:28:02,652 --> 01:28:04,654
The first time I met Frank Tribble

1696
01:28:04,737 --> 01:28:06,364
was at the hotel. I had never seen him before

1697
01:28:08,157 --> 01:28:11,119
and usually the people
who are around Billy, I'm familiar with.

1698
01:28:11,202 --> 01:28:15,331
The strangest thing was
he actually had on a Magnises hat,

1699
01:28:15,415 --> 01:28:17,500
he had on, like, a Fyre sweater.

1700
01:28:17,834 --> 01:28:22,422
Frank is, I think, 22 or 23,
and Billy had reached out to him

1701
01:28:22,505 --> 01:28:24,716
and said, "I'm starting this company,

1702
01:28:24,799 --> 01:28:27,927
but I'm kind of in some hot water
related to Fyre Festival,

1703
01:28:28,011 --> 01:28:30,513
so I need you to be the face of it."

1704
01:28:30,596 --> 01:28:31,723
Hi, is this Zachary?

1705
01:28:32,515 --> 01:28:35,643
Zachary, this is Frank
calling from NYC VIP Access.

1706
01:28:35,727 --> 01:28:37,770
The reason I was actually
giving you a call,

1707
01:28:37,854 --> 01:28:41,566
the Grammys are gonna be held
in New York City on Sunday January 28th,

1708
01:28:41,649 --> 01:28:42,942
in Madison Square Garden,

1709
01:28:43,026 --> 01:28:45,320
and we're actually selling VIP tickets
for that event.

1710
01:28:45,445 --> 01:28:48,698
According to the FBI, 15 people gave him

1711
01:28:48,781 --> 01:28:51,159
over $100,000 for those tickets.

1712
01:28:51,451 --> 01:28:54,203
Josh, Frank is gonna call off the list.

1713
01:28:54,287 --> 01:28:56,331
If they don't pick up,
you send them an email.

1714
01:28:56,414 --> 01:28:58,583
I'll write a script for you right now,
okay?

1715
01:28:59,959 --> 01:29:01,210
What are you recording?

1716
01:29:02,795 --> 01:29:07,300
It's hard for me to say if these guys
didn't know what was going on.

1717
01:29:07,717 --> 01:29:11,929
But I also know that Billy is really good
at keeping a level of information...

1718
01:29:12,472 --> 01:29:13,931
below and above.

1719
01:29:14,432 --> 01:29:17,352
For every call,
call twice in a row if they don't pick up.

1720
01:29:17,894 --> 01:29:19,854
Everybody picks up on the second ring.

1721
01:29:24,734 --> 01:29:26,235
Let's cut for now. Thanks.

1722
01:29:27,153 --> 01:29:29,572
On June 12th, I published an article

1723
01:29:29,655 --> 01:29:32,658
outlining all the crossover
between Billy McFarland

1724
01:29:32,742 --> 01:29:34,452
and New York City VIP Access,

1725
01:29:34,952 --> 01:29:36,913
and about six hours later

1726
01:29:36,996 --> 01:29:41,000
Billy was rearrested and charged
with five felonies.

1727
01:29:41,334 --> 01:29:43,920
They included fraud, money laundering,

1728
01:29:44,337 --> 01:29:47,256
identity theft, and witness intimidation

1729
01:29:47,340 --> 01:29:51,177
after he warned at least two people
not to talk to the FBI

1730
01:29:51,260 --> 01:29:54,639
and to pretend that they were represented
by legal counsel

1731
01:29:54,722 --> 01:29:55,848
when they were not.

1732
01:29:58,518 --> 01:30:01,270
I mean, the idea of him doing this

1733
01:30:01,354 --> 01:30:04,065
while he's out on bail
is mind-blowing to me.

1734
01:30:04,148 --> 01:30:07,693
Because you're already
under the biggest microscope,

1735
01:30:07,777 --> 01:30:10,905
and then you're gonna go
and commit another scam.

1736
01:30:10,988 --> 01:30:15,118
Like, I just don't understand
why he didn't just stop.

1737
01:30:16,869 --> 01:30:19,205
<i>You said Billy asked you</i>
<i>about going, what...</i>

1738
01:30:19,288 --> 01:30:21,165
<i>What was he asking you about jail?</i>

1739
01:30:22,166 --> 01:30:26,379
Well, unfortunately,
I had a misstep in my past,

1740
01:30:26,462 --> 01:30:27,338
and, um...

1741
01:30:28,172 --> 01:30:30,508
I unfortunately experienced it.

1742
01:30:31,050 --> 01:30:32,802
And I was in there for two months.

1743
01:30:32,885 --> 01:30:36,639
And, you know, he just flat out asked me.
He was like, "What was it like?"

1744
01:30:36,722 --> 01:30:40,059
And I was like,
"It's 23/1 for the first seven days."

1745
01:30:40,143 --> 01:30:41,686
He was like, "What's 23/1?"

1746
01:30:42,270 --> 01:30:45,273
"You're in a fucking cell for 23 hours.

1747
01:30:45,815 --> 01:30:47,525
And then they let you out for one. You better stretch your legs,
walk around,

1748
01:30:49,861 --> 01:30:52,572
do whatever you need to do,
but you're in there

1749
01:30:52,780 --> 01:30:56,033
until you're processed. After that,
they put you where they need to put you,

1750
01:30:56,117 --> 01:30:58,119
until you get sent up north."

1751
01:30:58,202 --> 01:31:03,249
And I remember the energy off of him.
And it was just like...

1752
01:31:04,667 --> 01:31:08,379
That shit was so far away
from what he knew

1753
01:31:08,629 --> 01:31:10,798
and what he experienced in his life,

1754
01:31:10,882 --> 01:31:13,551
that the cognitive dissonance
just led him to say,

1755
01:31:13,634 --> 01:31:15,052
"I'm not going to jail."

1756
01:31:25,938 --> 01:31:27,440
I reflected on myself

1757
01:31:28,232 --> 01:31:30,818
and I was questioning
to what extent was I guilty,

1758
01:31:30,902 --> 01:31:33,237
to what extent
was I complicit in all of this.

1759
01:31:33,654 --> 01:31:36,491
And I looked back
at my posts on social media

1760
01:31:36,574 --> 01:31:39,285
and it was like
all beautiful beaches and sunsets.

1761
01:31:39,952 --> 01:31:41,037
You know? And...

1762
01:31:41,537 --> 01:31:44,582
And I was going
through the hardest experience of my life,

1763
01:31:44,665 --> 01:31:47,084
and yet if you had seen it,
you'd have been like,

1764
01:31:47,168 --> 01:31:48,669
"Wow, what a great life this guy leads.

1765
01:31:48,753 --> 01:31:51,964
He's living in the Bahamas,
going to beaches all day."

1766
01:31:52,048 --> 01:31:55,635
And Fyre shows what happens
when you take that to an extreme.

1767
01:31:58,137 --> 01:32:01,599
I've said this multiple times -
the real Fyre Festival happened twice.

1768
01:32:01,682 --> 01:32:02,767
It was the shoots.

1769
01:32:03,643 --> 01:32:06,354
What the commercial was
was what everybody wanted.

1770
01:32:06,437 --> 01:32:07,480
The shoots were parties.

1771
01:32:07,897 --> 01:32:10,900
It just happened to happen for 60 people
versus 6,000.

1772
01:32:12,193 --> 01:32:13,152
It was epic.

1773
01:32:13,236 --> 01:32:17,031
It was nothing I never saw before
in my whole entire life. Like...

1774
01:32:17,114 --> 01:32:20,368
I'm from the Bahamas, man.
We're used to small island stuff.

1775
01:32:20,451 --> 01:32:24,330
That was like... That put me up
on a new level, a higher level.

1776
01:32:25,373 --> 01:32:28,501
We're living in this
influencers society, you know?

1777
01:32:28,584 --> 01:32:31,796
Everybody wants to have this online clout,

1778
01:32:31,879 --> 01:32:34,090
people want to have access

1779
01:32:34,173 --> 01:32:36,259
and they want exclusivity.

1780
01:32:36,968 --> 01:32:40,429
Fyre was basically, like,
Instagram coming to life.

1781
01:32:40,513 --> 01:32:42,932
It actually dovetails
really interestingly with

1782
01:32:43,015 --> 01:32:45,184
just random news stories
that have come out since.

1783
01:32:45,268 --> 01:32:47,395
I was reading about a company in Russia

1784
01:32:47,478 --> 01:32:51,649
that now will sell people
like three hours to do a photo shoot

1785
01:32:51,732 --> 01:32:54,026
on a private jet
that's just parked on the tarmac.

1786
01:32:54,110 --> 01:32:55,611
They never actually leave,

1787
01:32:55,695 --> 01:32:58,155
but they get to take the picture
looking out the window,

1788
01:32:58,239 --> 01:33:00,533
and pretending that they're living
this lifestyle.

1789
01:33:00,616 --> 01:33:03,452
And, like, they're successful.
People are using it.

1790
01:33:03,786 --> 01:33:07,456
Billy seemed really invested
in that whole lifestyle.

1791
01:33:07,790 --> 01:33:11,419
Yo, I wanna say happy birthday
to my brother,

1792
01:33:11,502 --> 01:33:15,756
my partner Billy in the building.
Happy birthday, Billy.

1793
01:33:15,965 --> 01:33:19,468
I think it was important to him
not just to be on a plane with a model,

1794
01:33:19,552 --> 01:33:21,804
but to feel like that was his life.

1795
01:33:21,887 --> 01:33:24,765
That he belonged there.
And not because he owns Fyre,

1796
01:33:24,849 --> 01:33:26,434
but because that's who he was.

1797
01:33:26,892 --> 01:33:29,770
He was completely out of his depth,
and he's,

1798
01:33:29,854 --> 01:33:33,107
unfortunately for himself,
a compulsive liar.

1799
01:33:33,941 --> 01:33:37,278
And someone that at the end, you know,
should be held accountable.

1800
01:33:38,779 --> 01:33:40,656
He has a massive debt,

1801
01:33:40,740 --> 01:33:43,659
not just to the people who invested
or to the concert-goers.

1802
01:33:43,743 --> 01:33:46,037
I think he has a larger debt
to the employees

1803
01:33:46,120 --> 01:33:48,456
that were reporting and working with him.

1804
01:33:48,789 --> 01:33:51,542
The only way, in my opinion,
a guy like this learns his lesson

1805
01:33:51,626 --> 01:33:53,085
is actually going to jail.

1806
01:33:55,254 --> 01:33:58,299
I don't think that we've heard
the last of Billy McFarland.

1807
01:33:58,382 --> 01:34:00,384
I mean, if there's anything
that guy is good at,

1808
01:34:00,468 --> 01:34:02,762
it's separating consumers from their cash.

1809
01:34:02,845 --> 01:34:05,097
And if there's anything that this country

1810
01:34:05,181 --> 01:34:07,224
celebrates more than that, I don't know.

1811
01:34:08,643 --> 01:34:12,605
Billy has a presence where, you
know, there's something behind the smile.

1812
01:34:13,773 --> 01:34:15,816
I wouldn't be surprised
if ten years down the line,

1813
01:34:15,900 --> 01:34:17,360
we're hearing about Billy McFarland

1814
01:34:17,443 --> 01:34:19,654
starting some kind
of other venture that's...

1815
01:34:19,737 --> 01:34:21,781
you know, imaginative and, uh, and gets some serious momentum

1816
01:34:24,700 --> 01:34:27,328
and, you know,
this all happens in some form again.

1817
01:34:59,026 --> 01:34:59,944
It's Billy!

1818
01:35:01,070 --> 01:35:02,196
What's up, Billy?

1819
01:35:03,114 --> 01:35:05,282
I'm in front of the cameraman.
I'm talking--

1820
01:35:05,574 --> 01:35:06,992
I'm good.

1821
01:35:08,285 --> 01:35:11,539
Yeah. I'm putting in some good words.

1822
01:35:12,415 --> 01:35:14,917
You want me to say anything
on the camera for you?

1823
01:35:17,128 --> 01:35:17,962
All right.