So Fyre Fest is a complete disaster. Mass chaos. No organization. No one knows where to go. There are no villas, just a disaster tent city. pic.twitter.com/1lSWtnk7cA
— William N. Finley IV (@WNFIV) April 27, 2017
By now you've probably heard about the chaos of Fyre Fest. The festival that was advertised as a "luxury experience" was fully postponed after attendees arrived to find a situation that was a far cry from the glamping experience they had been promised.
On Friday, co-organizer Ja Rule took to Twitter to apologize to festival goers and to promise that the festival was "NOT A SCAM."
Later in the day, Ja Rule's business partner, entrepreneur Billy McFarland released a long statement to Rolling Stone detailing what exactly went wrong.
McFarland explained that he and Ja Rule found the festival site after they were flying planes, ran out of gas, and landed in the Exumas, a collection of islands in the Bahamas. According to McFarland, the business partners "immediately fell in love" with the location.
When it came to actually prepping the site for a festival, there were some roadblocks. "The Exumas didn't have a really great infrastructure – there wasn't a great way to get guests in here – we were a little bit ambitious," McFarland wrote. "There wasn't water or sewage."
McFarland went on to explain that the weather was a major factor in the problems faced by the festival. "The morning of the festival, a bad storm came in and took down half of our tents and busted water pipes. Guests started to arrive and the most basic function we take for granted in the U.S., we realized, 'Wow, we can't do this.'"
McFarland did take the blame for what happened. "We were a little naïve in thinking for the first time we could do this ourselves," he wrote. "The reality is, we weren't experienced enough to keep up."
In his conclusion, McFarland reassured the public that there will be make up dates. The next Fyre Fest will take place in May 2018, this time in the United States.
Read the full statement at Rolling Stone.