Trivia / Fyre

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• Dueling Works: This documentary and Hulu's Fyre Fraud were produced at the same time, with the Hulu doc dropping right before this one. While there was some sniping between the filmmakers, with Fyre's producers criticizing Fyre Fraud for paying Billy McFarland to appear and Frye Fraud pointing out that Jerry Media was heavily involved in promoting the festival but portrayed themselves as totally innocent, most critics and fans thought there was merit in both documentaries. Netflix's film has the benefit of Jerry Media's access to footage, while Hulu's film contains more perspective from Bahamian locals.
• What Could Have Been:
  • The festival wasn't necessarily doomed from its conception; rather it was doomed from its advertisement. Fyre media were told in no uncertain terms that if they used Pablo Escobar's name in the advertising, they would not have permission to use the island and would be kicked off immediately; they proceeded to use his name anyway and the owner did exactly what he warned he would do. If they had kept the original island and gone with Keith's idea of renting out a cruise liner while only constructing the things needed for the festival itself, the whole thing would have been far cheaper and would have taken much less time to prepare.
  • Renting a cruise liner for two weeks would cost an average of $2-3 million dollars (or possibly less depending on the company and type of ship), and this would have come complete with pretty much all the facilities needed to house the guests with some potential extras if they went for a more expensive version. Even if they went for a cruise liner company that cost them up to $5 million (which is a stretch), they would have cut the budget for the housing in half while getting an unarguably better product than what they eventually went with. (Keith experimented with sleeping in a tent in the Bahamas and described it as "one of the most uncomfortable nights I ever had"; even if they had gotten good tents, it would have been a dismal experience.)
  • If they had kept the original island, they would have given themselves some more time to prepare and much less work to do, they only would have had to prepare a music area, some toilets, and perhaps some leisure activities. While still an extremely tight schedule accounting for the possibly-lower workforce available, it would have been at least possible and the fateful rainstorm would have had much less impact than it actually did (probably destroying a non-important tent or two).

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