History TroubledProduction / MusicConcertsToursAndFestivals

** The Stones' set was when things took a turn for the tragic. As they performed "Under My Thumb", 18-year-old Meredith Hunter, who had earlier gotten into a scuffle with the Angels, approached the stage armed with a gun, which, in a truly sad case of irony, he had brought for his own personal protection. Seeing this, and realizing Hunter clearly had bad intentions, Angel Alan Passaro stabbed him to death. Other than Hunter's girlfriend, Patty Bredehoft, nobody seemed to notice, not even the Stones; the body wasn't even discovered until the Stones had finished their set (Mick Jagger did call for a doctor when he saw the commotion, but did not understand that Hunter was dead). Passaro was charged with murder but acquitted on the basis that he acted in self-defense; he had the benefit of the whole thing being caught on the documentary footage, clearly showing that Hunter was armed and ''very'' high (the autopsy indeed showed that he had a ''ton'' of meth in his system). As if that wasn't bad enough, three other people died at Altamont - two were run over by a reckless driver in a hit-and-run, and a third drowned in an irrigation ditch while high on LSD.

** The Stones' set was when things took a turn for the tragic. As they performed "Under My Thumb", 18-year-old Meredith Hunter, who had earlier gotten into a scuffle with the Angels, approached the stage armed with a gun, which, in a truly sad case of irony, he had brought for his own personal protection. Seeing this, and realizing Hunter clearly had bad intentions, Angel Alan Passaro stabbed him to death. Other than Hunter's girlfriend, Patty Bredehoft, nobody seemed to notice, not even the Stones; the body wasn't even discovered until the Stones had finished their set. Passaro was charged with murder but acquitted on the basis that he acted in self-defense; he had the benefit of the whole thing being caught on the documentary footage, clearly showing that Hunter was armed and ''very'' high (the autopsy indeed showed that he had a ''ton'' of meth in his system). As if that wasn't bad enough, three other people died at Altamont - two were run over by a reckless driver in a hit-and-run, and a third drowned in an irrigation ditch while high on LSD.

* Rockstar Mayhem Fest 2015 was a hot mess. There was a long time for the lineup to be announced, meaning Rockstar cobbled whoever was available at the time. The other thing that blighted Mayhem Fest 2015 was most of the sponsors (such as Metal Blade, Sumerian, and the various alcohol sponsors) pulled out leading to Mayhem having [[NoBudget poor production and a weaker lineup]] than previous years. Even with Music/{{Slayer}} and Music/KingDiamond headlining [[note]]Rockstar approached both Music/{{Slipknot}} and Music/{{Rammstein}} to headline, but both declined[[/note]] they couldn’t anchor a tour of Mayhem’s size and with the lineup (Hellyeah, The Devil Wears Prada, Music/{{Whitechapel}}, Music/ThyArtIsMurder, Music/CodeOrange, and whoever was active on Victory at the time, this was also before Thy Art or Code Orange really blew up in popularity) that year. Not helping was how incompatible the band’s fanbases were. Core kids would leave after Whitechapel’s set, whereas the older heads wouldn’t bother showing up until Hellyeah’s or King Diamond’s set. Even still, the numbers for the tour were considerably lower than previous years and Mayhem was constantly in the red. When the festival came to a close Rockstar announced that [[FranchiseKiller Mayhem Festival 2015 would be its last]] until 2020 when it was announced that Mayhem would return, only for the COVID-19 pandemic to shelve them. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbexfq3WWF4 CJ from Thy Art is Murder gave his thoughts about Mayhem 2015 here.]]

* The 1959 Winter Dance Party tour, in which Music/BuddyHolly, Dion and the Belmonts, Music/RitchieValens, and Music/TheBigBopper traveled through the upper Midwest, was another example. The tour organizers scheduled dates with no regard whatsoever for geography — see [[http://www.history-of-rock.com/winter_dance_party.htm this link]] for a map of the schedule of the tour's first eleven days. If the tour had continued, there would be similar long distances between tour dates, like Dubuque, Iowa to Louisville, Kentucky, and Youngstown, Ohio to Peoria, Illinois. To make matters worse, the musicians traveled on a series of poorly maintained buses with heating systems that were inadequate at best even in ordinary winter weather, much less one of the worst winters the Midwest had seen in decades. This was compounded by the fact there was no road crew, so the bands had to load and unload their own luggage and equipment and set up their own instruments, and the tour had no days off, meaning everybody was exhausted. After the January 31 show -- which was notable for being attended by some teenager named [[Music/BobDylan Bobby Zimmerman]] -- the bus carrying the musicians broke down, and Holly's drummer Carl Bunch suffered frostbite to his feet by the time help arrived. February 2 was supposed to be an off day, but organizers added a date in Clear Lake, Iowa, more than 350 miles from the previous day's show in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Tired of cramped and inadequate buses, Holly decided to charter a plane to take him and his band from Clear Lake to Fargo, North Dakota, nearest airport to the next tour stop of Moorhead, Minnesota. Holly's band ultimately didn't get on the plane—Tom Allsup and Valens flipped a coin for his seat, with Valens winning, and Music/WaylonJennings gave up his seat to the flu-ridden Bopper. And now you know the lead-up to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_The_Music_Died The Day the Music Died]]. The plane took off in snowy weather, after sunset, with a pilot who was not fully trained or qualified for flying in those conditions, and crashed just northwest of the town.[[note]]In a bizarre footnote, Jennings and Holly were joking around before the plane took off, and Holly quipped to Jennings "Well I hope that ol' bus of yours freezes up", to which Jennings replied back "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes." To the day he died, Jennings was haunted by the belief that he had been somehow responsible for the disaster.[[/note]]

** After the experiences with ''Rendez-vous Houston'' and ''Rendez-vous Lyon'' in 1986, ''Destination Docklands'' was planned as the be-all, end-all mega-concert with a live audience of up to four million people, including several ten thousand seated with paid tickets and Princess Diana herself, and scheduled to happen at London's Queen Victoria Docks on September 24th, 1988. Mind you, that was before the Docklands were converted into a new city quarter—or rather when the first phase of this transformation had just started, namely the demolition of the old harbor buildings.\\

** The first gig was at Mont St. Michel, itself a gorgeous location for a Jarre-style outdoor concert. However, it's a rather remote place, connected only via rural streets and a rather narrow bridge. Even though tickets were needed for the tour concerts, the sheer number of spectators was too much for the traffic infrastructure, and especially the bridge was a bottleneck. Not few people who had tickets couldn't get to the show at all before it ended.

** The Stones' set was when things took a turn for the tragic. As they performed "Under My Thumb", 18-year-old Meredith Hunter, who had earlier gotten into a scuffle with the Angels, approached the stage armed with a gun, which, in a truly tragic case of irony, he had brought for his own personal protection. Seeing this, and realizing Hunter clearly had bad intentions, Angel Alan Passaro stabbed him to death. Other than Hunter's girlfriend, Patty Bredehoft, nobody seemed to notice, not even the Stones; the body wasn't even discovered until the Stones had finished their set. Passaro was charged with murder but acquitted on the basis that he acted in self-defense; he had the benefit of the whole thing being caught on the documentary footage, clearly showing that Hunter was armed and ''very'' high (the autopsy indeed showed that he had a ''ton'' of meth in his system). As if that wasn’t bad enough, three other people died at Altamont - two were run over by a reckless driver in a hit-and-run, and a third drowned in an irrigation ditch while high on LSD.

** The Stones' set was when things took a turn for the tragic. As they performed "Under My Thumb", 18-year-old Meredith Hunter, who had earlier gotten into a scuffle with the Angels, approached the stage armed with a gun, which, ironically enough, he had brought for his own personal protection. Seeing this, and realizing Hunter clearly had bad intentions, Angel Alan Passaro stabbed him to death. Other than Hunter's girlfriend, Patty Bredehoft, nobody seemed to notice, not even the Stones; the body wasn't even discovered until the Stones had finished their set. Passaro was charged with murder but acquitted on the basis that he acted in self-defense; he had the benefit of the whole thing being caught on the documentary footage, clearly showing that Hunter was armed and ''very'' high (the autopsy indeed showed that he had a ''ton'' of meth in his system). As if that wasn’t bad enough, three other people died at Altamont - two were run over by a reckless driver in a hit-and-run, and a third drowned in an irrigation ditch while high on LSD.

** The Stones' set was when things took a turn for the tragic. As the Stones performed "Under My Thumb", 18-year-old Meredith Hunter, who had earlier gotten into a scuffle with the Angels, approached the stage armed with a gun, which, ironically enough, he had brought for his own personal protection. Seeing this, and realizing Hunter clearly had bad intentions, Angel Alan Passaro stabbed him to death. Other than Hunter's girlfriend, Patty Bredehoft, nobody seemed to notice, not even the Stones; the body wasn't even discovered until the Stones had finished their set. Passaro was charged with murder but acquitted on the basis that he acted in self-defense; he had the benefit of the whole thing being caught on the documentary footage, clearly showing that Hunter was armed and ''very'' high (the autopsy indeed showed that he had a ''ton'' of meth in his system). As if that wasn’t bad enough, three other people died at Altamont - two were run over by a reckless driver in a hit-and-run, and a third drowned in an irrigation ditch while high on LSD.

*** What really broke the crowd was the vendor costs. Water cost $4 a bottle and single-serving pizzas cost $12. There were bus routes to the nearby city of Rome, New York, where people could presumably go to get supplies, but that didn't work because shops quickly became overcrowded and ran out of food. In contrast, the acts were well fed and taken care of and the organizers even had a barbecue with some of them in the backstage area, where the tour buses were parked. Even worse, Guards would take food and drinks from people as they arrived to raise profit. And yet they were lenient (specially with bribes) regarding entering with drugs, and such intoxication might've helped people act worse than normal. What's more, it was said that the majority of the festival security had no real experience in doing REAL security. (i;e, maintaining order among festival-goers and breaking up fights and riots, among other things) Which was a huge red flag, as Woodstock was a major music festival that demanded a large force of dutiful and well trained guards, which was not the case here.
*** There also were not enough toilets to accommodate the large crowd. What was there quickly became unusable. Water fountains were also vandalized by people who became frustrated by the long lines. The communal showers overflowed, while also having men lifting the feeble barriers to check on the women bathing. And like 1969, there was mud aplenty... but less to do with dirt than [[{{Squick}} spilled human waste from those broken toilets]].

*** The Organizers had hinted that a mystery act would close out the festival on Sunday night after The Red Hot Chili Peppers' set...only for it to be footage of Jimi Hendrix playing at the 1969 festival, the crowd officially lost their cool completely and the bad mood eventually spilled over into all-out violence - with a literal fire to light the PowderKegCrowd, as candles distributed for a vigil were turned into arson weapons - when people began lighting bonfires using material from the (supposedly indestructible) security fence during the Music/RedHotChiliPeppers set. People began destroying the [=ATMs=] and looting the vendor booths, while the vendors abandoned their respective booths and made off with their profits. MTV removed their entire crew and ceased coverage of the event when they saw the carnage going on. The crowd even went so far as to pull down one of the speaker towers and a few concert light stands. Finally, there were multiple accusations of rape at the festival. New York State Troopers eventually cleared the site, bringing the festival to an end.

*** Then Dentsu Aegis Network, one of the investors, announced that the festival was canceled--a statement which was contradicted by festival management. To say this left things in a state of extreme confusion is a massive understatement, because Dentsu Aegis pulling out might actually have voided the contracts of ''every'' artist slated to appear. Agencies ended up making the choices individually.

* The 1980 ''Uprising Tour'' for Bob Marley & The Wailers turned out to be their very last tour, and for the most tragic reason possible.

* The 1984 Music/Jackson5 Victory Tour was infamously anything but, as recounted in J. Randy Taraborelli's ''The Magic and the Madness''. Music/MichaelJackson was riding high; ''Music/{{Thriller}}'' was insanely popular, and he had established himself as a solo act who no longer had to answer to his abusive father Joe. His brothers, who were financially struggling, approached Michael in 1983 offering to record and tour together again. Michael said no, but his mom pressured him to do so. From there, well...

** The trouble started before tragedy struck. The European leg of the tour was successful... perhaps a bit ''too'' successful. Crowds were piling up at the shows creating slight safety hazards with everyone bunching up together to get closer to the stage. At one bizarre show in Italy, the audience was separated by the stage by a body of dirty water. The audience proceeded to walk through said dirty water to get closer.
** Bob had started acting out of character and would sometimes get erratic. Nobody knew the cause at the time, as Bob would shrug off the issues and refuse to see a doctor.
** After dealing with the unexpected crowds in Europe, when the band came to the U.S., Bob, who had survived a shooting 4 years prior, was growing concerned. Not understanding the difference between the gangs in Jamaica and the gangs in the United States, Bob sought out the Gambino family for "protection". He ended up biting off more than he could chew, making connections with gang leaders that were responsible for countless murders, connections that Bob ended up regretting.
** In order to get their famous Madison Square Garden gig, the Wailers had to resort to allowing themselves to open for Lionel Richie and The Commodores, an R&B act that appealed to black audiences where Bob's more rock-centric Reggae appealed to white audiences. Attempts to promote Bob to the local black audiences by loaning his records royalty free to radio stations proved futile. The group insisted that they be the headlining act with the crowds they were starting to draw, but the radio station running the show refused. When Bob Marley and the Wailers were announced to be opening, this lead to tickets selling out, mostly to white audience members that wanted to see them, not the Commodores who were headlining. For all 3 of the nights that Bob played Madison Square Garden, a vast majority of the audience left before The Commodores even went on, leading to anger from the Commodores.
** After the morning following the Madison Square Garden shows, Marley went for a run in Central Park and seized up. Concerned friends and family finally convinced him to seek medical treatment. Doctors told him they had never seen so much cancer in one person's body and that he had, at most, one month to live. The tumor had spread to his brain, which explained the erratic behavior.
** The final show that The Wailers ever played with Bob Marley was in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Only a handful of those involved in the production knew that it was the final show. Bob acted strangely during a sound check where they needed him to play his own music, and he kept playing "Another One Bites The Dust" by Queen[[note]] friends remember that Bob vowed to never listen to Queen album, so it was confusing as to how he heard it. Then it was revealed that someone had convinced him to go see Queen live, ''that's'' how unusually Bob was acting[[/note]]. After the show ended and the band reconvened at the hotel later, Skill Cole revealed the tragic news of Bob's cancer diagnosis and that the tour was ending early. Marley lived longer than the month he was given to live, but would be dead within a year.

* The 1959 Winter Dance Party tour, in which Music/BuddyHolly, Dion and the Belmonts, Music/RitchieValens, and Music/TheBigBopper traveled through the upper Midwest, was another example. The tour organizers scheduled dates with no regard whatsoever for geography — see [[http://www.history-of-rock.com/winter_dance_party.htm this link]] for a map of the schedule of the tour's first eleven days. To make matters worse, the musicians traveled on a series of poorly maintained buses with heating systems that were inadequate at best even in ordinary winter weather, much less one of the worst winters the Midwest had seen in decades. After the January 31 show -- which was notable for being attended by some teenager named [[Music/BobDylan Bobby Zimmerman]] -- the bus carrying the musicians broke down, and one of Holly's backing band suffered frostbite by the time help arrived. February 2 was supposed to be an off day, but organizers added a date in Clear Lake, Iowa, more than 350 miles from the previous day's show in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Tired of cramped and inadequate buses, Holly decided to charter a plane to take him and his band from Clear Lake to Fargo, North Dakota, near the next tour stop of Moorhead, Minnesota. Holly's band ultimately didn't get on the plane—Tom Allsup and Valens flipped a coin for his seat, with Valens winning, and Music/WaylonJennings gave up his seat to the flu-ridden Bopper. And now you know the lead-up to [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_The_Music_Died The Day the Music Died]].[[note]]In a bizarre footnote, Jennings and Holly were joking around before the plane took off, and Holly quipped to Jennings "Well I hope that ol' bus of yours freezes up", to which Jennings replied back "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes." To the day he died, Jennings was haunted by the belief that he had been somehow responsible for the disaster.[[/note]]

* In 1974, Music/GeorgeHarrison, promoting his then-current album ''Dark Horse'', embarked on what would be his first and only solo tour (save for a brief Japanese tour in 1992 to raise funds for a campaigning political party that endorsed Transcendental Meditation). Unfortunately, the tour had been booked in advance, and Harrison, fresh from his recent divorce from Patti Boyd and fighting laryngitis, a condition which had plagued the recording of the ''Dark Horse'' album[[note]]Disparaging critics dubbed the album "Dark Hoarse", due to Harrison's congested vocal quality[[/note]], and the album was critically and commercially unsuccessful. The very religious Harrison booked Ravi Shankar and a selection of gurus as opening acts, which alienated his audience, and Harrison's singing and [[{{Bowdlerization}} decision to change some Beatles lyrics to suit his Krishna faith]] led to much criticism; the shows suffered from poor attendance as a result. Harrison [[WordOfGod once claimed]] that after one show, he had decided to stay onstage instead of returning to his hotel room. After observing the sea of stray heroin needles, beer cans and garbage left over on the seats waiting to be disposed of, George felt repulsed and swore off of touring as a result (excluding a 1991 tour in Japan with Music/EricClapton).
* The 1984 Victory Tour was infamously anything but, as recounted in J. Randy Taraborelli's ''The Magic and the Madness''. Music/MichaelJackson was riding high; ''Music/{{Thriller}}'' was insanely popular, and he had established himself as a solo act who no longer had to answer to his abusive father Joe. His brothers, who were financially struggling, approached Michael in 1983 offering to record and tour together again. Michael said no, but his mom pressured him to do so. From there, well...

Despite all the troubles that happened during the festival, many festival-goers who attended it said that they had fond memories of it, and [=Lang=] and the organizers each got a few million dollars in revenue when a documentary about the festival was made and became a huge success.

* In 1974, Music/GeorgeHarrison, promoting his then-current album ''Dark Horse'', embarked on what would be his first and only solo tour (save for a brief Japanese tour in 1992 to raise funds for a campaigning political party that endorsed Transcendental Meditation). Unfortunately, the tour had been booked in advance, and Harrison, fresh from his recent divorce from Patti Boyd and fighting laryngitis, a condition which had plagued the recording of the ''Dark Horse'' album[[note]]Disparaging critics dubbed the album "Dark Hoarse", due to Harrison's congested vocal quality[[/note]], and the album was critically and commercially unsuccessful. The very religious Harrison booked Ravi Shankar and a selection of gurus as opening acts, which alienated his audience, and Harrison's singing and [[{{Bowdlerization}} decision to change some Beatles lyrics to suit his Krishna faith]] led to much criticism; the shows suffered from poor attendance as a result. Harrison [[WordOfGod once claimed]] that after one show, he had decided to stay onstage instead of returning to his hotel room. After observing the sea of stray heroin needles, beer cans and garbage left over on the seats waiting to be disposed of, George felt repulsed and swore off of touring as a result.

*** The Organizers had hinted that a mystery act would close out the festival on Sunday night after The Red Hot Chili Peppers' set...only for it to be footage of Jimi Hendrix playing at the 1969 festival, the crowd officially lost their cool completely and the bad mood eventually spilled over into all-out violence - with a literal fire to light the PowderKegCrowd, as candles distributed for a vigil were turned into arson weapons - when people began lighting bonfires using material from the (supposedly indestructible) security fence during Limp Bizkit's set. People began destroying the [=ATMs=] and looting the vendor booths, while the vendors abandoned their respective booths and made off with their profits. MTV removed their entire crew and ceased coverage of the event when they saw the carnage going on. The crowd even went so far as to pull down one of the speaker towers and a few concert light stands. Finally, there were multiple accusations of rape at the festival. New York State Troopers eventually cleared the site, bringing the festival to an end.

** In the aftermath, the two band never toured together again. Metallica held a half-priced show in Montreal several months later as a goodwill gesture. However, GNR permanently alienated their Canadian fanbase, were banned from ever performing at the Olympic Stadium again, and didn't put on a show in Montreal until the ''Chinese Democracy'' tour eighteen years later. Slash later alleged in his autobiography that up 80% of the tour's proceeds were used up on things like Rose's extravagant after-show parties and fines for starting their set late.

** The tour resumed a few weeks later once Hetfield recovered enough to perform, but his arm hadn't healed enough for him to play guitar. Instead, Metallica hired John Marshall of Music/MetalChurch to play rhythm guitar while Hetfield only sang lead vocals for the rest of the tour. Tensions remained high between the bands. In September, opening act Music/FaithNoMore were fired from the tour due to their disagreements with GNR. They were replaced by Music/BodyCount and Music/Motorhead.

** In the aftermath, Metallica continued the tour alone. Hetfield recovered and held a half-priced show in Montreal several months later as a goodwill gesture. However, GNR permanently alienated their Canadian fanbase and didn't put on a show in Montreal until the ''Chinese Democracy'' tour eighteen years later.

** The original tour promoter had apparently just backed out when an executive at Epic Records found an eager new promoter, Chuck Sullivan. Sullivan's experience in promoting concerts amounted to a few college gigs and Creator/BobHope USO tours in the Army. But his dad Billy Sullivan was the owner of the [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague NFL]]'s New England Patriots, and Chuck was hoping to book the Jacksons at the Patriots' home, Sullivan Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. Sullivan leveraged his good standing among NFL types[[note]]Among other things, he helped his father regain control of the team after an attempted boardroom coup in the mid-1970s. The elder Sullivan eventually lost the class-action lawsuit, but Chuck gained a lot of respect in the NFL for his role in all that[[/note]] and partnered up with San Francisco 49ers owner Eddie [=DeBartolo=], Jr. He also got a lot of other NFL owners to give the Jacksons sweetheart deals to play at their stadiums.[[note]]Tellingly, 26 of the 55 [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_Tour_%28The_Jacksons_tour%29#Tour_dates tour dates]], just under ''half'' of all the scheduled concerts, were in NFL venues.[[/note]]
** With all of this, Sullivan and [=DeBartolo=] put together a bid. And they won -- by promising the Jacksons '''''83.4%'' of the gross.''' This was way more than the usual rate for touring artists at the time (and would likely still be a staggering rate ''today'') and "gross" in this case meant "gross ''potential'' ticket sales" -- meaning the Jacksons would be paid ''as if'' every show sold out regardless of whether or not it actually ''did.'' Sullivan also promised the Jacksons a $36 million advance and paid for the first installment by borrowing $12 million against the Patriots and Sullivan Stadium. But in the midst of all this, [=DeBartolo=] backed out, and the city of Foxboro refused to allow a Jacksons concert there for [[http://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/farinella-jackson-s-part-in-pats-history-was-real-thriller/article_e8e9f604-5ac2-5339-8ba2-d610c1da295c.html reasons that remain unclear]].[[note]]They cited the "unknown element", which everyone took to mean the rowdiness that plagued games and concerts at the stadium. But it had never been cited before to stop any of ''those'' events.[[/note]]

** While Don King was indeed an experienced boxing promoter, he knew little about promoting concerts. So he spent most of his time promoting ''himself.'' He hogged the spotlight so hard at his first press conference that the Jacksons needed Michael to bring in his own people to help out. King, meanwhile, went to work on the ProductPlacement. He inked a deal with Pepsi, turning down a more lucrative offer from Quaker Oats. That deal required Michael to appear in two Pepsi commercials, even though he didn't even drink Pepsi. During the filming of one of those two commercials, a pyrotechnic accident scorched Michael's scalp and gave him third-degree burns; Michael dealt with the injury for the rest of his life, turning to prescription drugs to manage it and eventually becoming addicted to them, which ultimately contributed to his death 25 years later.[[note]]All that aside, Michael negotiated a huge financial settlement with Pepsi, and they enjoyed a professional relationship for years afterward.[[/note]] King also neglected to consider that some of the concert venues already had longstanding concessions contracts with [[TheRival Coca-Cola]]; at the tour's opener at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, they weren't even allowed to flash the Pepsi logo on the screens and had to resort to flying helicopters over the stadium towing Pepsi-branded banners.
** Then came the pricing. Tickets cost $30 -- significantly more than what rival superstars were charging -- and could only be purchased in lots of ''four'' '''in a lottery system.''' The whole point of this was that the money was put into a bank account that collected heavy interest; if you didn't win a ticket, you got the money you ''paid'' for the tickets back, but the Jacksons would pocket the interest. Michael himself hated the idea and fought against it. Music/JamesBrown was so disgusted that he turned down his offer to perform with the Jacksons in New York City. When the public started complaining that the Jacksons were shutting out their lower-class Black fanbase, Michael was able to convince the rest of the family that their image was taking a hit and they needed to implement a more conventional ticket system. Michael also made it a point to set aside several free tickets for poor children at each stop.
** Despite the Jacksons being a huge draw, shows weren't selling out, and the sales got worse as the tour went on. Shows were cancelled or moved to different venues in bigger cities. Sullivan nearly had a $1.9 million check bounce. By the last stop, Los Angeles, crowds were so sparse that Michael's handlers were giving away tickets to everyone he could think of, and even then the final show at a rain-soaked Dodger Stadium still had obvious blocks of empty seats.
** Through all of this, the family was at total odds. Everyone stayed on a separate floor, and Michael often in a separate hotel entirely. Michael avoided the rest of the family as much as he could. Meetings often broke down into side meetings among the factions: two lawyers representing Michael, one representing Jermaine, and the other four with or without lawyers. The brothers agreed that they would ride to shows in the van together, as long as they did it alone; Michael started breaking the agreement by bringing guests, first [[Series/{{Webster}} Emmanuel Lewis]] and then Julian Lennon, which annoyed the brothers enough that midway through the tour they stopped sharing the van and started getting their own rides.[[note]]They were ''okay'' with Lewis, figuring that they didn't want to spoil the boy's experience, and most of them weren't talking to each other, anyway. But when Lennon rode with them (in a helicopter bound for Giants Stadium), they reached a similar agreement, but were all giving Michael a silent DeathGlare for the entire trip.[[/note]]
** Health was also an issue. Michael was so stressed out by the family tension that he was put under a doctor's care at one point. Jackie missed the first half of the tour with a leg injury.[[note]]Officially, he hurt it in rehearsals. But his second wife claims that what really happened was that his first wife caught him with another woman and [[CarFu tried to run him over with her car]].[[/note]] Jermaine's flu resulted in the cancellation of the Phoenix-area shows, although that was the second to last stop and the ticket sales were so bad that they may just have used it as an excuse.
** In the end, nobody won. Joe and the brothers wanted to take the tour overseas, but Michael was so worn out that he announced at the end that it would be the Jacksons' ''very last show '''ever.''''' The ''Victory'' album, released just as the tour launched in summer 1984, never made it higher than #4 on the Billboard charts and scored only one Top 10 single (the Music/MichaelJackson[=/=]Music/MickJagger duet "State of Shock"). In hindsight, the damage to Michael's reputation and health was the start of an ugly downward spiral. Sullivan, meanwhile, was begging Michael to bail him out by the end. He lost around $20 million on the tour (the Jacksons made about what they expected), and he and his dad were [[CreatorKiller forced to sell the Patriots and the stadium]].[[note]]The buyer, current Patriots owner Robert Kraft, keeps a Victory Tour poster in his office as a reminder of how he got to that point. Under his ownership, the Patriots got a brand-new stadium and stumbled upon Creator/TomBrady, and became one of the most successful and valuable franchises in the NFL.[[/note]]

** [=McFarland=] and Ja Rule got the idea for Fyre when they visited Norman's Cay, a private island in the Bahamas owned by Carlos Lehder, a longtime associate of notorious Colombian [[TheCartel drug kingpin]] Pablo Escobar. [=McFarland=] had just started a new company called Fyre Media, which was working on an app that would allow people to book major musical talent. The pair thought they could use the island to promote Fyre by establishing a posh, high-end music festival. None of that camping-out nonsense; this would be luxury, with high-end accommodations and dining. They had a whole list of music acts whom they wanted to perform there, including Music/Blink182, Music/MajorLazer, Disclosure, and Rae Sremmurd. Tickets would start at $450 and averaged around $1,200. Initial talks with Norman's Cay went well; they were receptive to the idea of the festival, but told Fyre not to mention the island's connection with Escobar.

** Prior to them being kicked off the island, one of their organizers expressed to [=McFarland=] his mixed feelings about the vast number of festival attendees sleeping in luxury tents on the island; he had stress tested this idea by having himself and his wife, who was also involved in the festival preparations, slept in a tent on the island one night, and, in his interview, said that he and his wife had been bitten by bugs during that night, and knew that it wasn't a great idea. He had come up with an even better idea that included him chartering/renting out a large cruise ship, docking it near the beach's shoreline, and having the attendees sleep in the suites on the ship, reasoning it would be better and safer for them, and they would be ferried to the vessel from the island via boat; even though it clashed with [=McFarland's=] vision, it could've been greatly accepted by the attendees, as many cruise ships are known to have pretty luxurious and roomy suites. When he presented the idea to [=McFarland=], [=McFarland=] flat out refused to run with it; in response to this, the organizer was let go from his role.
** Fyre set up a new site on Great Exuma, on an abandoned lot that was the site of an aborted resort development. They continued to pretend that the festival would be on a private island, even though they were now sharing an island with 7,000 permanent residents and a ton of tourists; they were within walking distance of a Sandals Resort. They also neglected to note that the planned dates for their festival would coincide with the Exuma Regatta, the biggest event of the year on the island, which would cause a mass of tourists who would take up every available hotel room. And they ''still'' didn't get moving on building the site; they kept [[SkewedPriorities paying for the models and influencers]], and the site was little more than a gravel pit a little over a month before the festival was scheduled to start. (Most major music festivals require at least eighteen months prior to it's kickoff date to get everything planned out and put together)
** With six weeks to go, anyone who looked closely at the festival could see the writing on the wall. Several of the production staff brought their concerns to the management, telling them it would be practically impossible to get everything together in that timeframe, let alone what was envisioned and promised. They suggested that [=McFarland=] admit defeat and postpone the festival for a year; reasoning that doing so, even if it disappointed the attendees, could've allowed them all the time they would need to build the site, pay the contractors, festival crew, catering, and the acts, and ensure that all was in place so the festival could happen as envisioned; (plus, if he was honest about it all, the attendees would've understood and still would've attended). Instead, they were [[http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/fyre-festival-exumas-bahamas-disaster.html unceremoniously fired]]. Around this time, an insider created a Twitter account with the handle [=@FyreFraud=] accusing the festival of perilous mismanagement. [=McFarland=] and his team, in the grand tradition of overenthusiastic entrepreneurship, seemed to genuinely believe in AchievementsInIgnorance; one of his inner circle is reputed to have said, "Let's just do it [[TemptingFate and be]] ''[[TemptingFate legends]]'', [[TemptingFate man!]]"
** Fyre stubbornly pressed on, but money was getting tight. [=McFarland=] needed to take out loans, and he wasn't above badly misrepresenting his net worth to attract investors. He also claimed that a non-existent wealthy socialite would turn up and pay for everything (spoiler: they didn't). Even then, nobody was taking the bait; [=McFarland=] ended up having to take on a real tough loan, with high interest rates and a requirement that he pay back half the principal in two weeks. This led to the bracelet scam -- around this time, Fyre started telling attendees that they were planning to have a "cashless" festival, with all transactions conducted with RFID bracelets preloaded with funds. Conveniently, this required the attendees to put up thousands of dollars in advance, which [=McFarland=] could use to repay the loan.
** But Fyre had run out of time, too. Even with the organizers claiming they could do everything themselves ([=McFarland=] claimed he learned how to rent the stage on Website/YouTube), they had a hard time putting together ''anything'', let alone what was promised. The accommodations went from "luxury cabanas" to geodesic domes to the only things they could put together on short notice: disaster relief tents. They had sought out various houses and villas to use as airbnbs, but many of the owners withdrew their agreements when [=McFarland=] and his crew couldn't pay up on time; though they did manage to secure a small number of villas for some of the attendees. They barely put together charter flights for the attendees to come from Miami to Exuma. There was no way they could provide the gourmet meals by celebrity chefs. And the music acts, while still technically booked, hadn't committed to anything.
** Then came the opening day, April 28, 2017. Immediately, everything went to hell. The guests arrived to a scene that looked like it was AfterTheEnd. They were plied with booze and taken to an "impromptu beach party" at a nearby beachside restaurant, who had provided food for the contractors and crew, to distract from the fact that workers were still frantically building the site. (Most of the attendees liked the Beach party, despite it being unplanned, and cited it as the only true highlight of the festival) They discovered that they had to sleep in the tents -- that turned out not to be waterproof, as it had rained overnight and the bare mattresses had gotten soaked. There was no security, no safe place to store their belongings, and very few staff to even assign tents to people; one of the organizers had come out with his laptop, began to do this, and seemed to finally put some order on the chaos that was going on...only for [=McFarland=]'s rampant idiocy to bulldoze that completely when he told overruled the organizer and told the attendees that the tents were 'first come, first served.'; which lead to some of the chaos that occured. There were only porta-potties, and not enough at that. Their "gourmet catering" amounted to cheese sandwiches and dry salads served in styrofoam containers. blink-182 announced that the conditions at the festival were substandard and unsafe for them to perform (and also that they hadn't been paid) and that they were pulling out; shortly thereafter, ''every other musician'' who was scheduled to perform [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere bailed out, too]]. The attendees started liveblogging their experience, comparing it to ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' or ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'', and it quickly went viral. The cheese sandwiches were immediately compared to Dashcon's ball pit. Creator/SethRogen and Music/TheLonelyIsland chimed in to say that the whole affair was practically lifted from a movie they were working on at the time.
** Now the attendees had to find a way out themselves, which was ''much'' easier said than done. Remember the "cashless" festival? The attendees didn't have money on hand to find new accommodations, and most of the local taxi services only took physical money. Remember the Exuma Regatta? There were no hotel rooms available on the island even if they ''could'' pay for them. Remember the charter flights? They weren't ready to take everyone back to Miami at a moment's notice -- and the government of the Bahamas, fearful of a possible riot, had banned all air traffic into and out of the island. The Ministry of Tourism had to apologize and scramble to arrange charters for the stranded attendees. Those people watching their ordeal on the Internet [[NoSympathy weren't any help, either]]; even before you get into the Internet's usual schadenfreude, the Internet rumor mill had misreported the standard ticket prices as much higher than they really were, leading to netizens imagining that the festival-goers were [[EatTheRich a bunch of spoiled, credulous yuppies who got what was coming to them]].

** Then came the opening day, April 28, 2017. Immediately, everything went to hell. The guests arrived to a scene that looked like it was AfterTheEnd. They were plied with booze and taken to an "impromptu beach party" at a nearby seaside restaurant, who had provided food for the contractors and crew who were building the site, to distract from the fact that workers were still frantically building the site. They discovered that they had to sleep in the tents -- that turned out not to be waterproof, as it had rained overnight and the bare mattresses had gotten soaked. There was no security, no safe place to store their belongings, and very few staff to even assign tents to people; one of the organizers had come out with his laptop, began to do this, and seemed to finally put some order on the chaos that was going on...only for [=McFarland=]'s rampant idiocy to bulldoze that completely when he told overruled the organizer and told the attendees that the tents were 'first come, first served.'; which lead to some of the chaos that occured. There were only porta-potties, and not enough at that. Their "gourmet catering" amounted to cheese sandwiches and dry salads served in styrofoam containers. blink-182 announced that the conditions at the festival were substandard and unsafe for them to perform (and also that they hadn't been paid) and that they were pulling out; shortly thereafter, ''every other musician'' who was scheduled to perform [[ScrewThisImOutOfHere bailed out, too]]. The attendees started liveblogging their experience, comparing it to ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' or ''Literature/LordOfTheFlies'', and it quickly went viral. The cheese sandwiches were immediately compared to Dashcon's ball pit. Creator/SethRogen and Music/TheLonelyIsland chimed in to say that the whole affair was practically lifted from a movie they were working on at the time.

*** Several of the bands did not capture the "peace & love" theme of the festival. Limp Bizkit in particular was criticized for playing songs like "Break Stuff", which has been blamed for actually starting some of the violence in the crowd, especially as Fred Durst began encouraging the crowd to become angry partway through. Like most of the other acts did, as soon as their set ended and their equipment was loaded, they left the festival before the carnage get worse, as did thousands of festival goers, who had had enough of the conditions and left either Saturday night or Sunday morning.

** But Fyre had run out of time, too. Even with the organizers claiming they could do everything themselves ([=McFarland=] claimed he learned how to rent the stage on Website/YouTube), they had a hard time putting together ''anything'', let alone what was promised. The accommodations went from "luxury cabanas" to geodesic domes to the only things they could put together on short notice: disaster relief tents. They had sought out various houses and villas to use as airbnbs, but many of the owners withdrew their agreements when McFarland and his crew couldn't pay up on time. They barely put together charter flights for the attendees to come from Miami to Exuma. There was no way they could provide the gourmet meals by celebrity chefs. And the music acts, while still technically booked, hadn't committed to anything.

** With six weeks to go, anyone who looked closely at the festival could see the writing on the wall. Several of the production staff brought their concerns to the management, telling them it would be practically impossible to get everything together in that timeframe, let alone what was envisioned and promised. They suggested that [=McFarland=] admit defeat and postpone the festival for a year; reasoning that doing so, even if it disappointed the attendees, could've allowed them all the time they would need to build the site, pay the contractors, festival crew, catering, and the acts, and ensure that all was in place so the festival could happen as envisioned;(plus, if he was honest about it all, the attendees would've understood and still would've attended). Instead, they were [[http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/fyre-festival-exumas-bahamas-disaster.html unceremoniously fired]]. Around this time, an insider created a Twitter account with the handle [=@FyreFraud=] accusing the festival of perilous mismanagement. [=McFarland=] and his team, in the grand tradition of overenthusiastic entrepreneurship, seemed to genuinely believe in AchievementsInIgnorance; one of his inner circle is reputed to have said, "Let's just do it [[TemptingFate and be]] ''[[TemptingFate legends]]'', [[TemptingFate man!]]"

** Prior to them being kicked off the island, one of their organizers expressed to [=McFarland=] his mixed feelings about the vast number of festival attendees sleeping in luxury tents on the island; he had stress tested this idea by having himself and his wife, who was also involved in the festival preparations, slept in a tent on the island one night, and, in his interview, said that he and wife had been bitten by bugs during that night, and knew that it wasn't a great idea. He had come up with an even better idea that included him chartering/renting out a large cruise ship, docking it near the beach's shoreline, and having the attendees sleep in the suites on the ship, reasoning it would be better and safer for them, and they would be ferried to the vessel from the island via boat; even though it clashed with [=McFarland's=] vision, it could've be greatly accepted by the attendees, as many cruise ships are known to have pretty luxurious and roomy suites. When he presented the idea to [=McFarland=], [=McFarland=] flat out refused to run with it; in response to this, the organizer was let go from his role.