History YMMV / Fyre

* FriendlyFandoms: Ironically enough, ''Fyre'' shares this with Creator/{{Hulu}}'s own documentary about the incident ''Film/FyreFraud'', due to how the latter [[spoiler:has ''Billy himself'' in the documentary]]. There ''is'' a FandomRivalry, but it seems to be mostly from the filmmakers' side since ''Film/FyreFraud'' attacked ''Fyre'' due to the involvement of Jerry Media, who were criticized in the aforementioned ''Fyre Fraud''. This appears to stem from how both docs cover different aspects: ''Fyre Fraud'' focuses on the life of Billy, from the creation of Magnises to him ultimately landing in prison, as well as the question of why those rich kids were drawn to scams like his in the first place; while ''Fyre'' focuses more on the event itself, how the various people involved could see from the get-go that things would go ''catastrophically'' wrong but were powerless to stop it, and also contains footage shot during both the production of the promo video and of the various meetings leading up to the date of the festival. It should be noted that Jerry Media is portrayed in a much more sympathetic light, saying they were mislead just as much as everyone else.

** Several of the employees who were working solely on the Fyre Media app and had no idea what was going on with the festival learned, in a phone call with Billy, that they weren't being paid anymore. They weren't 'terminated', they just weren't officially employees anymore, which means they couldn't claim unemployment benefits or get severance pay.

** All of the guests who went to Fyre, expecting fun and adventure, only to get the worst experiences of their lives, and then later being turned into targets of Internet mockery. This is made especially apparent when after the news of Fyre comes out, ''the entire world'' did nothing but mock and berate the attendees, seeing them as nothing as "privileged rich people" (despite some of the attendees being neither privileged nor rich, buying what looked like bargain tickets for a fairly reasonable price) who "got their just desserts" when such was definitely not the case.

* FriendlyFandoms: Ironically enough, ''Fyre'' shares this with Creator/{{Hulu}}'s own documentary about the incident ''Film/FyreFraud'', due to how the latter [[spoiler:has ''Billy himself'' in the documentary]]. There ''is'' a FandomRivalry, but it seems mostly from the filmmakers' side since ''Film/FyreFraud'' attacked ''Fyre'' due to the involvement of Jerry Media, who were criticized in the aforementioned ''Fyre Fraud''. This seems to stem from how both docs cover different aspects: ''Fyre Fraud'' focuses on the life of Billy, from the creation of Magnises to him ultimately landing in prison, as well as the question of why those rich kids were drawn to scams like his in the first place; while ''Fyre'' focuses more on the event itself, how the various people involved could see from the get-go that things would go ''catastrophically'' wrong but were powerless to stop it, and also contains footage shot during both the production of the promo video and of the various meetings leading up to the date of the festival. It should be noted that Jerry Media is portrayed in a much more sympathetic light, saying they were mislead just as much as everyone else.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: None of the Fyre Festival guests deserved to get involved in the mess, but one commentator, who claimed to have sabotaged other tents to keep people away, didn't exactly help his case.

** All of the guests who went to Fyre, expecting fun and adventure, only to get the worst experiences of their lives, and then later being turned into targets of Internet mockery. This is made especially apparent when after the news of Fyre comes out, ''the entire world'' does nothing but mock and berate the attendees, seeing them as nothing as "privileged rich people" (despite some of the attendees being neither privileged nor rich, buying what looked like bargain tickets for a fairly reasonable price) who "got their just desserts" when it was not the case.

** J.R. was left hanging after Billy fled and was getting increasingly violent threats from all the people on Great Exuma whom Fyre owed money to, while Billy constantly promised payment that never came. J.R. eventually had to flee to another island to escape the threats.

** Initially, [=McFarland=] had actually managed to wrangle holding the festival on Norman's Cay, as was advertised. The Fyre company was forbidden by the island's owner from mentioning that the island had anything to do with Pablo Escobar (although the island was actually used by Carlos Lehder) since the owner wanted to improve the reputation of his property. Of course, ''the very first social media tweets and video advert'' featured Escobar's name front and center, and the festival promptly lost the right to use the island. Plus, no one involved in the making of the ad seemed to ask themselves if anyone would ''want'' anything to do with the name of a notorious drug kingpin and murderer who died in a shootout.

** The staff of Fyre learning about Billy's wire fraud actions, which surprises one worker who mentions being really close to Billy and being genuinely hurt at his backstabbing. The poor guy was saddled with a debt of ''$150,000'' left on his personal American Express card by Billy, who also racked up''$250,000'' worth of debt on the Fyre app American Express card, for which another employee was being sued by Am Ex.

** Initially, [=McFarland=] had actually managed to wrangle holding the festival on Norman's Cay, as was advertised. The Fyre company was forbidden by the island's owner from mentioning that the island had anything to do with Pablo Escobar (although the island was actually used by Carlos Lehder). Of course, ''the very first advert'' featured Escobar's name front and center, and the festival promptly lost the right to use the island. No one involved in the making of the ad seemed to ask themselves if anyone would ''want'' anything to do with the name of a notorious drug kingpin and murderer who died in a shootout.

** Initially, [=McFarland=] had actually managed to wrangle holding the festival on Norman's Cay, as was advertised. The Fyre company was forbidden from mentioning that the island had anything to do with Pablo Escobar (although the island was actually used by Carlos Lehder). Of course, ''the very first advert'' featured Escobar's name front and center, and the festival promptly lost the right to use the island. No one involved in the making of the ad seemed to ask themselves if anyone would ''want'' anything to do with the name of a notorious drug kingpin and murderer who died in a shootout.

** The staff of Fyre learning about Billy's wire fraud actions, which surprises one worker who mentions being really close to Billy and being genuinely hurt at his backstabbing. Two employees were saddled with unpaid debts of ''$150,000'' and ''$250,000'' on their personal American Express card and the Fyre app Am Ex card respectively; the latter says he's being sued by American Express.

** The staff of Fyre learning about Billy's wire fraud actions, which surprises one worker who mentions being really close to Billy and being genuinely hurt at his backstabbing.

* FriendlyFandoms: Ironically enough, ''Fyre'' shares this with Creator/{{Hulu}}'s own documentary about the incident ''Film/FyreFraud'', due to how the latter [[spoiler:has ''Billy himself'' in the documentary]]. There ''is'' a FandomRivalry, but it seems mostly from the filmmakers' side since ''Film/FyreFraud'' attacked ''Fyre'' due to the involvement of Jerry Media, who were criticized in the aforementioned ''Fyre Fraud''. This seems to stem from how both docs cover different aspects: ''Fyre Fraud'' focuses on the life of Billy, from the creation of Magnesis to him ultimately landing in prison, as well as the question of why those rich kids were drawn to scams like his in the first place; while ''Fyre'' focuses more on the event itself, how the various people involved could see from the get-go that things would go ''catastrophically'' wrong but were powerless to stop it, and also contains footage shot during both the production of the promo video and of the various meetings leading up to the date of the festival. It should be noted that Jerry Media is portrayed in a much more sympathetic light, saying they were mislead just as much as everyone else.

** The documentary itself plays with this, debating on whether or not Billy himself knew what he was doing out of desperation or if he was, as some of the workers described, a pathological [[TheSociopath sociopath]] who lied repeatedly to get a quick buck. By the end, Andy King, who has been friends with [=McFarland=] for a long time, seems to hold on, perhaps desperately, to the hope that [=McFarland=] was in way over his head. Almost all of the other interviewees believe, firmly, that [=McFarland=] is a sociopath (and at least one person states it openly). The film seems to agree, especially since most of [=McFarland's=] actions are near-textbook examples of sociopathy.
*** Not a ''Hollywood'' Sociopath, mind you, but a "Sociopath" in the strict medical sense: utterly impulsive, self-aggrandizing to the point of delusion, and ''habitually'' lying as an instinctive reflex (even in ridiculous situations where he should have blatantly known he would get caught).

* FriendlyFandoms: Ironically enough, ''Fyre'' shares this with Creator/{{Hulu}}'s own documentary about the incident ''Film/FyreFraud'', due to how the latter [[spoiler:has ''Billy himself'' in the documentary]]. There ''is'' a rivalry, but it seems mostly from the filmmakers' side since ''Film/FyreFraud'' attacked ''Fyre'' due to the involvement of Jerry Media, who were criticized in the aforementioned ''Fyre Fraud''.
** It helps that both docs cover different aspects. ''Fyre Fraud'' focuses on the life of Billy, from the creation of Magnesis to him ultimately landing in prison, as well as the question of why those rich kids were drawn to scams like his in the first place. ''Fyre'' focuses more on the event itself, how the various people involved could see from the get-go that things would go ''catastrophically'' wrong but were powerless to stop it, and also contains footage shot during both the production of the promo video and of the various meetings leading up to the date of the festival. It should be noted that Jerry Media is portrayed in a much more sympathetic light, saying they were mislead just as much as everyone else.

** Initially, [=McFarland=] had actually managed to wrangle holding the festival on Norman's Cay, as was advertised. The Fyre company was forbidden from mentioning that the island had anything to do with Pablo Escobar (although the island was actually used by Carlos Lehder). Of course, ''the very first advert'' featured Escobar's name front and center, and the festival promptly lost the right to use the island.
*** No one involved in the making of the ad seemed to ask themselves if anyone would ''want'' anything to do with the name of a notorious drug kingpin and murderer who died in a shootout.
** After Billy is released on bail, what does he do? Immediately try to run ''another scam'' on the same people he already conned (many of whom were filing a lawsuit against Fyre Media), by using their contact details to attempt to sell them transparently fake tickets to events (like meet-and-greets with Music/TaylorSwift, who does not do meet-and-greets; tickets to the Met Gala, whose guests are handpicked by Anna Wintour; "sponsor tickets" to Burning Man, which does not have sponsors; etc). And he still had his camera crew ''filming everything he did''.
*** The sheer gall of him trying to pull these scams ''literally days'' after being released on bail has some justifiably thinking that Billy might genuinely be mentally ill and [[ChronicVillainy compelled to defraud people.]]

* FriendlyFandoms: Ironically enough, ''Fyre'' shares this with Creator/{{Hulu}}'s own documentary about the incident ''Film/FyreFraud'', due to how the latter [[spoiler:has ''Billy himself'' in the documentary]]. There ''is'' a FandomRivalry, but it seems mostly from the filmmakers' side since ''Film/FyreFraud'' attacked ''Fyre'' due to the involvement of Jerry Media, who were criticized in the aforementioned ''Fyre Fraud''.

%%* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: Some of the Fyre Festival guests. Many viewers have difficulty sympathizing with people who paid upwards of thousands of dollars (or even tens) to attend an exclusive festival in the first place, and consider their misfortune deserved for bringing a shock to their perceived privileged lives. Not helping their case is the commentary of one festival goer who claimed to have sabotaged other tents to keep people away.

** The poor restaurant owner explaining how she had to spend $50,000 from her own savings to pay all the local workers who got screwed over, and the experience was so traumatizing for her she doesn't even like to talk about the Fyre Festival. She's clearly trying so hard not to cry when she explains her ordeal.
*** Fortunately, soon after the documentary was released, a [=GoFundMe=] campaign [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-46937725 raised more than $77,000 for her]].

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Andy King became incredibly popular after the film's release due to his extremely frank discussions about the event's issues even beyond anyone else, including that he was fully prepared to give someone in the Bahamas government a blowjob to get some badly needed water to the site. He even received some offers for his own reality show.

** There's a bit of this to the documentary as a whole. The Documentary was made by Jerry Media (who promoted the festival) and MATTE Projects, which produced the original Fyre Festival promotional video. And employees from both organizations feature in the film, which leads some to wonder how genuine their testimony are. Mick Purzycki, in particular who gives much of the testimony for Jerry Media, is a producer on the documentary itself. This leads people to question how much his line about how the marketing people didn't know how things were developing (or rather, not developing) on site as honest evidence of [=McFarland=]'s manipulation, or them covering for themselves and trying to shift the entirety of the blame. The rival documentary ''Film/FyreFraud'' even openly points this out.

** It helps that both docs cover different aspects. ''Fyre Fraud'' focuses on the life of Billy, from the creation of Magnesis to him ultimately landing in prison, as well as the question of why Millenials were drawn to scams like his in the first place. ''Fyre'' focuses more on the event itself, how the various people involved could see from the get-go that things would go ''catastrophically'' wrong but were powerless to stop it, and also contains footage shot during both the production of the promo video and of the various meetings leading up to the date of the festival. It should be noted that Jerry Media is portrayed in a much more sympathetic light, saying they were mislead just as much as everyone else.

* WhatAnIdiot: Initially, [=McFarland=] had actually managed to wrangle holding the festival on Norman's Cay, as was advertised. The Fyre company was forbidden from mentioning that the island had anything to do with Pablo Escobar (although the island was actually used by Carlos Lehder). Of course, ''the very first advert'' featured Escobar's name front and center, and the festival promptly lost the right to use the island.
** After Billy is released on bail, what does he do? Immediately try to run ''another scam'' on the same people he already conned, by using their contact details to attempt to sell them transparently fake tickets to events (like meet-and-greets with Music/TaylorSwift, who does not do meet-and-greets; tickets to the Met Gala, whose guests are handpicked by Anna Wintour; "sponsor tickets" to Burning Man, which does not have sponsors; etc). And he still had his camera crew ''filming everything he did''.

** There's a bit of this to the documentary as a whole. The Documentary was made by Jerry Media (who promoted the festival) and MATTE Projects, which produced the original Fyre Festival promotional video. And employees from both organizations feature in the film, which leads some to wonder how genuine their testimony are. Mick Purzycki, in particular who gives much of the testimony for Jerry Media, is a producer on the documentary itself. This leads people to question how much his line about how the marketing people didn't know how things were developing (or rather, not developing) on site as honest evidence of [=McFarland=]'s manipulation, or them covering for themselves and trying to shift the entirety of the blame.

*** The sheer gall of him trying to pull these scams ''literally days'' after being released on bail has some justifiably thinking that Billy might genuinely be [[ChronicVillainy criminally insane.]]

*** The sheer gall of him trying to pull these scams ''literally days'' after being released on bail has some justifiably thinking that Billy might be genuinely be [[ChronicVillainy criminally insane.]]

*** The sheer gall of him trying to pull these scams ''literally days'' after being released on bail has some justifiably thinking that Billy [[ChronicVillainy might have a legitimate compulsion.]]

*** The sheer gall of him trying to pull these scams ''literally days'' after being released on bail has some justifiably thinking that Billy [[ChronicVillainy legitimately cannot help himself.]].

* TheWoobie: Everyone who was involved with Fyre sans Billy and Ja Rule, especially the restaurant owner who had to shill ''her savings'' to accommodate all the local workers who didn't get paid.

* JustFollowingOrders: Discussed. Calvin Wells believes (as is argued in ''Fyre Fraud'') that Jerry Media and the other agencies hired to promote the festival should also be held responsible for their part in the mess. Those responsible for the promotion (both the promo shoots and social media campaign) claim they were just doing their jobs and ultimately were misled about Fyre's ability to actually pull off a festival of this scale. It should be noted that these employees also knew that this event would be a failure and tried to persuade Billy to scale it back or cancel it altogether, but were unsuccessful, and many of them (including the aforementioned Andy King) felt guilty about playing a role in the disaster by misleading people (unintentionally or otherwise).
--> '''Brett Kincade, Director, Matte Projects''': If you get hired to do a BMW commercial and that BMW then has a faulty engine, how the fuck can you possibly know whether or not they're gonna do good on what they said they were gonna do? That's like saying that the sound guy and the DP and the location scout has to do due diligence on whether or not something's actually gonna happen.
--> '''Shiyuan Deng, Product Designer, Fyre''': How could we ask the models to have the kind of awareness of the Fyre Festival that I myself didn't have, being an employee of Fyre Media?

** All of the guests who went to Fyre, expecting fun and adventure, only to get the worst experiences of their lives, and then later being turned into targets of Internet mockery. This is made especially apparent when after the news of Fyre comes out, ''the entire world'' does nothing but mock and berate the attendees, seeing them as nothing as "privileged rich people" (despite some of the attendees being neither privileged nor rich, buying what looked like bargain tickets for a fairly reasonable price) who "got their just desserts" when it was not the case.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The documentary itself plays with this, debating on whether or not Billy himself knew what he was doing out of desperation or if he was, as some of the workers described, a pathological [[TheSociopath sociopath]] who lied repeatedly to get a quick buck. By the end, Andy King, who has been friends with [=McFarland=] for a long time, seems to hold on, perhaps desperately, to the hope that [=McFarland=] was in way over his head. Almost all of the other interviewees believe, firmly, that [=McFarland=] is a sociopath (and at least one person states it openly). The film seems to agree, especially since most of [=McFarland's=] actions are near-textbook examples of sociopathy.

** After Billy is released on bail what does he do? Immediately try to run ''another scam'' on the same people he already conned by using their contact details to attempt to sell them transparently fake tickets to events (like meet-and-greets with Music/TaylorSwift, who does not do meet-and-greets; tickets to the Met Gala, whose guests are handpicked by Anna Wintour; "sponsor tickets" to Burning Man, which does not have sponsors; etc). And he still had his camera crew ''filming everything he did''.
*** The sheer gall of him trying to pull these scams _literally days_ after being released on bail has some justifiably thinking that Billy [[ChronicVillainy legitimately cannot help himself.]].
* TheWoobie: Everyone who was involved with Fyre sans Billy and Ja Rule, especially the restaurant owner who had to shill ''her savings'' to accommodate everyone who went to the festival.
** All of the guests who went to Fyre, expecting fun and adventure, only to get the worst experiences of their lives, and then later being turned into targets of Internet mockery, this is made especially apparent when after the news of Fyre comes out, ''the entire world'' does nothing but mock and berate the attendees, seeing them as nothing as "privileged rich people" (despite some of the attendees not being of the life style) who "got their just desserts" when it was not the case.

** After Billy is released on bail what does he do? Immediately try to run ''another scam'' on the same people he already conned by using their contact details to attempt to sell them tickets to transparently fake events (like meet-and-greets with Music/TaylorSwift, who does not do meet-and-greets; tickets to the Met Gala, whose guests are handpicked by Anna Wintour; "sponsor tickets" to Burning Man, which does not have sponsors; etc). And he still had his camera crew ''filming everything he did''.