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Fyre Festival

This spread through many posts rather than one canonical upload.

Famous internet fails6 of 11

2017·The platform era·funny

A luxury festival sold entirely through Instagram influencers, which turned out not to exist.

At a glanceThe facts

Spread in
2017
Format
Event
Era
The platform era
Made by
Billy McFarland and Ja Rule, to promote a music-booking app called Fyre
Where
Great Exuma, in the Bahamas
Origin
No single original
Available
Not held by ViralWorld

What this wasThe story

In late 2016 hundreds of models and influencers posted the same plain orange tile on Instagram on the same day, mostly without disclosing they had been paid. Thousands of people bought tickets to a luxury festival in the Bahamas on the strength of it. On arrival in April 2017 there were disaster-relief tents, no infrastructure and, in the image that defined the whole thing, a cheese sandwich in a polystyrene box.

Billy McFarland pleaded guilty to wire fraud and was sentenced to six years and ordered to forfeit twenty-six million dollars; ticket holders eventually received settlement money. Two competing documentaries were released in the same week in 2019. Undisclosed paid promotion rules were tightened in several jurisdictions afterwards, largely because of this.

Why it matteredWhat changed

A festival promoted through paid posts by models and influencers turned out not to exist in the form it was sold. It became the reference case for influencer advertising, and for the gap between a campaign and the thing it is selling.

TimelineIn order

  1. Made

    The promotion begins: influencers including Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski post an orange square.1

  2. Took off

    Attendees arrive to tents, wet mattresses and cheese sandwiches in foam boxes. The festival is postponed in the early hours and then cancelled.1

  3. Later

    Billy McFarland pleads guilty.1

  4. Later

    He is sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to forfeit 26 million US dollars.1

  5. Mainstream

    Hulu releases a documentary, Fyre Fraud. Netflix releases its own, Fyre, four days later.1

  6. Came back

    McFarland announces a second festival. Its dates are later set, and then postponed.1

What people misrememberSet straight

Commonly remembered asIt was held on Pablo Escobar’s private island.

ActuallyThat was the marketing. The site was a car park beside an abandoned resort on Great Exuma, and the island in the claim had belonged to somebody else.1

Commonly remembered asThe models who promoted it said they were being paid.

ActuallyEmily Ratajkowski was reportedly the only one to mark her post as an advertisement.1

LegacyWhat it left behind

Why it is here: something the internet still knows by name · a moment that changed what the internet did next · it got out of its own corner of the internet fast

Where it came fromWhat we know

This spread through many posts rather than one identifiable original. The example shown is one surviving copy and is not claimed as the first.

Nothing here is claimed to be the first version of this. It spread through many posts rather than from one identifiable original.

Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.

More from 2017You were there

SourcesWhat was read

  1. Wikipedia — Fyre Festival

Sources last read on . That date is about the history on this page. Whether the media still plays is checked separately and can change any day. How ViralWorld documents things

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