It’s fair to say that the history of the music festival is peppered with disasters. Lack of logistical experience, weak infrastructure, last-minute artist dropouts and, of course, the weather have all caused festivals to come tumbling down (sometimes literally). Case in point: 2012’s Bloc Festival in London. Organisers ran out of booze before the end of the first night, the sound was diabolical, and punters were crammed onto a cramped ship like cattle.
Needless to say, this combination left ticket holders feeling a little left at sea and organisers soon pulled the plug, putting everybody out of their misery. Super models, private yachts and cocktails on the beach are all well and good. But when it comes to events, it’s expertise, forward-planning and a realistic approach that matter. WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE FYRE FESTIVAL FAILURE?
By Greg Cartwright With a degree in English Language, an interest in journalism, and a passion for music, Greg Cartwright spent two years as Pro Mobile’s Assistant Editor. In April 2016, he left behind his role to embark on a yearlong trip through the Americas. Back in the UK, Greg is now a professional copywriter but also continues to contribute articles to Pro Mobile on a regular basis. Another festival disaster in recent memory was Glastonbury 2005, the year Worthy Farm was drenched with so much torrential rain that campsites flooded, leaving tents fully submerged and forcing thousands of music lovers to leave early.
To top things off, an electrical storm hit the Pyramid Stage, adding to the drama and raising concerns for people's safety. But in 2017, one festival became the laughing stock of the global entertainment industry. It’s the subject of two acclaimed documentaries on Hulu and Netflix. It billed itself as the most exclusive, most luxurious music ?
So, what went wrong for Fyre Festival? And what can you, as event industry professionals yourselves, learn from its shortcomings? 1. Under promise and over deliver We all know this phrase.
And to this day it's a sensible approach to business. Take tech market leaders and all-round business gurus, Apple. Do you recall their iPhone ads reeling off an endless list of new features? Or promising to be the best phone in the world?
I certainly don't. They might list one or two features, and they might suggest that a new device is the best around, but generally Apple leave things to the imagination of their audience. When Fyre Media christened their brand-new music festival as “the biggest event of the decade” and promised private villas, worldclass food and the chance to rub shoulders with celebrities, they really set themselves up for a fall. Expectations couldn’t not be ridiculously high.
The result? They under delivered on a massive scale. Did someone say gourmet cuisine by celebrity chefs? Sweaty pre-packaged cheese sandwiches will have to do.
The lesson here is to be careful what you say in your marketing; festival of all time. And that bold claim made its failures all the more glaring (and the memes all the more hilarious). Fyre Festival was the brainchild of unconventional entrepreneur Billy McFarland and rapper/producer Ja Rule. Billed as a VIP event with luxury accommodation, gourmet food, celebrity attendees and bigname acts, the massively hyped festival was to be held on Norman’s Cay (dubbed Fyre Cay for marketing purposes), a private island in the Bahamas previously owned by an associate of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar.
McFarland and Ja Rule officially announced Fyre Festival in late 2016 via some carefully curated Instagram posts by various supermodels and celebrity influencers. The videos showed models including Emily Ratajkowski and Bella Hadid riding jet skis and sipping cocktails on white-sand beaches, causing instant hype and persuading unsuspecting punters to cough up thousands for tickets, credit wristbands, accommodation and more. With only a few months to bring everything together, the chances of the organisers pulling this thing off were slimmer than Ratajkowski's waistline.
But from the outside, McFarland and co appeared to be in control. It wasn't until fans started arriving at the island in dribs and drabs, crammed into budget planes – rather than the private jets they were stupidly promised – and landing to find sub-standard accommodation and limited food, that they realised they'd been duped. There were no luxury villas. No bands or DJs (all of the artists, including Blink 182, Disclosure and Major Lazer, pulled out).
No internet or phone service. No running water. And, perhaps most dangerously, a severe lack of medical or event staff. you want to sell the dream (you will give Katie and Mark their ultimate wedding party!) but you also have to manage the expectations of your client. When you mention the bride and groom’s ‘big entrance’ you don’t mean landing in a helicopter or riding into the venue on a pink unicorn.
Manage expectations, take a realistic approach, and be prepared to go above and beyond when required. That’s how you over deliver. 2. Respect your audience To put it frankly, Fyre Media showed complete contempt for their audience.
This was proven by the lack of basic services provided and the company’s unwillingness to refund money after they cancelled punters’ tickets just days before the festival was due to start. While, as a mobile DJ, you are indeed running a business and making money is obviously a motive, it shouldn't be your only motive. You should enjoy the events you work, you should love seeing people have the time of their lives on the dancefloor, and you should respect your audience by performing at a high level each and every gig.
At the end of the day, your clients have paid good money – big bucks in some cases – for you to entertain them, so make sure you do just that. 3. Get the basics right first McFarland and his fellow organisers seemed to have very little grasp of basic logistics and event organisation principles. There was very little forward planning when it came to transport, security, accommodation and food.
I mean, early on, they should have been asking: how are guests going to be looked after regarding their most basic human needs – shelter, food and sanitation? " you want to sell the dream but you also have to manage the expectations of your client " 59WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THE FYRE FESTIVAL FAILURE? For mobile DJs, this means getting the basics right in terms of your client’s needs. It sounds ridiculous, but is your mic on and are your speakers loud enough?
Other things to consider: What track are you playing for their first dance and at what time will the dance take place? Are you aware of which tunes you definitely should not play? Are the microphones fully charged ahead of the speeches? These are all basics without which your client’s big day would be ruined.
Going back to those basic human needs, it would probably also be helpful if you can point guests to the toilets and know when and where food will be served (for the guests, I mean, not for you!). Once these basics are in place, you can start worrying about whether the uplighting should be hot pink or electric blue, or if you should try that new transition you’ve been working on. In Fyre terms: make sure there’s somewhere for people to piss before you pay Kendall Jenner $250,000 for an Instagram post.
4. Allow plenty of time No, three months is not enough time to throw the most extravagant music festival in history – even for a veteran event organiser. Not only did the geniuses behind Fyre Festival fail to understand the timeframes and logistics involved in putting on large-scale events, but they spent what precious time they did have partying on the island and posting selfies with supermodels. (Save the celebration until after the event, when you can toast its success and relax in the knowledge that people had the time of their lives.) While you may not be organising huge events, this applies to the frequency of gigs you do.
For instance, don't take on an all-day wedding if you know full well you don't have time to organise things. After all, if you fail to prepare, be prepared to fail. And when people are paying and relying on you for a service, failure is not really an option. 5.
Own up to your mistakes If you can’t do the gig, then communicate this as far in advance as possible. Reach out to your fellow DJs and see if somebody can cover you. Let the venue know – they may have a replacement ready to go. If you’ve been booked direct, tell your client(s) as soon as you can so they can make new plans – you could even offer to help them choose a replacement with similar credentials or style to you.
Where Fyre Festival really fell down was the lack of communication between the organisers and the various third-parties involved in the festival.
Even when it was clear that the festival was sinking quicker than a luxury private yacht with a hole in its hull, the organisers still didn’t reach out to let people know what was happening. If they’d admitted they were in too deep, the festival could well have been saved, but instead they let things spiral out of control until they crashed and burned. McFarland was sentenced to six years for fraud. He might have got off a little lighter if he'd told the truth, admitted his mistakes and reached out for help.
6. Get your numbers straight This is a big one. Accounting, budget planning, marketing research… it's the boring side of the business, but vital nonetheless, whether you're a lone mobile DJ, a multi-op supplier, or a festival organiser like Fyre Media. So, tell me, if a ticket to Fyre Festival costs $1200 and private jet hire costs $1000 per person, how can you possibly make a profit?
Really, this comes back to the point about underpromising and over-delivering. McFarland and Ja Rule promised the world; they promised beachside accommodation, supermodels, private jets, and some of the biggest musical acts on the planet. The issue? The numbers didn't add up.
They didn’t have the finances to realise such a grandiose vision. Most the artists were never confirmed and those that were dropped out as soon as they realised what a mess the whole thing was. What makes it all infinitely worse is that the organisers were happy to scam punters out of thousands of dollars but never actually refunded people’s ticket money. Therein lies the real issue with Fyre Festival.
It was symptomatic of today's social media-driven world, where a $250,000 Instagram post by a model can sell tickets at extortionate prices for a festival that doesn't actually exist yet. Where partying with celebrities is more important to the organisers than ensuring food, sanitation and shelter for its guests. May it serve as a lesson to event organisers around the world. Get the basics right.
Deliver on your promises. And always make client satisfaction your priority. After that, you can post on Instagram all you want...
