Fyre Festival is a lesson for all event planners about what not to do

In its new documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened, released last week, Netflix pulled back the curtains behind one of the most infamous stitch-ups in the event industry.

Entrepreneur Billy McFarland had ambitions to create the “most insane festival ever seen” to spread consumer awareness of his talent booking platform. A strategic and effective business move, events can be a fantastic way to generate leads and grow your business.

Yet let the Fyre Festival be a lesson on how, with inexperienced planning, an event could destroy your brand.

It’s all in the timings

McFarland and his business partner Ja Rule, ignorant to the enormity of planning a festival for 5,000 people in the Bahamas, gave themselves a six-month timeline to execute the event. A month in, they had sold all the tickets, yet still had no infrastructure in place.

For an event of this scale, you need at least 12 to 18 months to research, organise, and confirm logistics. Before anything is announced, create a detailed timeline that combines marketing and logistics and allows for changes or cancellations, to give you the opportunity to produce the event effectively and professionally.

Social with care

Fyre Festival was the first of its kind to truly capitalise on the power of social media and influencers to generate mass market attention. By paying supermodels up to $250,000 for a single Instagram post, festival goers were sucked in by a false vision of luxury.

Marketing is important, but with all the budget for Fyre going towards models and not vital amenities like toilets, priorities were completely wrong.

Ja Rule argued that Fyre wasn’t fraud but “false advertising” (as if that’s much better). This has rightly reignited conversations around the regulations of paid advertising on social media.

The lesson: develop a long-term strategy that doesn’t rely on one promotional video, drip-feed authentic content, and don’t promise more than you’re able to deliver.

Protect your vendors

One of the most shocking revelations in the documentary was Fyre’s relationships with its suppliers. McFarland refused to pay vendors, or when pushed, committed wire fraud to fool them into thinking that they’d received payment. As a result, acts refused to attend, caterers dropped out days in advance, and local Bahamians were left out of pocket.

The event industry is built on relationships: vendors can be your best friends, or your worst enemy. Research a variety of different suppliers to ensure that you’ve got the right one for you and your budget. From there, understand their requirements, and work together to achieve your mission. And for goodness sake, pay them.

Listen to your experts

What was clear from the beginning was the lack of trust in the experts that McFarland and Ja Rule had hired. With several resignations, and complete ignorance of how much work the festival would take, it was no surprise that it was going to fail spectacularly.

Whatever you’re planning, speak to seasoned event management experts to understand how your vision can become a reality, and be prepared to compromise. By respecting the planning processes, the logistical advice, and the infrastructure of your location, your event will succeed.

Ja Rule still contests that the idea of Fyre Festival was “beyond brilliant”, and as a concept, he isn’t wrong. However, achieving it in the scope that McFarland had defined was impossible.

Events are a great way for firms to get in the public eye and to build consumer relations, but keep your expectations level, and be prepared for the unexpected. If you promise pigs, you need to bring home the bacon.