When is Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened released on Netflix?
Find out how Ja Rule and Billy McFarland's musical festival tanked
Netflix's deep dive into the most calamitous music festival of recent times is set to hit our devices this January.
If you're in any way active on social media, you will have witnessed the whole thing unfold in April 2017, as wannabe partygoers, who had paid inordinate sums to attend a festival in the Bahamas organised by former hip-hop icon Ja Rule and unknown tech CEO Billy McFarland, flooded social media with outraged tweets and Instagram photos of the disastrous set-up.
Where luxury villas had been promised, there were hurricane tents; in lieu of Michelin-starred chefs serving Michelin-starred food, a local woman was doling out sad-looking sandwiches.
- Netflix releases 2019: all the major TV releases revealed
- Netflix January 2019 releases: everything coming this month
A New York Times investigation, released in the weeks following the event, outlined how McFarland was facing numerous lawsuits and that contractors employed to set up the festival had not been paid.
The new Netflix documentary, directed by Chris Smith (the man behind last year's Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond) features interviews with many of the people who were involved in the festival's creation, and gives fresh insight into how the whole thing came to such a disastrous conclusion (though McFarland did not sit down for an interview himself).
More like this
Find out everything you need to know about the documentary below.
When is Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened released on Netflix?
The documentary arrives on Friday 18th January 2019.
What is Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened about?
Back in late 2016, former hip-hop icon Ja Rule and an unknown businessman called Billy McFarland had a grand idea: to "sell a pipe dream to your average loser, your average guy in middle class America."
They flew 10 of the biggest supermodels in the world – including Emily Ratajkowksi, Bella Hadid and Hailey Baldwin – out to the Bahamas and shot an admittedly gorgeous promotional video for an outrageously luxurious private island music festival that would take place the following Spring and... well, actually, that's about it.
Thanks to a multitude of reasons, the festival never quite came together as they had hoped. Tickets cost an eye-watering $1,200 to $100,000 (£900 to £75,000), but organisers had spent so much time and money on crafting an Instagram-filtered image of luxury and status that they forgot to actually, well, plan the festival.
Mind bogglingly, without any of the required infrastructure in place, they still welcomed all of the festival attendees to the festival site.
Naturally, chaos ensued.
What happened after Fyre Festival?
As the documentary outlines, there were repercussions, predominantly for Billy McFarland. The co-founder of Fyre pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud last year, and he was sentenced to six years in prison after admitting to two more counts of fraud relating to a ticketing scam which he orchestrated while out on bail.
Ja Rule was not charged in connection to the events.
Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened is released on Netflix on Friday 18th January 2019
