Wowsers - this guy was a dick! It's not the festival goers I necessarily feel sorry for - they had money to burn by all accounts - but its the people who worked on this event, especially the Bahamians, who didn't get paid, that were hit the worst. Billy McFarland needs to take stock of his life and BACK OFF from doing anything like this again. A great doc, certainly eye opening, and a valuable lesson for those people in Billy's shoes right now.

Great documentary! However, after watching the Hulu version, this version seamed disjointed with it's back 'n forth style of storytelling. The Hulu version is more a linear timeline, digging into who Billy was before the festival and some of his other failed companies before telling the viewer about the Fyre Festival. The Hulu version also has interviews with Billy himself as well as his girlfriend which are even more revealing. Also, it's good to know that the Netflix version was produced in coordination with the social media company which put on the Fyre Festival - F**K Jerry Media. I found it interesting how the Netflix version mostly glossed over their involvement while the Hulu version had an interview with the actual designer of all the social media elements from FJM. He gave a lot more insight into their involvement, which is very interesting. All in all, I'd recommend watching the Hulu version first, and then watching this version.

this documentary is INCREDIBLE - i can’t recommend it enough. billy mcfarland reeks of privilege and i was completely appalled and blown away by his blasé attitude to literally committing several counts of white collar crime - living in the lap of luxury in a penthouse suite after being released on $300,000 bail? after scamming bahamians out of $250,000 worth of unpaid manual labour? after setting up a brand new scam targeting victims who’ve already lost thousands of dollars to this catastrophe? after endangering lives through both the lack of adequate shelter and water for guests and the awful working conditions for the employees? and laughing and joking all the way through it like destroying financial livelihoods is nothing. this documentary has got me so riled up and disgusted which is a sign of a very well-made doc!!! my one criticism would be that i’d have much preferred a criminological critique at the end rather than the spiel about social media being a ~facade~ which we all already know. i think it would’ve been awesome to have instead looked at stats for how many people get away with this sort of thing, for how he got 6 years (6 years!) when some people are put away for triple that for dealing freaking marijuana, if the bahamians ever got that money, etc. - cause people love to say that white collar crimes are victimless crimes but somebody, somewhere is working for nothing. overall a fantastic doc providing many genuine wtf moments but lacking a commentary on race/class/wealth and privilege

I've said before that art / music / film can't be depressing. Just good or not so good. But this film may have actually changed my mindset. It's one of the most depressing films I've ever seen. To see the instagram age in motion, doing their thing, just to be seen, and heard, and noticed. Very sad. Also very sad that all those Bahamians never got paid for their hard work which got undertaken in good faith. A true horror show that looks inside what some of the people in the Western world have become.

I think everyone here agrees that Billy was a fraudster and should rot in jail for that. I miss two things here though. First question that comes to my mind is: __and who else?__ I really can't believe he pulled this scam off all by himself and no one else realized what was going on. The other people who were aware of it, but didn't try to put a stop to it are also responsible IMO (though to a lesser extent). Another thing that bothers me is people saying: __ah, but he stole from the rich kids, they had loads of money, so they deserved that...__ Well, that's some bullsh*t! Is that money any less stolen bc of that? I don't think so. Yeah, it probably doesn't cause so much harm to the victims, but a theft is still a theft, sorry!