I look forward to the deeper investigative reporting on precisely how that mess worked out as badly as it did, but the combination of promise-vs-reality mismatch and the rough PR afterwards suggests incompetence on all levels.
2017 is the "back to school" year. Things people have learned so far are "harder than they thought":
- health care reform
- large scale events
I look forward to seeing what knowledge gets (re)discovered next
- NATO
- NAFTA
- Chinese / Korean relations
- Department of Energy(And the author is a she)
I agree with your statement, but I'm not even sure it applies here. The organizers were charging up to $400,000 a ticket (!) including promises of chartered planes and geodesic domes. They provided none of it, the location is described as "dangerous", and it appears no performers showed up. But they did provide some sort of commercial flights back, which probably cost about $199 each. Sounds like a profitable scheme, particularly if the organizers are basically unknown and now simple disappear with the cash.
I doubt the infrastructure was up to the standards of the club scene, but it's not like there aren't medical facilities, food, or water on Great Exuma.
Even dropping a larger number of festival attenders (on an island with a normal population of 7,000), we're talking "dangerous" conditions in terms of "there's no air conditioned room for me to wait in" and "why hasn't anyone offered me champagne and caviar yet"?
These kids need to learn to appreciate the beauty around them (it's an absolutely gorgeous place) and quit bitching that they don't have everything handed to them on a silver spoon.
Or in other words, try traveling instead of being a tourist.
In fact the article mentions that some the partygoers were all like "fuck that shit and let's just have fun" but changed their mind after assessing the situation.
Lodging, sleep on the beach for a couple nights. This time of year, 80s every day. 70s every night.
Security? If the security problem is the tourists themselves, then maybe they don't deserve to spend time in paradise.
> "At first, she and her friends wanted to make the best of a bad situation, she said, "but then we saw how it started getting dangerous." She said the site didn't have enough security, lights, or food.
> "You were promised chargers for your phone — did not get that," Busier said. "You were promised food — we were like starving. And you were promised safety, you were promised to be taken care of, you were promised an experience of a lifetime. And yes, it was quite the experience, but not in a positive way."
I recognize that the article is somewhat of a hit piece. But if the above is the attendees making the best of a bad situation, then I expressed about as much sympathy as I have.
Article has an obvious slant, but as someone who's been to the area I'd agree that anyone who can't enjoy being there is too first world needy and/or lacks imagination.
It seems very unlikely that everyone who paid will get their money back. Ironically, it's probably the people that paid the most/have the most "influence" will be reimbursed the fastest (if at all), because the "organizers" were most assuredly obsessed with status. The people that paid the least/have the least will almost definitely be the most screwed. They were asking people to sign pieces of paper for refunds. Come on.
The co-founder of the event has a history of over-promising and under-delivering [1], Ja Rule hasn't had a hit in 13 years and is irrelevant, and the only people that probably got paid upfront were the models [2] that posted on Instagram but were then warned not to come to Miami [3].
[1]: http://www.businessinsider.com/magnises-complaints-from-memb... [2]: https://news.vice.com/story/fyre-festivals-25-year-old-organ... [3]: http://pagesix.com/2017/04/28/a-listers-told-to-avoid-disast...
There was some legal action, as far as I can tell this just ate the money and then we never saw anything.
I haven't seen that figure anywhere, even the yacht rent ticket was 'only' $150,000 for ten people, including staff.
Where "anywhere" includes the NPR article under discussion, conveniently linked to in the discussion title?
As you say it's schadenfreude, nothing at all to be proud of?
True it's an emotion that we all have, don't deny it, but to revel in the failure of things is pretty negative.
'deeper investigative reporting' is just people fucked up big time. There is nothing to learn at this level, you/we are just loving schadenfreude is what's really going on.