Luxury Fyre Festival in the Bahamas 'Fully Postponed' Amid Reports of Total Chaos

Attendees expected to get a luxury "cultural moment" that blended "music, art, and food." But that's not exactly what happened.

April 28, 2017
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A so-called "luxury" music festival in the Bahamas originally scheduled to feature performances from Pusha T, Desiigner, Lil Yachty, Blink-182, and more has descended into complete pandemonium. The festival was co-organized by Ja Rule and promoted by Bella Hadid and other celebrities, but BBC Newsreported Friday that the event had been plagued with reports of "no security" and canceled flights.

Reports on social media, including a play-by-play rundown from writer William N. Finley IV that was still in progress at the time of this writing, paint a pretty grim picture of the Exuma proceedings:

On Thursday, Blink-182 issued a statement announcing their decision to pull out of their previously scheduled Fyre Fest performances this weekend and next weekend. "We're not confident that we would have what we need to give you the quality of performances we always give our fans," the band said. Other artists listed on the festival's schedule included Skepta, Tyga, Kaytranada, Major Lazer, and Rae Sremmurd.

Fyre Festival, according toVanity Fair, is a product of Fyre Media, the startup Ja Rule launched with tech partner Billy McFarland in 2015. "We didn't just want to be a tech company that was a pure enterprise with no consumer awareness," McFarland said in an interview conducted prior to the chaos. "So a festival was a great way to go and do that and beyond people who are attending." The festival aimed for luxury, with a spokesperson tellingVanity Fair it was possible "to spend in excess of $104,995" for the "Fyre experience."

Early Friday morning, a Twitter account associated with the Fyre Festival announced that the event had been "fully postponed." In a previous statement on Instagram, Fyre reps conceded that "things got off to an unexpected start" on the first day of the would-be festival.

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism offered a "heartfelt apology" to Fyre attendees who had traveled for the event, saying in a statement that "tourism is our number one industry" and that they were "extremely disappointed" in the way the festival had unfolded:

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Complex's attempts to reach Fyre Festival reps Friday were not immediately successful.