{"id":8762,"date":"2020-01-09T18:49:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-10T02:49:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/?p=8762"},"modified":"2026-02-10T14:12:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T22:12:29","slug":"fyre-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/?p=8762","title":{"rendered":"Fyre Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The following entry is a record in the \u201cCatalogue of Catastrophe<\/strong><\/a>\u201d \u2013 a list of failed or troubled projects from around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Project name : <\/strong>Fyre Festival
Project type : <\/strong>Music festival
Date :<\/strong> Apr 2017
Cost :<\/strong> Undeclared<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Synopsis :<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The execution of a large-scale music festival can be a complex Project Management challenge. The bigger the event, and the higher the expectations, the more challenging it becomes. Throw in a remote location, a lack of event planning experience, lashings of social media hype and you\u2019ve got a recipe for disaster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What might have been a\u00a0modern day Woodstock, became a modern day laughing stock. Conceived as a high-end music event on a private\u00a0island in the Bahamas, the Fyre Festival fizzled to the point where the enduring image is a photo of a\u00a0sad looking cheese sandwich<\/strong><\/a>. The hype for the event promised top bands, high-end accommodations and top chefs. The marketing conjured up images of guests being flown in by private jet, while living in an Instagram dream. Bling, beaches,\u00a0beauty and bands!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It turns out that creating a dream is easier than creating a reality and the planning necessary to fulfil the expectations fell short by an Instagram-exaggerated mile. The resulting calamity meant there were no high-end bands (in fact almost no music at all), no high-end food (hence the photo of the rather sad looking cheese sandwich that became the enduring image) and a rather rough looking camp site. As one attendee reported \u201cschool buses took us to the festival. It was a wasteland. Mattresses on the floor, diggers everywhere, no order at all. [We were told to] \u2018grab a tent\u2019 and it was literally a free for all. [They] were awful \u2013 they were all damp, had rips in them and wouldn\u2019t close at all \u2013 totally unsafe.\u201d \u2013 Attendee interview in the Independent April 2017<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Project Management may not be the weaver of dreams, it is the builder of realities. In a project of this type, excellence in organization is needed to to deliver on expectations. While Woodstock may have been \u2018a trip\u2019, the Fyre Festival simply stumbled. Perhaps for a project born of the social media age, it\u2019s fitting that the resulting face-plant will be on face-book for evermore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One redeeming outcome is of course the social-media comments have become a new forum for stand-up comedy and social commentary.  Among the comments from YouTube:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Budget : 98% Social media 2% Tents and sandwiches<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Woodstock says a lot about the sixties. Live aid says a lot about the eighties. FYRE festival says a lot about today<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Who says Fyre was a failure? Instead of entertaining thousands, it entertained MILLIONS<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Contributing factors as reported in the press:
    <\/strong>Pure lack of Project Management and organization. Allowing expectations to inflate beyond the reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Reference links:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

      \n
    1. Fyre Festival: Founder Billy McFarland jailed for six years<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Fyre Festival attendee gives account of experience, clears up \u2018untrue\u2019 rich kid reports: \u2018It was carnage\u2019<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The following entry is a record in the \u201cCatalogue of Catastrophe\u201d \u2013 a list of failed or troubled projects from around the world. Project name : Fyre FestivalProject type : Music festivalDate : Apr 2017Cost : Undeclared Synopsis : The execution of a large-scale music festival can be a complex Project Management challenge. The bigger the event, and the higher the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,5,3,40,37,42,70,77],"tags":[138,134,132,17,141,9,143,93,147],"class_list":["post-8762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-private-sector","category-failed-project","category-leadership-blog","category-management","category-project-management","category-quality-blog","category-why-projects-fail","tag-causes-of-failure","tag-decision-making","tag-private-sector","tag-leadership","tag-management","tag-pattern-in-failure","tag-project-management","tag-why-do-projects-fail","tag-why-projects-fail"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8762"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9992,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8762\/revisions\/9992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}