“We ask for everyone’s patience and cooperation during this difficult time, as we work as quickly
and safely as we can to remedy this unforeseeable situation.”
In an interview, Mr. McFarland, 25, called Friday “the hardest day of my life.” He said the idea for the event had come to him last summer, after he
and Ja Rule were forced to make an emergency landing in the Bahamas during a flying lesson in a “small, old plane.” A social-media-fueled musical festival there, Mr. McFarland hoped, would combine three of his biggest passions: internet programming, the ocean and rap music.
Attendees were told they could “start each day with morning yoga
and guided meditation on the beach,” while also enjoying “massages, henna tattooing, sound healing, chill-out sessions and a festive Bahamian junkanoo parade kicking off each weekend.” Descriptions of the food options pledged “a uniquely authentic island cuisine experience,” with “local seafood, Bahamian-style sushi and even a pig roast.”
The dinner that @fyrefestival promised us was catered by Steven Starr is literally bread, cheese, and salad with dressing.
At one point in the evening, Ms. Kumar said, staff members dumped a bunch of unopened containers — like “Amazon shipment boxes” — at the site,
and instructed concertgoers to rifle through them for anything that was missing from their tents.
“Neither of us had developed an island or a festival before.”
Still, after a few months of planning — including adding sewage piping
and buying an ambulance in New Jersey and shipping it to the island — the organizers thought they were ready for the crowds until the storm on Thursday morning washed away some of what they had built.
“Not one thing that was promised on the website was delivered,” said Shivi Kumar, 33, who works in technology sales in New York,
and came with a handful of friends expecting the deluxe “lodge” package for which they had paid $3,500: four king size beds and a chic living room lounge.
