Scamfluencers - Listen Now: The Big Flop | Fyre Festival

Episode Date: December 12, 2023

When Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner, and Bella Hadid signed up to promote a scorching new music festival, they had no idea the flaming mess they were really in for. Entrepreneur Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule collabed on the notorious Fyre Festival, a disaster that cost millions, almost got festival workers killed or kidnapped, and is forever burned into flop history. Comedians Laci Mosley (Scam Goddess, A Black Lady Sketch Show) and Lauren Ashley Smith (Grown-ish, A Black Lady Sketch Show) join The Big Flop host Misha Brown to roast Billy McFarland and his cheese sandwich schemes.  This is just a preview of The Big Flop. You can listen to the full episode wherever you get your podcasts, or at wondery.fm/thebigflop.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

When Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid signed up to promote a new luxury music festival called Firefest, they had no idea the mess they were really in for. There was no housing, no food, and apparently no toilet paper. Each week on Wendry's podcast, the Big Flock, comedians joined Misha Brown to chronicle one of the biggest pop culture fails of all time. Each episode will have you thinking to yourself, why did this get made? He recently had comedian Lacey Mosley of Scam Goddess and head writer of HBO's A Black Lady Sketch Show, Lauren Ashley Smith to roast everything about the now infamous Fire Fest. It was a disaster that cost millions, almost got festival workers killed or kidnapped, and is forever burned into flop history. We're about to play a clip from The Big Flop.

Follow The Big Flop. Follow the Big flop on the Wondering app or wherever you get your podcasts. It's April 3rd of 2017 and thousands of young people are getting ready for a music festival later that month. The promise is extraordinary. A private island in the Bahamas, huge acts like Migos, Major Laser, and Blink 182, Five Star Quazine, and Luxury Villas. Attendees would frolic with models and NFL players

in the sparkling blue water while jet skis criss-cross in the distance. This would be a brand new festival called Fire Fest. What could possibly go wrong? Well, behind the scenes, things are very much going wrong. According to leaked emails obtained by Mike.com, the festival's five star caterer had dropped out and festival employee Lily Villeneuve found another looming disaster. The bathrooms.

She'd just sent her boss the numbers of how many portable bathrooms were needed. Industry professionals agreed that 20 trailers plus several shower units would suffice. Her boss had another idea. He responded by suggesting they cut that number in half. People can just wait longer, right? Now, Lily knows this would be a disaster.

She writes back to point out that people will rely on these bathrooms for five days, unlike many events that only need a few porta-potties to last a couple of hours. Her boss responds, but he completely misses the point. He says, porta-potties are a great idea. Think of the savings! So with less than four weeks to go, there is no food and not enough bathrooms for the thousands of attendees expecting a luxury weekend in paradise.

In this moment of darkness, one fire fest employee hopefully points out a silver lining, and I quote, This was gonna be bad. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Fans who paid as much as $12,000 expected luxury villas and gourmet food. Instead, they say they found disaster relief tents and a cheese sandwich in a styrofoam box. And thunder and then the lights go out and the roads look like they're flooded. I thought to myself, this is an act of God. From Wondery and At Will Media, this is The Big Flup, where we chronicle the greatest flubs, fails and blunders of all time. I'm your host, Misha Brown, social media superstar and king of the Mosh Pit at Don't Cross the Game Man.

And today we're talking about a guest-up event that went up in flames. Fire Festival. On today's show, we're discussing a very well-known flop. This one is on the tip of everyone's tongue when it comes to flops, and especially when it comes to specific events that went terribly, disastrously wrong. And here to help me, we have two incredible guests that I am so excited to share this time with. We have actor, comedian and host of the hit podcast, Scam Goddess, Lacey Mosley. Welcome Lacey Mosley. Welcome, Lacey.

What's up, Misha? You not love me some fire festival. And speaking of gaming, being crows, we'll get there. I know you will. I'm sure I will on this one. Also joining us, we have comedian, producer, and former head writer for HBO's A Black Ladies Sketch Show, Lauren Ashley Smith.

Welcome to the show Lauren. Thank you for having me. It's time for us to dive into the absolute madness that is the truly infamous fire festival. The captain of the sinking ship that is firefest is Billy McFarlane. An upstart college dropout who is one of these serial entrepreneur types? So how did MacFarland and Jawrool become besties? Well MacFarland wanted to book Jawrool for an event, but Jawrool declined. Later, the two connected at a magnetist's event, hit it off and became business partners.

This initial booking difficulty, according to McFarland gave him the idea for fire media, an app that promises to let you book a music act directly without going through a knowing middleman, like reps, lawyers, anybody there to protect the artists, you know. I mean, Jarrou's thing wasn't even that professional. Like the middleman were just like his homies who would be like, if you wanna meet Jorrull,

Billy give me some money. And then he would give them the money. And then he'd be like, where is Jorrull? And they'd be like, hold on. Jorr, he's not here right now. And like, he did that like a few times where he paid just a bunch of random black people. I wish I had been a part of it

because I could be a random black person who's like, I know Jorrull Billy, give me random black people. I wish I had been a part of it because I could be a random black person who's like, I know job rule, Billy. Give me five hundred dollars. Yeah, we all know job rule. Yeah, absolutely. Well, at the 2016 web summit, McFarlane and Jaw Rule introduced their new venture. Fire values their own app at $90 million,

according to Vanity Fair. But in reality, the year before the festival, the company had only brought in $57,000 of bookings. Womp, wom, wom, wom. You hear evaluation, I hear manifestation. Yeah. I hear goals, I hear vision board, I hear leap in the net will appear.

I mean, I hear handcuffs. You can listen to the big flop early and ad-free right now by joining Wendry Plus in the Wendry app or on Apple podcasts.