The Big Flop - ENCORE - Fyre Festival: Bring Your Own Toilet Paper with Laci Mosley and Lauren Ashley Smith | 67

Episode Date: December 23, 2024

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 Misha to help us roast Billy McFarland and his cheese sandwich schemes.Be the first to know about Wondery’s newest podcasts, curated recommendations, and more! Sign up now at https://wondery.fm/wonderynewsletterListen to The Big Flop on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/the-big-flop/ now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Before we dive into today's tale of catastrophe, I have to tell you about Wondery+. If you're someone who craves the juicy details behind the biggest flops, Wondery+, is exactly what you need. Add free episodes and early access to new stories that will take you even deeper into the world of business blunders. Trust me, it's a game changer. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or in Apple Podcast. Hi besties. We here at The Big Flop are taking a quick holiday break. So today I've got an encore of one of my favorite episodes queued up for you. Rarely in this world do we see such a non-stop flopper. Our guy Billy McFarland is always up to something, always keeping himself relevant.

We can never forget this all-time flop episode. And these incredible guests, of course, enjoy our episode covering the legendary flop, Fire Festival. And we'll be back with a new episode next week. 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 Lazer, and Blink-182. Five-star cuisine and luxury villas. Attendees would frolic with models and NFL players

in the sparkling blue water while jet skis crisscross in the distance. This would be a brand-new festival called Fire Fest. What could possibly go wrong? 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 Villanueva 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 Firefest employee helpfully points out a silver lining. And I quote, no one is eating, therefore no one is pooping. This was gonna be bad. 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 AtWill Media, this is The Big Flop, 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 Gay Man, and today we're talking about a gassed up event that went up in flames. Fire Festival. Up in flames, fire festival. ["Fire Festival Theme Song"] 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. What's up, Misha? You know I love me some Fyre Festival. And speaking of gay men being crossed, we'll get there. I know we will.

We sure will on this one. Also joining us, we have comedian, producer, and former head writer for HBO's A Black Lady sketch show, Lauren Ashley Smith. Welcome to the show, Lauren. Thank you for having me. If I'm correct, you two worked together on A Black Lady Sketch Show, right?

We did. Yes. Yes, we did. Incredible. Nothing like being a third wheel on your own podcast, Meacham. We're taking it over. Yes, that's the scam. We actually came to take it. Did they not tell you that we were still taking it? Look.

So, Lacey, I love your podcast. You have spoken about Fire Festival on Scam Goddess. So, I mean, without giving away any spoilers, how has your opinion on this event changed since learning about it? When I really got into the details, Billy McFarlane is an icon. Like, since childhood, he was born a scammer. I always say if you have kids and they want to have a lemonade stand,

you're raising a criminal. Like, why does your kid want money? They're five. Um, so, like, from start to finish, I love Billy McFarland. I think he is just so nonsensical and unserious. So, I love the details of this. Yeah. So, Lauren, have you ever attended an event that you thought would be awesome, but disappointed you?

Oh my gosh, so many. And some of them are weddings. Like, I've had food where it's like people that I know have made these amazing like soul food spreads of food and the food looks like mouth-watering, perfect, like textbook soul food. And I got it on my plate and it tasted like nothing. And this is like pre-COVID. This isn't like, oh my gosh, like textbook soul food. And I got it on my plate and it tasted like nothing. And this is like pre-COVID. This isn't like, oh my gosh, like I lost my taste and smell and I didn't know. But I'm like, how does it look that good? And it tastes like absolute air.

Oh, no. What the hell? Yeah, well, these people were hungry as well. Oh, yes. You'll find out more about that soon because 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 Fire Fest is Billy McFarland, an upstart college

dropout who is one of these serial entrepreneur types. As he tells it, he's been creating businesses since he was in high school. At 23, he has an idea for something called Magnesis. It's an exclusive vibe of an Amex Black card and is marketed towards millennials. So take a further look at all the services and realize that all these financial services, particularly those based around credit and debit cards, have really become a commodity and they don't really affect the lives of millennials. So we saw that as a huge opportunity to build this product that actually affects and enhances and really improves your everyday life in the city. But to be clear, when you have the Amex Black Card, it's a standalone account.

With Magnesis, you weren't opening up a new credit card, you just paid a membership fee to receive a fancier looking card. I've held one. Did you? I dated a guy who had a fancier looking card? I've held one. Did you? I dated a guy who had a Magnesis card. He was terrible. No. Yes, it's heavy like a black card.

It is. It's like metal. It was basically a Halloween costume for the credit card, but it did offer some perks like an app-based virtual assistant, secret restaurant menus and hidden dining rooms and private member spaces. Another perk offered by Magnesis was the ability to pay rapper Ja Rule, who it so happens is the creative head and spokesman for the card, $450 to get mentioned in one of his songs. Here he's on Fox Business, sort of explaining why he chose to team up with Billy on Magnesis.

Ja Rule, you know, so many celebrities become brand ambassadors for something or other. Why'd you choose this? You know, it's a very unique situation. Whenever you can marry the affluent with the less fortunate, you get the birth child. Wait, wait. Which is called hip hop. Okay, but this isn't called hip hop. This is called the credit card.

This is the credit card. Birth child? You can marry the affluent with the less fortunate? What? Nothing he said made sense. Nothing. At all. And he paused so long, I thought he was really about to spit.

He should have just said, what would happen without my baby? That would give me more information than what he said. I know, right? I know. I know. I know. I know. I know. I really about to spit. He should've just said, what would happen without my baby? That would give me more information than what he said. I know. It's like, what do we think of

when we hear the name Ja Rule? Credit cards. Also, I'm sorry, but like at that point in time, having your name mentioned in a Ja Rule song is not the flex you think it is. If you're going to go back and retroactively put my name in I'm real, or something like that, that we can talk. But not current Jowl, no thanks.

Yeah, I mean, I wanna know what it would've sounded like to have, like, Chad or Mark or Brent being like a Jowl. Brent's real. The way Brent walks, the way Brent talks. ["Brent's Real Brint's real. Stop. I would have taken that. $4.50, that's pretty cheap.

So how did McFarland and Ja Rule become besties? Well, McFarland wanted to book Ja Rule for an event, but Ja Rule declined. Later, the two connected at a magnesis 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 annoying middlemen like reps, lawyers, anybody there to protect the artists, you know? I mean, Ja Rule's thing wasn't even that professional. Like, the middlemen were just like his homies,

who would be like, if you want to meet Ja Rule, Billy, give me some money. And then me, I would give him the money. And then he'd be like, where is Ja Rule? And they'd be like, hold on, Ja! He 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 Ja Rule, Billy. Give me $500. Yeah, we all know Ja Rule. Yeah, absolutely. Well, at the 2016 Web Summit, McFarland and Ja 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. Whomp, whomp, whomp. You hear evaluation, I hear manifestation. Yeah. I hear goals. I hear manifestation. Yeah.

I hear goals, I hear vision board, I hear leap in the net will appear. Amen. I hear handcuffs. Clinking together. After only working on the FIRE app for three to five months, the team starts brainstorming ways to promote it. And according to an interview in the Netflix FireFest documentary, one employee claims they suggested throwing a concert for industry pros. But that's not good enough for McFarland. He runs with this idea of a concert,

but wants to make it epic. So Ja Rule and McFarland head to the Bahamas to scout a beautiful, semi-tropic location. According to McFarland, he and Ja were flying over the Exumas, a district of the Bahamas, and saw this unmanned runway. And they dialed it in and nobody responded. So a normal person would probably, I don't know, keep flying. But of course, they landed without permission, took a look around and they end up meeting the island's owner and find out it's called Norman's Cay. Besides the beauty of this island,

there was a special allure for McFarland and Jaw. It was once owned by a member of Pablo Escobar's cartel. So McFarland and Jaw will agree, Norman's Cay is the ultimate place for his festival. Well, McFarland negotiates for Norman's Cay and he gets it booked. Everything is going great. There's just one stipulation.

McFarland is not allowed to use the name Pablo Escobar in any of the marketing materials. If he does, the deal is off. Oh, no. Remember that little detail. So now that he's, the deal is off. Oh no. Remember that little detail. So now that he's got the island, McFarland starts cooking up other ways this festival could be epic.

I mean, okay, to get a sense of what McFarland is promising, let's play a game. ["Fire Festival Theme"] So here are the rules of this game. The Fire Festival promised to feature an astounding assortment of famous faces and alluring amenities. Some of the following event features we just made up, and some of these features were made up by Fire Festival organizers because as we now know, everything was made up. Can you guess which amenities are real, as in were advertised,

and which ones are totally fake? Number one, a private yacht with a full crew, real or fake? Real. Yes, that one was real and it cost $75,000. Oh no. Drop in the bucket. All right, the second one. A six-course sunset dinner featuring Escobar's favorite foods. Lauren, I'm letting you have these.

Fake. Ding, ding, ding. Yes, that one was fake, but I feel like they should have actually done that one. That would be classy. That would have been a classy dinner. Yes. All right, one more. Dinner with one performer for $400,000.

Oh, my gosh. I really hope that this is fake, but I'm gonna say it's real. You are so good. You aced that quiz. That was absolutely real, and I'm assuming it was probably Ja Rule. That is a shame. That's a punishment. That is a shame.

Why would I pay $400,000 to have dinner with Ja Rule when I could just wander around New York City and have dinner with him for whatever the cost of the meal was? Also, I love that Ja Rule inverted the, would you take $500,000 or dinner with Jay-Z? And he was like, give me $400,000 and I'll have dinner with you! An innovator. So McFarland now needs to sell this thing. So he secures promotional contracts with some of the world's hottest models.

He books influencers like Bella Hadid, Emily Radikowski, and Hailey Baldwin. And they all meet up on the island to have a big staged party. There's private planes, jet skis, models and bikinis on beaches, and of course lots of yacht shots. And this contrived hang becomes the basis for Fyre's viral advertisement to announce this festival. They do promise this to be the party of the century with 33 A-list bands like Pusha T, Tyga, Desiigner, Blink 182, Major Lazer, Disclosure, Migos, I mean many more. This sounds like a crazy lineup I for sure would want to go if it were like ACL here in Austin. They almost completely sell out of Fyre Festival

tickets in two days. So let's watch the ad that they made for the festival. Oh God. Now, since this doesn't have any dialogue, I'm hoping that we could all watch it together and describe it. So Lacey, do you want to take the lead on this play by play? For sure. Amazing. We're zooming in on the island. The water's so blue. Private jets.

Hot bitches. They're hugging. They're laughing. Ooh, that's the one black one that they have. She's sexy. Oh. Dancing. And these are concert clips from other concerts,

because nothing's happened here. I'm looking for a bathroom. All I see is like boob, sand, water, and I see no facilities. I don't see no food either. Models don't need food. That's what we saying. We bought cameras that can go underwater. Owned by Pablo Escobar. Yeah. Yeah. Did you catch that at the end?

That text that said, Fire Fest will take place on Pablo Escobar's private island. That is insane. It's like we told you there was only one thing you could not say. I mean, I'm sure you're thinking that's a lot of money. Surely they'll overlook this one little thing. But in fact, because they mentioned Pablo Escobar in their marketing campaign, as they were specifically asked not to do,

the island's owner boots them from Norman's Cay. And FireFest now has no location. They had one job. Also, like, you hired all these sexy, beautiful women to be sexy, beautiful. And like Lauren said, underwater cameras so you can see sexy, beautiful submerged in the ocean. Like, why do you need to say it's Pablo Escobar's island?

You already have Victoria's Secret models. Yeah. The Pablo Escobar was just absolutely unnecessary. Absolutely. So now they're booted and there's only about six to eight weeks before the festival. And I'm not a festival organizer, but that doesn't seem like enough time. No, it doesn't. No.

But after a scramble, McFarland is only able to find one alternate location for Firefest that even remotely resembles what he promised. A place called Roker's Point on the much larger island of Great Exuma. Not a cute private island at all. It's actually just this gravelly building site that might someday become a resort. While Roker's Point is next to some other resorts, hotels, and private Airbnb-able homes, there's another event happening at the same time as fire. Every hotel room books up. It's absolutely the worst time imaginable to plan an event on this island.

So, there's no space. The audaciousness of this man. And everybody told him, they were like, we got a regatta, bro. We do this every year. He's like, don't worry about that. He'd be like, everything's beautiful. Everything's fine. Everything is booked, sir.

Yeah. I mean, anytime I've watched, like, any clips in the documentaries about this, every time I just, like, see McFarland walking, I just feel like you look like you believe the earth is flat. So this whole thing now becomes a slippery slope of fraud. They need housing. They need places to feed people and stages

for music artists to perform. So they sell expensive villa packages, housing, they need places to feed people and stages for music artists to perform, so they sell expensive villa packages, but then can't afford the original plan to build these villas, so they need to switch to tents, which the staff don't even have enough time to assemble. The acclaimed catering service is cut loose and the food budget is cut from $6 million all the way down to $1 million. The craziest thing that I came across was there was even back and forth about asking the influencers to bring their own toilet paper.

What? Now, listen, I am an influencer. I am not a Bella Hadid or an Emily. I will not in my wildest dreams. But if someone ever asked me, Misha, can you show up to this event, but you need to bring your own TP. If someone asked me a private citizen

to bring my own toilet paper anywhere, I would say, you must have lost your mind. I'm going, I'm going. I wanna be there. I need to understand why I need to bring my own toilet paper and I would have my toilet paper and I can start slanging it. I got that charm in two ply and I'm like a dollar a square, a dollar a square. How much it mean to you? How much it mean to you? Early 2020 vibes.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I'm slanging it. Well, for McFarland, there are a couple of really big reasons that the fire festival needs to happen. And those reasons are money, because Billy owes investors so much money. And if the festival doesn't go, he will never recoup those costs. He also doesn't have festival insurance, which would cover an emergency, or a million emergencies in this case.

So McFarland keeps insisting that the PR from canceling will be worse than whatever happens if they keep going. Oh, if you only knew, Billy. If he only knew. If he only knew. You should have canceled it. I don't know. I feel like it worked out.

Like I never knew who Billy McFarland was, even though I've held a Magnesis card. Now he's infamous. That's true. And now he's like, he has so many documentaries with his face on the front of it. Like, that is kind of legendary. So Billy starts committing straight-up fraud, or at least people realize that he's doing it this time.

And he starts securing services and emailing fake wire transfers with numbers cut off. Festival goers are asked to send fire even more money ahead of the event. They're called by phone and asked to preload these fire bands, which are wristbands that use chip readers to pay for meals, upgrades, and even jet skis.

Again, if I were on the list and I had already paid to go to this event and then I was aggressively called to add more money onto this thing to pay for things while I'm there, I would be like, what is going on? That's a griff that always works. People don't remember sunk cost in economics,

which is like a sunk cost means that you've already paid that. And if you pay more because you paid that, you're just going to lose more. You have to just be able to walk away from a sunk cost. I have to admit that I certainly would be someone who got that call and be like, oh yeah, I'll load up the bracelet because it is this is like girl math before girl math got its name where it's like the money I paid before it's basically free me going now because I already paid for it.

So the money going on the bracelet means that when I get there, everything's free. That's how it works. So I'm happy to have free food when I get there and free jet skis if I pay for the bracelet now. And a lot of people agreed with that way of thinking because the prepayments get him $800,000. But I mean, even that was not enough to pull off a festival. So the money shortage causes cascading failures. Customs is holding up items that McFarland hasn't paid the taxes on.

Four 18-wheeler trucks full of Evian water are being held by Customs, who demand $175,000. So obviously, FIRE does not have that kind of scratch at this point, and event producer Andy King is asked to do the unthinkable. Here's a clip from the Netflix FIRE Fest documentary of Andy explaining the situation. And I said, Billy, what? He said, Andy, if you will go down and suck Cunningham's dick, who's the head of customs, and get him to clear all of the containers with water, you will save this festival. And I literally drove home, took a shower. I drank some mouthwash.

I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm really and I got into my car to drive across the island to take one for the team. Drinking mouthwash? and I got into my car to drive across the island to take one for the team. I... Drinkin' mouthwash? Like, I want to hire Andy Dick because he literally... What's his last name, Dick? Andy King.

Andy King. Because I need employees that are that down for the cause. I'll never ask you to suck no dick. But the fact that he was like, not only am I gonna suck this dick, but I'm gonna go swish some Listerine and make sure the dick sucking is primo. Yes, he said, I am going to do it to the best of my ability.

They don't make people loyal like that anymore. No. It's just the willingness for me. The willingness and the mouthwash, like just in case I have to like gently kiss him on the mouth. I don't know. Yeah, I want to have fresh breath.

Yeah. Well, thankfully, once Andy drives down to customs, they release the water and just ask to be paid first when the money becomes available. Crisis averted, but many more to come, so don't worry. He was like, you don't want me to pay you in what that mouth do? They're like, get up, get up, get up, get up, get up.

Stand up, stand up. Stand up! Pay us when you can, this is embarrassing for you. Why are you under my desk? Please, stand up. You just have to pay us. Jesus. Well, things only get worse when the festival actually starts. It's the perfect storm of mismanaged funds, over-promised perks, and locational logistics.

The day before the festival, an actual storm hits with like actual wind and rain and stuff. Thousands of festival-goers are making their way over to Roker Point, now just a soggy parking lot, recently covered in sand to look more beach-like. The carpeted tents and mattresses are totally waterlogged and unusable. Workers haven't been paid, many are refusing to work and some are even stranded on a cruise ship out at sea. The staff are overwhelmed and when they turn to McFarland for answers, he kind of ignores them, gets on his four wheeler and just rides around.

Anybody on a motorcycle or a four wheeler, you should never give your money to them. I've talked about this. They can get away too fast. They can cut through traffic. People, if you see someone in an alternate mode of transportation, be aware. Be aware. They are unserious. Very. Guests are treated to an impromptu beach party for six hours to buy some time.

They're served tequila and rosé as part of the distraction. And during this six-hour party, you might wonder what the guests are eating. Now, I know this is possibly the most famous cheese sandwich that doesn't have the face of Jesus burned into the bread, but let's just look at it one more time. Oh! Okay, for the listeners that might not have seen this photo before, we are looking at a Styrofoam container with like a little bit of salad. There is a tomato on there. And

then just two pieces of bread with two pieces of cheese and that's, that's it. That's certainly a far cry from a six million dollar fancy catering budget. Now, I will give points for execution, okay? I'll also give a point for it being vegetarian. It's not vegan, but it is vegetarian and usually that's tough to come by in a group situation. So they were being thoughtful in that way. I have seen better meals prepared by children. I think the vegetarianism was like if we give them spoiled meat, because this has been sitting

out all day that because that cheese is melted and I know it wasn't nothing but the natural sun doing that. Right. There's no toaster. The toaster was the sun. Yeah. They're like, we're not going to give the girls diphtheria salmonella. We're going to give them... Yes. It's also quite disrespectful. You expect when you open a styrofoam container like that. So the bread and the cheese are in the main trough, the little container, the salad is up on the right corner, and then on the left corner,

we have a whole little bowl that is empty. If you open a styrofoam container and both things are not filled, that is the most insulting thing to me. I've never seen anything like that, where they're like, we just didn't have enough food to fill both sections. Bad decisions at every turn.

So I mean, people are posting their experience at fire to social, and pictures of these sad-looking cheese sandwiches, they start to go viral. But they have a backstory. There were more, shall we say, robust meals being prepared for attendees, like pasta and chicken, a far cry from gourmet, sure, but some who ate this food reported that it was okay. These cheese sandwiches were only meant for staff. In the chaos, some of the staff meals

got taken slash passed around to drunk and ravenous partygoers. So imagine you are exhausted from traveling. You're stuck on top of a wet parking lot. You are drunk. There is no food. Bathrooms barely exist. What do you do? Are you the kind of person who'd keep everyone calm in line? Are you pillaging and, you know, joining the band of rebels? What are you? I'm unfortunately a rule follower to a fault, so I'll be like, I'm sure that this is part of some larger plan. God's got a plan for us, right? Like, I'll be like, maybe this is part of a surprise experience. And then they're going to be like, surprise, like, we're taking

you to the real island. But then after a couple hours, I would start to turn into my innermost Karen and start to be asking for the most senior person to speak with and yell at. Yeah. Within three minutes on the scene, I will surmise that this is a scam. I will start selling toilet paper, I will aggregate tents, and, like, get some people on my side to form our own little regime, where we will lord over the place until we can be freed. Like...

See, as soon as I see any sort of writing on the wall that something's not going my way, I am very quick to, like, kickball change and exit stage right. Like, so, like, when COVID happened, I was working on a cruise ship as a singer, and we had no knowledge that COVID was a thing. Like, we got told about it the day the world shut down. And the captain was like,

we're going out to sea for 30 days. And I was the only person on the entire fleet who was like, not me. I'm not going out to sea for 30 days. See was the only person on the entire fleet who was like, not me. I'm not going out to sea for 30 days. See, see you later. Well, at this point, guests have only been at the festival for a few hours and they want to leave desperately. A new priority is to get people off this island, but the airport is tiny, essentially with only enough room for a single plane to take off at a time. And suddenly there are hundreds of people looking to leave.

People are locked in the airport, like with a padlock and a chain, with no food, no water, or air conditioning, and at least one person is hospitalized, according to a witness. The fencing in of travelers was done, quote, for their own safety, according to an article by The Independent. You know how we put people in prison for their own safety, according to an article by The Independent. You know how we put people in prison for their own safety. Oh, yeah. I saw those videos and, like, everyone was distraught and distressed and ain't no Cinnabon in this airport. You can't get no Sbaros.

There's no Ruby Tuesdays 2 or a CPK 2. No, and for the rest of the weekend, it's all rescue missions and apology statements. So the organizers tweet out, quote, Due to unforeseen and extenuating circumstances, Fire Festival has been fully postponed. After assessing the situation this morning and looking at best options for our guests, we cannot move forward as we hoped we could. At this time, we are working tirelessly to get flights scheduled and get all travelers

home safely." Unforeseen is hilarious. Unforeseen is hysterical. They were so foreseen. Everybody had foreseen it. The gumption. It had been foreseen. Like, I got eyes like I'm a spider, like eight eyes.

We foreseen it. We foreseen it. We actually told you we fursinked it. They're like, no, it was unforeseen. Right. Everybody told you. Well, after the rest of the event was canceled and vendors were told they wouldn't get paid, some local workers plan to kidnap and ransom fire employees. If they couldn't get money, some just wanted a little revenge. As they should. I don't blame them. Not taken. They say I'm neck-shacking everybody in the Bahamas. I'm getting my revenge.

Festival producer Andy King said he traded clothes with another person and hid in the backseat of a car so he could escape safely. He had a really rough go. I can't wait for Andy King's book to come out. White Harriet Tubman. Oh, my God. She was like, to freedom. Oh, my God. So, I mean, in McFarland, he's MIA at this point.

Everybody wants to find him and nobody can. There's rumors that he's hiding on one of those yachts or that he's in Miami. But the festival is only the beginning of the end for McFarland. So a few weeks later, in Manhattan, McFarland is arrested and charged with A-list-level primo-scamming. Litigation pours in from everywhere, including a class action lawsuit on behalf of attendees for $100 million, citing fraud, breach of contract, breach of covenant, of good faith, and negligent misrepresentation. So in March of 2018, McFarland is ordered to pay $26 million and is sentenced to six years in federal prison. He sent in those wire transfers.

Everybody knows when you're scamming. Don't do it through the mail and don't do the wires because Ms. Government Girl, she's going to get jungled. Yep. So I guess we'll see him out next year. Wow. It's too soon. No, I'm just kidding. He's already been released in 2022 after only four years. Yeah.

Guess he was on his best behavior. Yeah, so where's everybody else, you might ask? Well, in 2019, Ja Rule was cleared of all wrongdoing in the $100 million class action lawsuit and he never faced criminal charges for his involvement in FireFest. And, for that matter, neither did Andy King, everyone's favorite can-do event organizer. He was so charismatic in the Netflix documentary that he snagged a talent deal with reality TV execs and started shopping around his own show. I love that for Andy. Andy needs to be on television. He's a trooper, he's a loyal person, and he is an excellent employee.

I love him. I think that Ja Rule should be insulted that he wasn't charged. Yes. Because they're saying, Ja, they're saying like, what would I do with my baby? Like, you too stupid. Like, you're too dumb to have orchestrated this plan

when we know you were involved. So you should actually feel some type of way that you didn't get charged. I 100% agree. He should feel super insulted by that. But at least Billy's learned his lesson, right? No. Oh.

In August of 2023, he stood on a rooftop in a white bathrobe and announced on YouTube that... Well, you have to see it to believe it. What's up, guys? This is a big day. Because as of right now, Fire Festival 2 tickets are officially on sale. It has been the absolute wildest journey to get here, and it really all started during the seventh month's stint

in solitary confinement. Oh, my God. Where all the best ideas come from. Oh my gosh. He's like, so listen, I came up with this while I was serving time for the last time I scammed you guys. Who wants in? Yeah.

Listen, I tried to get a ticket. It was sold out. I'm working through other channels because I will be there. Boots on the ground. I will be there. I want to know. I will have an escape plan. I'm going as a journalist. It's your charm, man.

Yeah, you better bring your own supplies. Oh, I'm gonna have all the TP, honey. So I went on the website right before we jumped on here, and there is not a destination, there is not a date, there is not a lineup, and there are tickets for over $1 million that he's selling. Just vibes. What?

Yes, vibes. Lauren, what would it take for you to go to FireFest too? Honestly, an invitation and a plane ticket. And I'm not saying like, buy my plane ticket, just give me the flight number and tell me to buy it and that it's an open flight. I agree with Lacey. I want to go see what I can see.

And I want to be able to tell people I, too, was personally victimized by the fire festival. It's supposedly gonna be in the Caribbean, so I would go, but I would have a backup plan. Like, I'm gonna hop an island if this goes... Misha, we need you to come. We all need to go together. Because Misha's gonna know when to leave and to go. And you're gonna know where to find trouble in the best stories.

Listen, Laurie gonna have it all organized. We're just like, okay, we gotta hit this tent, and then we gotta get this and this, and then we got the cheese sandwiches, and we're like, we're gonna hit everything organized. I feel like we can do this together and it would be fire. We are the trifecta for the perfect experience. Yes. Well, for what it's worth, Jarrul says he knows nothing about this,

and he's not getting involved this time. But we'll see. And Andy King announced that he's going to help Billie. Yeah. Are you serious? Everyone's mouths are agape. Andy! Andy.

Love yourself. Love yourself, King. Oh my God. You're going bad! Yeah, Andy says it's a redemption. I just hope he'll be okay. Okay, so here on the Big Flop, we like to be fair and acknowledge the rainbows that come after the storm. So do either of you have any silver linings that you can think of that came from FireFest? I would say my silver lining is knowing that most people, specifically models, aren't going

to ask a lot of follow-up questions if you just book their time. My silver lining is that I met Joey Fatone on a random job and he had on a FireFest t-shirt and I really wanted it and wanted to know where he got it. The brand is iconic and I will be boots on the ground at FireFest. I need to know. I love it. You need to know. Well, one of my favorites and one of the few happy plot lines in this bizarre heist movie involves the Bahamian caterer Mary Ann Roll. Oh. While we don't know if she was responsible for that famous cheese sandwich, Fire Fest really did Mary Ann wrong.

Fire Festival was a disaster. I was there preparing hundreds and hundreds of meals, and I was not able to be paid. So she initially lost $50,000 of her life savings trying to feed not only the festival attendees, but also the massive crew McFarland hired to do everything last minute and then stiffed. After her story received wider attention on Netflix, crowdfunding helped her raise more than $200,000. And she and her husband then donated more than half of that to the local workers. That really warms my heart that that's your silver lining

because I was wondering about Marion after that because I was like, damn, this sucks. These people just came and robbed her. What? So now that you both know the full tale of Fire Fest, would you consider this a baby flop, a big flop, or a mega flop? Mega, without a doubt.

You're talking about planes from Miami having to like kick off passengers to go rescue people. You're talking about people like not having housing. You're talking about robbing the community who lives on that island. But I also love that he's turning it into a huge, maybe victory, maybe flop again. I don't know.

I will see, I will be there. I'm gonna call it a big flop because he gave himself room to grow. It's like a pinch to grow an inch, like, because he's doing Fire Fest 2. So it feels like it would be selling Billy short to call it a mega flop for me just yet because he still can do us one better.

But it is such a big flop because it hits so many different facets of floppiness. It's like, we celebrity covered, check. We have local government, check. We have innocent civilians, check. We have air travel, check. We have tension and kidnapping basically and starvation, check. It hits public health also.

So that's a pretty big major flop. Well, thank you so much to our incredible guests, Lazy Mostly and Lauren Ashley Smith for joining us here on The Big Flop. And thanks to all of you for listening. We'll be back next week to talk through the disaster that was Elizabeth Holmes and her blood testing company, Theranos. Bye! Bye! Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. and ad free on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple podcasts.

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