The Fyre Festival, supposed to launch this weekend in the Bahamas, was expected to be an event similar to the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, but catering exclusively to the young adult children of America's super-rich elite. Tickets to each of the two weekends began at $1,200 but prices quickly rose to a reported $12,000 for the most prestigious get-away packages. It's no wonder that concertgoers were shocked by the conditions they discovered upon arriving at the exotic Islands of Exhumas.

Concert site 'literally Rich Kids Hunger Games'

Promotional videos and the festival website advertised a "private island getaway" and "two transformative weekends" filled with bikinis, yachts, and white sand beaches.

Instead, the festival promoted by supermodels like Kendall Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski, and Gigi Hadid turned out to be what one guest called the "Rich Kids Hunger Games 2017" -- strewn with trash, lacking drinkable water, and with a fraction of the tents necessary to house those in attendance. By early Friday, organizers were working with the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism to ensure visitors were able to leave the island safely.

Joy Jibrilu, the Ministry's director general, told media Friday that the government was not made aware of the festival or its organizers until Fyre Festival was already being promoted online. It is generally common practice for the organizers of such large events to be in contact with the Ministry in the early stages of planning to ensure that all necessary permits and safety procedures are in place before promotion or ticket sales begin.

According to Jibrilu, when the Ministry was contacted, festival organizers did not even realize they would need permits to host their event on private land. While not an official sponsor of the festival, the Ministry of Tourism sent 30 representatives to the island site on Friday to assist airlines and charter companies in their task of sending people home.

Early signs pointed to problems, organizers admit they 'weren't experienced enough'

Cracks in the Fyre Festival organizing began to show weeks ago when ticket holders reported the festival had changed their itineraries, often reducing or eliminating luxury features they had paid for, like charter flights to and from the island.

According to reports by the Wall Street Journal and Page Six in early April, some vendors were refusing to work with the Fyre organizing group due to a lack of organization and missed payment deadlines. Soon, the social media "influencers" who agreed to promote the festival in exchange for a free trip to the Bahamas were told they would first have to find their own way to Miami.

Headlining band blink-182 cancelled their appearance at the festival early Thursday, posting online, "We’re not confident that we would have what we need to give you the quality of performances we always give fans." Other acts associated with the Fyre Festival, such as Tyga, Major Lazer, Pusha T, and Disclosure have yet to issue statements about the festival or its cancellation.

In an interview with Rolling Stone late Friday afternoon, Fyre Festival co-organizer Billy McFarland explained that the festival site "didn't have a really great infrastructure," including plumbing, potable water, or an affordable way to get guests to the island. While the team believed they were prepared for the arrival of ticket holders, their experiment of "building a city out of nothing" proved to be far too ambitious for the first-time organizers. "We were overwhelmed and just didn’t have the foresight to solve all these problems," he told the magazine.

McFarland's business partner, rapper Ja Rule, posted a much more vague message on Twitter, refusing to take responsibility for the mess experienced by those in the Bahamas:

McFarland has indicated that make up dates for the festival will be forthcoming, but expects a successful Fyre Festival to be scheduled in May 2018.

That event will be held in the United States, in hopes of erasing many of the logistical struggles of the failed 2017 edition. Free tickets will be available to everyone who purchased passes to attend this year's concerts and $1.50 from each new ticket sold will be donated to the Bahamas Red Cross. He assures fans, "We will make sure there is infrastructure in place to support us."
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