Fyre Festival’s well-documented disaster is set to be turned into a documentary

Fyre Festival — the well-documented music festival disaster from 2017 that left paying festivalgoers stranded on a private island in the Bahamas — is now getting the documentary treatment.

A multi-part documentary series, developed by Billboard, Mic and The Cinemart, about the Fyre Festival fiasco is currently in the works for online TV and film streaming service, Hulu. The as-yet-untitled series will aim to explore and explain the Fyre Festival debacle and its on-going investigation via in-depth interviews with those involved with the festival and attending festivalgoers as well as exclusive, never-before-seen footage, leaked documents, emails and recordings. 

News about the documentary follows a recent $100 million class-action lawsuit filed against Fyre Festival organisers last year.

Developed by 25-year-old entrepreneur Billy McFarland and American rapper Ja Rule, Fyre Festival was marketed as a high-end festival experience using celebrities and social media influencers, including Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid, to promote the event. Days ahead of the festival, all the musical guests, which included Major Lazer, Disclosure, Skepta, Kaytranada and more, cancelled their previously confirmed performances. Upon arrival, attending festivalgoers were met with a lack of fundamental accommodations like food, water, shelter and medical care, which “created a dangerous and panicked situation among attendees — suddenly finding themselves stranded on a remote island without basic provisions,” according to the aforementioned lawsuit. On-the-ground reports immediately started to flood the internet, and it all went downhill from there.

Fyre Festival founder McFarland plead guilty to two counts of wire fraud last month and accepted a plea deal, effectively reducing his sentence from 20 years to 8-10 years and a maximum fine of $300,000. McFarland is set to face his sentencing hearing 21st June.

The Fyre Festival documentary is slated for release in 2019 on Hulu. In the meantime, stream these 10 music documentaries worth watching on Netflix.