Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
It’s no secret that Billy McFarland bit off more he could chew in a quest to be a “legend.” I doubt the 25-year-old shyster expected that his dumpster fire of a festival would result in at least seven lawsuits, seeking hundreds of millions of damages, and a humiliating publicity beatdown that almost makes me feel bad for the guy. Almost.
As it seems that every day there is a new tidbit of news uncovering just how abysmally criminal Fyre Festival was, VICE has obtained a conference call Billy McFarland had with his employees telling them that they will not be paid for working the two weeks leading up to the festival.
“After conferring with our counsel and all financial people, unfortunately we are not able to proceed with payroll,” McFarland can be heard saying. “We’re not firing anyone, we’re just letting you know that there will be no payroll in the short term.”
What’s worse is that Billy acts as though he completely understands if they want to quit, but quitting would disallow many of them from collecting unemployment benefits, as one agitated employee points out in the call. Billy does not have a rebuttal for this.
“I understand that this is not an ideal situation for everybody, and this will likely cause a lot of you to resign, which we totally get and understand,” he said. “That said, if you want to stick with us, we’d love to have you and we’d love to work together and hunker down and get back to a place where everything resumes to business as usual.”
Listen to the 9-minute phone call below. It’s as cringeworthy as a breakup 24 hours before the wedding day.
Live look at the people who voluntarily choose to work until Fyre Festival resumes to “business as usual”:
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[h/t VICE]