The Founder Of The Abysmal Fyre Festival Has A History Of Fleecing People

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I don’t need to remind you how big of a capital f Fail Fyre Festival was, but I will. It went about as smoothly as Helen Keller’s favorite book. The music festival that was slated to take place over two weekends on a private island in the Bahamas was canceled after organizers grossly under-planned. Broken sewer pipes, delayed international flights, ‘gourmet food’ that turned out to be a homeless man’s throw aways, and a campsite that looked like a refugee camp made the festival one of the largest organizational muffs in recent memory.

In a long-winded apology that was featured in Rolling Stone, Billy McFarland, the 25-year-old Fyre Fest co-organizer with rapper Ja Rule, said organizers were a ‘little naive’ and ‘overwhelmed’ and vowed next year to ‘start earlier.’ McFarland also said there will be make-up dates for the festival, May 2018 in the U.S., free for everybody who signed up for this festival. He also vows to donate $1.50 [per ticket] to the Bahamian Red Cross.

That’s nice and all, but this isn’t the first time McFarland under delivered on grandiose promises to consumers. As Uproxx points out, McFarland had another company named Magnises, which offered its members the chance to “unlock their cities and take their lives to the next level,” in the form of “Private members-only concerts, tastings with notable chefs, and exclusive art previews at top galleries.” Seems legit for members who were willing to fork over a $250 membership fee.

Welp, members soon found out that their investment was about as sound as investing in Radio Shack. Trips abroad were cancelled and tickets to the Broadway play Hamilton were no where to be found. The Better Business Bureau calculated 17 different complaints about Magnises.

It should also be noted that BroBible editor and good judge of character Brandon Wenerd has been calling this dude on his shit for years–evident in this post from July of 2014 entitled ‘If You Live In NYC And Have This Exclusive Fake Credit Card, I Probably Hate You.‘

McFarland’s apologies for Magnises closely resembled those of the apologies offered for the Fyre Festival catastrophe, chalking the failure up to “growing pains.” He also added, “We’ve hit some roadblocks along the way, and that’s what happens when you grow really quickly, and that’s on me.”

Can’t hate McFarland for owning up to his history of organizational shortcomings, but it’s tough not to direct a little vitriol at him for this abomination.

[h/t Uproxx]