Billy McFarland, the 25-year-old co-organizer of the disastrous Fyre Festival called Friday’s implosion “the toughest day” of his life in a statement to Rolling Stone.
McFarland released an earnest statement to the the magazine detailing his background before entering the music festival world, his love of rap music, his friendship with Ja Rule, and the weather problems that made an already troubling situation even worse.
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“We went out excited, and that’s when a lot of reality and roadblocks hit,” McFarland said. According to McFarland’s timeline of events, the website and announcement of the festival’s marketing campaign took place before talent was booked or the logistics were put in place.
The Exumas, where Fyre Festival was set to take place, lacked “great infrastructure,” McFarland said. The site was initially chosen when McFarland and Ja Rule landed on the island after running out of gas flying from New York to the Bahamas.
According to McFarland, a storm the morning of the festival took down the campsite’s tents and destroyed water pipes, causing further infrastructure delays. These delays ultimately lead to the problems many across the globe saw unfold on social media Thursday night and Friday morning.
“We were a little naïve in thinking for the first time we could do this ourselves,” McFarland said. “The reality is, we weren’t experienced enough to keep up.”
Despite the bad PR and the lack of organization, McFarland vows to have “make-up dates” in May 2018 in the U.S. for this year’s festival guests. Whether that vow will come to fruition remains to be seen.
Read McFarland’s entire statement to Rolling Stone here. Yesterday, we spoke with a Fyre Festival attendee who remained on the island.
