Luxury Fyre Festival in the Bahamas ‘Fully Postponed’ Amid Reports of Total Chaos

A so-called “luxury” music festival in the Bahamas originally scheduled to feature performances from Pusha T, Desiigner, Lil Yachty, Blink-182, and more has descended into complete pandemonium. The festival was co-organized by Ja Rule and promoted by Bella Hadid and other celebrities, but BBC News reported Friday that the event had been plagued with reports of “no security” and canceled flights.

Reports on social media, including a play-by-play rundown from writer William N. Finley IV that was still in progress at the time of this writing, paint a pretty grim picture of the Exuma proceedings:

On Thursday, Blink-182 issued a statement announcing their decision to pull out of their previously scheduled Fyre Fest performances this weekend and next weekend. “We’re not confident that we would have what we need to give you the quality of performances we always give our fans,” the band said. Other artists listed on the festival’s schedule included Skepta, Tyga, Kaytranada, Major Lazer, and Rae Sremmurd.

Fyre Festival, according to Vanity Fair, is a product of Fyre Media, the startup Ja Rule launched with tech partner Billy McFarland in 2015. “We didn’t just want to be a tech company that was a pure enterprise with no consumer awareness,” McFarland said in an interview conducted prior to the chaos. “So a festival was a great way to go and do that and beyond people who are attending.” The festival aimed for luxury, with a spokesperson telling Vanity Fair it was possible “to spend in excess of $104,995” for the “Fyre experience.”

Early Friday morning, a Twitter account associated with the Fyre Festival announced that the event had been “fully postponed.” In a previous statement on Instagram, Fyre reps conceded that “things got off to an unexpected start” on the first day of the would-be festival.

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism offered a “heartfelt apology” to Fyre attendees who had traveled for the event, saying in a statement that “tourism is our number one industry” and that they were “extremely disappointed” in the way the festival had unfolded:

We are extremely disappointed in the way the events unfolded yesterday with the Fyre Festival. We offer a heartfelt apology to all who traveled to our country for this event.  Tourism is our number one industry and it is our aim to deliver world-class experiences and events. Hundreds of visitors to Exuma were met with total disorganization and chaos. The organizers of Fyre recently asked the Ministry of Tourism for support for their private event. The Ministry of Tourism is not an official sponsor of Fyre Festival. Given the magnitude of this undertaking, the MOT lent its support as we do with all international events. We offered advice and assisted with communications with other government agencies. The event organizers assured us that all measures were taken to ensure a safe and successful event but clearly they did not have the capacity to execute an event of this scale.  A team of Ministry of Tourism representatives is on the island to assist with the organization of a safe return of all Fyre Festival visitors. It is our hope that the Fyre Festival visitors would consider returning to the Islands Of The Bahamas in the future to truly experience all of our beauty.  

Complex’s attempts to reach Fyre Festival reps Friday were not immediately successful.