This weekend was meant to be the glittering launch of Fyre Festival, a boutique, luxury music festival backed by A-list models including Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski. The reality on the ground has been a little, er, different.
The event in Exumas, Bahamas, with packages costing up to $80,000, has descended into chaos, with half-built tents, piles of garbage and unopened boxes littering the site, and feral dogs wandering around, MailOnline reported.
Photos taken by attendees and posted on social media show what look like disaster relief tents being used in place of the advertised "modern, eco-friendly, geodesic domes," lockers without padlocks, and food that most people wouldn't accept from a roadside cafe.
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In case you're wondering, those "cabanas" are actually disaster relief tents.#fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/jaZpkIKVT2
— Matt Halfhill (@MattHalfhill) April 28, 2017
These are the secure lockers at Fyre Fest. They forgot to tell us we needed locks. #fyrefestival #fyrefest pic.twitter.com/Tqyjqbg2Gy
— William N. Finley IV (@WNFIV) April 28, 2017
The festival had boasted of "chef-curated culinary pop ups" and a "luxury food court", but one attendee tweeted a photo of a half-hearted attempt at a sandwich — two slices of bread and plastic cheese served in a styrofoam box.
The dinner that @fyrefestival promised us was catered by Steven Starr is literally bread, cheese, and salad with dressing. #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/I8d0UlSNbd
— Tr3vor (@trev4president) April 28, 2017
#FyreFestival in a nutshell pic.twitter.com/b2CJAxkPRo
— Austin J. Mills (@austinjmills) April 28, 2017
Some guests chose to return home and demanded a refund upon seeing the site, but many have been left stranded at Exuma International Airport, according to reports.
The festival's high-profile lineup boasted acts including Pusha T, Tyga, Blink 182, Major Lazer, Skepta, and Disclosure, but Blink 182 pulled out last night, tweeting that "regrettably and after much careful consideration," the band wouldn't be performing because of concerns about the "quality of performance" they could provide.
Who will be next, we wonder?
— blink-182 (@blink182) April 27, 2017
The festival was tipped as a “cultural moment created from an alchemic blend of music, art, and food” and was meant to run for two weekends starting from today. Its website shows models including Emily Ratajkowski, Bella Hadid, Alessandra Ambrosio, Hailey Baldwin, and Joan Smalls frolicking on the beach and enjoying themselves.
Tickets were priced at $400 for a day pass to over $12,750 for a VIP package that included four festival passes, flights from Miami and accommodation in a "rustic tent" overlooking the ocean.
In a statement (or should that be understatement) on its official Instagram account, festival organizers admitted, "Things got off to an unexpected start at day one of Fyre Festival."
It added: "Thank you for bearing with us as we work through the growing pains that every first year event experiences." We've no doubt it's difficult organizing a festival, especially for the first time, but how could it go this wrong?