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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you Should Know, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's

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Speaker 2: Chuck and Jerry's here with us too. So this is

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Speaker 2: a straight ahead episode of Stuff you Should Know, the

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Speaker 2: podcast That's right.

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Speaker 1: And today we're discussing the Fire Festival, the festival that

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Speaker 1: never happened f y r of which there were two

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Speaker 1: documentaries made, and I'm pretty positive I saw both of

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Speaker 1: them back when they came out.

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Speaker 2: Who la la. I only saw one.

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Speaker 1: Which one did you see?

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Speaker 2: I saw the Netflix one?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I saw both of them because I

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Speaker 1: was like, I don't want to miss anything, right.

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Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I think I got the gist of it

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Speaker 2: from the Netflix one. I saw it essentially when it

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Speaker 2: came out, so I haven't seen it in a little while,

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Speaker 2: but I did an awful lot of reading about this

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Speaker 2: and a lot of stuff back.

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Speaker 1: That's right. We're going to kind of let it unfold

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Speaker 1: as it happened or as it didn't happen rather, which

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Speaker 1: means I guess we should start with the organizer of

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Speaker 1: this musical festival that was not right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, mister william Z, Billy McFarland, this guy Yeah,

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Speaker 2: this guy, that's another way to put it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, he was born in New York in ninety one.

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Speaker 2: He's a millennial through and through, and he was essentially

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Speaker 2: a rich kid. I don't know that he was like

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Speaker 2: fabulously wealthy. I don't have that impression, but he was.

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Speaker 2: His family is pretty well to do. They were real

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Speaker 2: estate developers in New York, which is really kind of

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Speaker 2: all you need to know. But he was brought up

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Speaker 2: in like a nice suburb in New Jersey and he

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Speaker 2: seemed to have had. What you need to know about

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Speaker 2: this guy is he is a business minded cat. Yes,

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Speaker 2: that's what he wants to do. He wants to create

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Speaker 2: successful businesses, start up. She's got the whole dot com

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Speaker 2: bug essentially. And apparently so. There's an author, a journalist

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Speaker 2: named Gabrielle Bluestone who wrote a book on the Fire

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Speaker 2: Festival and she she chronicles Billy McFarlane creating his first

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Speaker 2: company in the fifth grade, a web posting company whatever

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Speaker 2: that is, not web hosting, no posting. Yeah, so putting

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Speaker 2: stuff on the web. That was his business model, I guess.

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Speaker 2: And he had He said that he had three full

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Speaker 2: time adult employees in India working for his company which

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Speaker 2: he was which he founded in the fifth grade.

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Speaker 1: That's right. Apparently in that same book, in the name

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Speaker 1: of the book, by the way, is Hype Colon inside

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Speaker 1: the Fire Festival in the Golden Age of Grift. And

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Speaker 1: in that book she also says that he claims at

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Speaker 1: least that he sold start and sold three companies while

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Speaker 1: still in high school. H although that has been verified,

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Speaker 1: but I wouldn't be surprised, because this guy most starting companies,

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Speaker 1: it seems like.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So the first verifiable company that he started was

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Speaker 2: while he was attending Bucknell University or buck Nail. He

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Speaker 2: dropped out in twenty eleven to work more on a

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Speaker 2: social media platform. It was an online ad platform that

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Speaker 2: actually had some pretty big advertisers. He called it Spling

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Speaker 2: sp l i NG And he dropped out, but not

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Speaker 2: before he got like a five thousand dollars like essentially

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Speaker 2: a little scholarship prize I guess for venture capital, like

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Speaker 2: five thousand dollars capital seed from Bucknhell University. He said,

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Speaker 2: thank you very much, I'm dropping out, and then he

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Speaker 2: started generating investment from investors's divers as the CFO of

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Speaker 2: a pharma company to actual like private equity companies.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean the guy had a knack for drawing investors,

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Speaker 1: that's for sure. I think if I'm doing quick math,

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Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty four hundred and seventy five plus

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Speaker 1: a little juice from Cornell, like four hundred close to

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Speaker 1: five hundred grand he got for this spling startup. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and you know he did that for a little while.

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Speaker 1: I guess that was a couple of years, because in

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Speaker 1: twenty thirteen he started something new. He abandoned splaying and

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Speaker 1: started and this is covered in the documentary the credit

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Speaker 1: card company Magnus's m A G N I S e S,

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Speaker 1: which was a credit card. He was like, Hey, I'm

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Speaker 1: going to start a new credit card. No one's done

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Speaker 1: that in a while, and it's gonna be metal, and

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Speaker 1: it's going to look cool, and we're gonna kind of,

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Speaker 1: you know, take from what the Soho House did, kind

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Speaker 1: of literally in that they opened a loft in Soho

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Speaker 1: in New York and said, you've got a membership here.

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Speaker 1: You can come to these cool parties and you can

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Speaker 1: get like the whole the thing was beyond just having

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Speaker 1: this sort of fancy credit card that made you stand

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Speaker 1: apart from the crowd. In that crowd, you could also

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Speaker 1: supposedly get like advanced reservations when they were impossible to

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Speaker 1: get or get into the club that was impossible to

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Speaker 1: get into if you had this card.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like the Players with Yourself card.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So here's here's the first flash of what you need

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Speaker 2: to know about Billy McFarland. The Magnus's card. It was

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Speaker 2: very cool. The whole thing was set up pretty neatly,

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Speaker 2: but it was not a credit card. What it did

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Speaker 2: was you took your Bank of America or Wells Fargo

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Speaker 2: debit card and it copied the information from the magnetic

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Speaker 2: strip onto the magnetic strip you for Magnuss. So essentially

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Speaker 2: what you had was a cool, metal I believe black

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Speaker 2: version of your Wells Fargo debit card. And that's that

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Speaker 2: was it.

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Speaker 1: Well, aside from the membership in the SOHO loft and

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Speaker 1: the supposed perks that came along to getting into the

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Speaker 1: clubs and things, that's why people got it.

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Speaker 2: Here's the problem with that. They weren't able to deliver

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Speaker 2: on what those perks were.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, not at all. And this is you know, kind

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Speaker 1: of the first in a series of stories about over

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Speaker 1: promising and under delivering to say the least.

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Speaker 2: For sure. So here's also where it starts to become

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Speaker 2: a bit of a Ponzi scheme. Magnus seems to have

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Speaker 2: been like his heart was in that one, so he

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Speaker 2: was really he was spending a lot more money than

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Speaker 2: he was taking in. I think I saw at its

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Speaker 2: peak it had seven hundred members and that was it.

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Speaker 2: But so he was just just spending way too much

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Speaker 2: money to keep that company afloat. So he's like, all right,

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Speaker 2: I'm going to start another company and then I can

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Speaker 2: use the revenue from that company to keep Magnuses afloat

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Speaker 2: and keep my investors happy. And I'm going to call

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Speaker 2: this new company Fire Media FYR.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: And it actually was kind of a clever idea. It

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Speaker 2: was a talent booking app for anybody, Like if you

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Speaker 2: had the money, you could get in touch with say,

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Speaker 2: off the top of my head Wrapper Jaw Rule and say,

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Speaker 2: hey man, I'm throwing a really ill party and I

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Speaker 2: want you to perform there. How much do you want?

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Speaker 2: He would say, this is how much I want, and

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Speaker 2: you would pay him and book him, and you didn't

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Speaker 2: have to use any promoters or you didn't have to

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Speaker 2: know anybody. All you had to do was have this

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Speaker 2: Fire app And like, I think it was a good idea,

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Speaker 2: but he created that almost exclusively to keep Magnuses propped up.

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Speaker 2: Keep that in mind.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm going to withhold judgment on whether or

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Speaker 1: not I think that was a cool idea. Okay, but

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Speaker 1: I'm glad you did.

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Speaker 2: Sure I said clever. I don't think I said cool.

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Speaker 2: Did I say cool? Oh?

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Speaker 1: You said cool more than once?

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Speaker 2: Okay, Oh it's a cool idea, all right, I'll stand

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Speaker 2: behind that.

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Speaker 1: All right, great, So you're right he was doing that

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Speaker 1: to keep Magnus's afloat. He was using those corporate cards,

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Speaker 1: which again were just Reskin debit cards of his own employees,

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Speaker 1: of the employees of Fire to fund the Magnus events,

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Speaker 1: and they were left to put the bill. There was

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Speaker 1: this one guy in the documentary I think his name

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Speaker 1: was M. David Lowe, and he says that he was

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Speaker 1: left two hundred thousand dollars in debt and he was

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Speaker 1: an employee. So that should give you an idea of

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Speaker 1: how this guy's going to end up treating concert goers

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Speaker 1: that he doesn't even know, which is what would kind

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Speaker 1: of you know, happen next. Essentially when he said, all right,

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Speaker 1: I need some more cash. Basically, fire media really needs

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Speaker 1: to take off in order to save magnuses and so

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Speaker 1: a music festival. Those things make tons of money, right guys,

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Speaker 1: That's a great way to make dough. So that was

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Speaker 1: the next big idea.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So essentially, this fire festival, which is the crux

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Speaker 2: of our story, was an idea that was meant to

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Speaker 2: promote the fire app, which was created to fund and

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Speaker 2: keep afloat the Magnus's fake credit card.

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Speaker 1: All right, so here we are in the fall of

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Speaker 1: twenty sixteen, and he wants to throw this thing in

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Speaker 1: the spring of twenty seventeen. So keep that timeline in mind.

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Speaker 1: That's about six months to throw a major music festival

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Speaker 1: in the Bahamas. I don't know anything about throwing a

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Speaker 1: major music festival, so I'm a novice, but that seems

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Speaker 1: like a pretty short time span to me.

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Speaker 2: I actually don't really know much about throwing a music

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Speaker 2: festival either, but I did see in a few articles

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Speaker 2: covering this that experts, essentially people who have thrown them,

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Speaker 2: say you want twelve months minimum to do this, or

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Speaker 2: maybe they said you need usually on average twelve months

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Speaker 2: from the outset, from the time that he decided to

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Speaker 2: do this, he gave himself the six months and then,

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Speaker 2: as we'll see, he actually gave himself way way less

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Speaker 2: than that to actually organize this thing because the Fire

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Speaker 2: Festival was built entirely on hype. In the first several

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Speaker 2: months of the project were given exclusively to figuring out

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Speaker 2: how to hype this project that hadn't even been planned

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Speaker 2: or organized yet. This is so fiery.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So he you mentioned jaw Rule, he was involved

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Speaker 1: in this as well hip hop artists. Jaw Rule was

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Speaker 1: he was sort of the main face of the thing,

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Speaker 1: like definitely the biggest name that he got involved, I think,

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Speaker 1: unless like you're really in the know as far as

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Speaker 1: like models and influencers go. And his co I guess

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Speaker 1: his business partner was another guy named Grant Margalin. He

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Speaker 1: was a VP of marketing, and right out of the gate,

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Speaker 1: he started hiring PR companies because, like you said, he

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Speaker 1: wanted to create this hype, so he got legit companies.

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Speaker 1: He got an ad agency named Jerry Media PR Firm

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Speaker 1: forty two West and a media company called Vaynermedia, and

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Speaker 1: in December of twenty sixteen, he was like, I got

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Speaker 1: to get something out there that people can actually see.

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Speaker 1: So we contract did with Matt m Att Projects to

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Speaker 1: film a promo video in the Bahamas where it was

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Speaker 1: going to be held. And that's about the only thing

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Speaker 1: he ever actually created.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and like they really threw a lot at this.

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Speaker 2: They hired a bunch of, like you said, Instagram models,

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Speaker 2: Kendall Jenner, Hayley Bieber, Chanelle Lemon, and several others. I

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Speaker 2: think there was like six like legit millennial supermodels who

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Speaker 2: came out to the Bahamas to shoot this this promotional video,

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Speaker 2: and the Matt Projects company like showed up. They they

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Speaker 2: did a really good job creating this incredibly slick video.

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Speaker 2: But by hiring these Instagram models, they also had a

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Speaker 2: built in way of just generating tons of hype when

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Speaker 2: that video was done, and actually even before the video

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Speaker 2: was done, they're like, Hey, why don't you take some

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Speaker 2: of these picks from the shoot and you know, put

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Speaker 2: them on post them on your Instagram account just to

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Speaker 2: kind of get people hyped up about the hype that

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Speaker 2: we're creating for the festival.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you know what you obviously don't see in that

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Speaker 1: hype video or the promo video was the reality of that,

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Speaker 1: which the documentaries both cover. It was pretty chaotic. There

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Speaker 1: was some pretty funny scenes in there where they were

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Speaker 1: trying to get these models to get in swim in

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Speaker 1: the ocean at night. You know. For the shot, Billy

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Speaker 1: referred to the attendees as your average losers, and it

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Speaker 1: was just you know, it was kind of a mess,

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Speaker 1: but obviously the result was you know, beautiful people frolicking

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Speaker 1: in the beautiful Bahamas, right. They promised an immersive experience

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Speaker 1: on a private island once owned by Pablo Escobar, which

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Speaker 1: would turn out to be a pretty fateful mistake to

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Speaker 1: say that. But what they didn't include was stuff like, hey,

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Speaker 1: who's actually going to be playing because they hadn't booked

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Speaker 1: any musical acts at that point.

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Speaker 2: No, so if you look at this very slick video,

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Speaker 2: none of all of the music acts are generic gets

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Speaker 2: all stock footage of like Ray or something like that,

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Speaker 2: really well produced, good looking like stock footage, but not

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Speaker 2: real stuff. Right, But so it was all just kind

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Speaker 2: of suggested. And to give you another idea of the

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Speaker 2: way that they were promoting this, they were saying that

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Speaker 2: Fire Festival will be a quest to explore beyond boundaries

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Speaker 2: like they used words like that, and the whole thing.

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Speaker 2: The whole thing was essentially publicized as a complete luxury

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Speaker 2: event top to bottom. It was going to be the

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Speaker 2: most amazing, luxury exclusive music festival anyone has ever thrown.

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Speaker 2: And that promotional video really kind of looked like it

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Speaker 2: so much so that that was what they used for

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Speaker 2: marketing from that point forward through the end of the festival.

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Speaker 2: That was it. Everything came from that photo shoot and

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Speaker 2: video shoot.

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Speaker 1: That's because that's all they had, right right, Literally, yeah,

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Speaker 1: a good time for a break, I think, yeah for sure.

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Speaker 1: All right, so that's a little setup of what's coming

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Speaker 1: or not coming your way, and we'll be right back

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Speaker 1: after this. Stars the sky. There was so much stu

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Speaker 1: all right. So in order to promote this video that

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Speaker 1: they had shot, they needed they needed people to see this.

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Speaker 1: They needed tons of eyeballs so they could sell tons

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Speaker 1: of tickets. So they got together with Jerry Media and

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Speaker 1: they convinced all these influencers at the same time on

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Speaker 1: December twelfth, twenty sixteen, on their socials to post an

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Speaker 1: orange tile, just an orange square. I think they got

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Speaker 1: like four hundred plus people, and that would direct people

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Speaker 1: to the website and the promo video and everything, and

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Speaker 1: a lot of people did this, like athletes, musicians, models,

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Speaker 1: and it actually went viral, like it really really worked.

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Speaker 1: That was actually a pretty good idea, and people started

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Speaker 1: buying tickets, like thousands of people started plunking down money.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I saw that they were like ninety

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Speaker 2: eight percent sold out, like almost immediately. So it really

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Speaker 2: was a great idea, paying all those influencers to do that,

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Speaker 2: and so great, now we've got the Fire Festival ready

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Speaker 2: to go, Like, you got tickets sold, you've got the

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Speaker 2: promo materials out there, you have all these influencers generating

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Speaker 2: all this buzz. And he got one more boost. He

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Speaker 2: paid Kendall Jenner a quarter of a million dollars to

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Speaker 2: put one post on Instagram about it. And I didn't

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Speaker 2: see the post, but apparently she intimated that the like

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Speaker 2: she left it open to people's imagination, the possibility that

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Speaker 2: Kanye West would be performing there, because remember he was

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Speaker 2: her brother in law at the time. Yeah, and of

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Speaker 2: course Kanye West never had anything to do with it,

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Speaker 2: But if you were things a certain way, then can

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Speaker 2: leave it to people's imagination and let them think what

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Speaker 2: they want kind of thing, right, So that was like

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Speaker 2: the nail, the final nail. They're like, this is this

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Speaker 2: is great, We're going to do this and let's start

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Speaker 2: figuring this out.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and by figuring out, it was February. And remember

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Speaker 1: they were trying to do this thing in the spring, right,

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Speaker 1: which I don't know if that means. I don't know

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Speaker 1: when spring is in the Bahamas. I don't know if

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Speaker 1: they consider May spring. But let's generously say they even

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Speaker 1: consider May spring. Okay, it's late February. And that that's

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Speaker 1: when they started planning the actual logistics of this festival, like,

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Speaker 1: how are we actually going to do this? They didn't

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Speaker 1: have accommodations at all. They promised luxury accommodations. These were

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Speaker 1: going to range from glamping tents to private villas. None

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Speaker 1: of these things existed yet because they didn't even have

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Speaker 1: a site secured because they had mentioned it was Pablo

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Speaker 1: Escobar's Island at one point, this was Norman's k and

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Speaker 1: the owner of that island was like, I don't like

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Speaker 1: you mentioning Pablo Escobar in association with my island, so

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Speaker 1: you can't have it here. So they didn't even have

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Speaker 1: a place in February.

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Speaker 2: Now they shot themselves in the foot and just not

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Speaker 2: putting on Pablo Escobar's private island or formerly belonging to

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Speaker 2: pabl Escobar. However, they said it, if they just had

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Speaker 2: not done that, this might be a completely different story.

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Speaker 2: Maybe at least it would have been a little bit

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Speaker 2: of a different story. It actually could have been worse, frankly,

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Speaker 2: now that I think about it. But they finally found

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Speaker 2: a spot. There was another thing too, like if the

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Speaker 2: web archive has some of the pages of the original

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Speaker 2: fire festival site, and if you go on like the

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Speaker 2: packages thing, they're like up to a quarter of a

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Speaker 2: million dollar packages for like three nights on yachts and stuff,

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Speaker 2: and they even named the yachts. They had no bargains, deals,

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Speaker 2: talks whatsoever with the owners of any of those yachts,

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Speaker 2: and these guys were selling quarter of a million dollar

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Speaker 2: packages involving these yachts that they had no access to,

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Speaker 2: right so they were really scrambling for all this, And

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Speaker 2: one of the first things they had to do was

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Speaker 2: find a replacement for Norman's k and they finally found

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Speaker 2: one on the charming area known as Roker Point on

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Speaker 2: Great Exzema Island, in the Bahamas.

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Speaker 1: That's right, it's not a private island at all, So

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Speaker 1: out of the gate, they've already under delivered. Sure, it

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Speaker 1: was an undeveloped plot of land. Apparently it was pretty rocky.

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Speaker 1: It has been described as a gravel pit. And if

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Speaker 1: you see the documentaries in the actual footage, you know,

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Speaker 1: it doesn't look like anything that's capable of hosting even

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Speaker 1: if you knew what you were doing, hosting a concert

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Speaker 1: event like this. And they had forty five days to

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Speaker 1: do it, to build this like, you know, village essentially,

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Speaker 1: they're you know, they're trying to replicate like the Coachella's

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Speaker 1: and all these things that literally kind of go out

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Speaker 1: in the middle of nowhere and build or like Burning

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Speaker 1: Man and build a village. And they had forty five

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Speaker 1: days to do this. So he hired hundreds of locals

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Speaker 1: to put up you know, ikea furniture essentially and try

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Speaker 1: and get these things going, get these tents built, these

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Speaker 1: glamping tents. And I think what one of McFarland's big

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Speaker 1: errors that well, he started way too late first of all. Sure,

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Speaker 1: and who knows if he ever even you know, planned

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Speaker 1: on getting this thing off the ground to begin with,

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Speaker 1: but he didn't realize there's something called island time. And

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Speaker 1: if you've ever been to the Caribbean or it's probably

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Speaker 1: like this at islands all over the world or just

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Speaker 1: beach towns in general. Sure, things just move slower. Like

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Speaker 1: you can't go into a restaurant on a Caribbean island

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Speaker 1: and like start complaining that the service is slow. And

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Speaker 1: that's from like restaurants all the way to everything. Everything

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Speaker 1: just moves a little slower and at its own pace.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you're meant to kind of downshift a couple of

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Speaker 2: gears as well, the kind of mellow apple supposed to point. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: don't bring the agro like city stuff there.

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Speaker 1: Not to island time.

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Speaker 2: No, So yeah, I think what you're saying, in a

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Speaker 2: very roundabout way is that the things that needed to

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Speaker 2: get done for the festival did not get done. Just

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Speaker 2: as a little aside that'll come up later. There's a

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Speaker 2: woman named Mary Ann Roll who owns a local catering

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Speaker 2: company that the fire festival hired to feed those workers,

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Speaker 2: and she made as many as one thousand meals a

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Speaker 2: day during these I think forty five days while these

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Speaker 2: workers were working from day one up through I think

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Speaker 2: up to like the day before the fire festival. So

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Speaker 2: just put that in your hat and smoke it later.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. So they are having big cash flow

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Speaker 1: issues despite the fact that all these people had paid

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Speaker 1: all kinds of money for these tickets already, and so

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Speaker 1: he starts what he calls the Fire Tour, these little

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Speaker 1: pop up concerts or supposed to be pop up concerts

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Speaker 1: to promote the festival, right, but most of those don't

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Speaker 1: even go off. These are supposed to be in cities

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Speaker 1: all over the world. Most of those canceled, So you know,

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Speaker 1: he's left without a source of income basically leading up

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Speaker 1: to the festival.

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Speaker 2: Which is crazy because they were selling tons and tons

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Speaker 2: of tickets. But he had raised so much money from

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Speaker 2: investors for this, and they were burning through so much

384
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Speaker 2: money that he was like it was gone before it

385
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Speaker 2: went to him, or like it was gone as soon

386
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Speaker 2: as it came in. From what I can tell, he

387
00:21:09,200 --> 00:21:11,040
Speaker 2: came up with another idea. He's like, Okay, we need

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Speaker 2: a new instant form of cash flow. How about this.

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Speaker 2: We'll say that you have to use an RFID bracelet

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Speaker 2: to spend money there, and you have to preload money

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Speaker 2: on it, and you better do it now. So if

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Speaker 2: you want to be able to buy anything, say like

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00:21:23,080 --> 00:21:26,359
Speaker 2: booze or whatever on the island, you have to have

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Speaker 2: this little bracelet kind of like Disney World or something, right,

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Speaker 2: And they suggested you put at least three hundred dollars

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Speaker 2: for each day that you're going to be at the festival,

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00:21:36,200 --> 00:21:38,880
Speaker 2: and in the hopes that people would just start loading

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00:21:39,480 --> 00:21:43,280
Speaker 2: their wristbands up. And I think it worked to some degree,

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Speaker 2: but there was no amount of cash coming in at

400
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Speaker 2: this point to cover what the investors had put in,

401
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Speaker 2: and apparently even to cover the anything that the festival

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Speaker 2: had delivered, except for there is a place in the

403
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Speaker 2: Bahamas that we will try to get you to and

404
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Speaker 2: when you show up, that place will be there.

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Speaker 1: And it will be lit.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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00:22:04,560 --> 00:22:09,359
Speaker 1: Ill, all right, So the festival is very close to

408
00:22:09,600 --> 00:22:13,919
Speaker 1: you know, the data is impending and people start noticing,

409
00:22:13,960 --> 00:22:17,359
Speaker 1: tickets holders start noticing like, you know what, I haven't

410
00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:21,920
Speaker 1: seen anything on Instagram, like you know, usually when there's

411
00:22:21,920 --> 00:22:24,080
Speaker 1: something like that, it's like, hey, look at how great

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00:22:24,160 --> 00:22:26,680
Speaker 1: this place is coming along, Look how awesome it looks.

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Speaker 1: It's still just that one video that they had shot,

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Speaker 1: you know, back in I guess early part of the year.

415
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Speaker 1: They can't get worse still, they can't get information about

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Speaker 1: their flights and their accommodations, like what tint am I

417
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Speaker 1: actually going to be in, or what villa am I

418
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Speaker 1: actually going to be in? I want to pick up

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Speaker 1: my room before I get there.

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Speaker 2: Right right, So people start questioning this. There's a guy

421
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Speaker 2: on Twitter named Calvin Wells who set up fire fraud

422
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:54,639
Speaker 2: and just basically tracked all these like shady things that

423
00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:59,240
Speaker 2: were going on or like questions people have. People started

424
00:23:00,320 --> 00:23:04,080
Speaker 2: leaving comments on posts about, you know, hyping the fire festival,

425
00:23:04,160 --> 00:23:07,240
Speaker 2: questioning the whole thing, and just basically saying this doesn't

426
00:23:07,280 --> 00:23:10,720
Speaker 2: sound legit at all. Those things got deleted by Jerry Media,

427
00:23:10,720 --> 00:23:14,560
Speaker 2: who is running social media for the for the fire festival.

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00:23:14,560 --> 00:23:19,640
Speaker 2: And then starting finally the day before the festival, the

429
00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:24,080
Speaker 2: fire media people essentially reached out to their VIPs and

430
00:23:24,119 --> 00:23:27,399
Speaker 2: said just skip the first weekend. Come the second weekend,

431
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Speaker 2: because there was one weekend at the end of April

432
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Speaker 2: and there was the next weekend at the beginning of

433
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Speaker 2: May that was a fire festival, two weekends. They're like,

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Speaker 2: just come to the second one. The first one's going

435
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Speaker 2: to be a little we're figuring out the kinks, so

436
00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:40,520
Speaker 2: don't come to the first one. Their employees too, were

437
00:23:40,560 --> 00:23:43,840
Speaker 2: told like, don't come. But the employees were like, we

438
00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:47,040
Speaker 2: already are in Miami waiting to be shuttled down to

439
00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:47,840
Speaker 2: the Bahamas.

440
00:23:49,040 --> 00:23:52,040
Speaker 1: Yeah. If you're telling the staff not to come, but

441
00:23:52,200 --> 00:23:55,040
Speaker 1: you've allowed the ticket holders to come, yes, then you're

442
00:23:55,080 --> 00:23:58,400
Speaker 1: doing things in the wrong order. And that's just my opinion. Again,

443
00:23:58,400 --> 00:23:59,800
Speaker 1: I've never thrown up music festival.

444
00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's a really good point, Chuck. They didn't

445
00:24:02,440 --> 00:24:04,359
Speaker 2: tell the ticket holders not to come.

446
00:24:05,240 --> 00:24:09,240
Speaker 1: No, they didn't. The night before the festival, their biggest act,

447
00:24:09,760 --> 00:24:12,200
Speaker 1: or I guess their biggest rock act, at least blink

448
00:24:12,240 --> 00:24:15,879
Speaker 1: of one eighty two pulls out of the festival. Somebody

449
00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:18,800
Speaker 1: smartly in their camp was like, you don't want to

450
00:24:18,800 --> 00:24:21,760
Speaker 1: be you're already unfortunately associated with this, but you don't

451
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:23,320
Speaker 1: want to be any any more of a part of

452
00:24:23,320 --> 00:24:24,120
Speaker 1: this than you already are.

453
00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:26,920
Speaker 2: No, and there. Their their statement was classy too. They

454
00:24:26,960 --> 00:24:29,040
Speaker 2: just said they're not sure that they would have all

455
00:24:29,119 --> 00:24:31,639
Speaker 2: the resources they needed to put on a quality show

456
00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:33,320
Speaker 2: for their fans, so.

457
00:24:33,280 --> 00:24:35,879
Speaker 1: They pull out and it starts to rain really heavy.

458
00:24:35,920 --> 00:24:38,040
Speaker 1: It's sort of one of those moments in the documentary

459
00:24:38,080 --> 00:24:43,240
Speaker 1: where insult to injury starts happening, and employees are still,

460
00:24:43,280 --> 00:24:46,480
Speaker 1: I mean, bless their hearts, they're still trying to set

461
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:48,879
Speaker 1: this stuff up. I felt so bad for the people

462
00:24:48,920 --> 00:24:53,040
Speaker 1: that worked for this, uh for Fire Media, because they're

463
00:24:53,119 --> 00:24:56,719
Speaker 1: they're trying to set up these tents still. They're unpacking loading,

464
00:24:56,800 --> 00:25:00,320
Speaker 1: you know, shipping containers or unpacking mattresses, all this Freddy

465
00:25:01,119 --> 00:25:03,600
Speaker 1: furniture that they had bought at the last minute, and

466
00:25:03,760 --> 00:25:06,639
Speaker 1: work eventually halted because it was just you know, it

467
00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:09,320
Speaker 1: was a rainstorm. It was too bad. So there were

468
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:12,760
Speaker 1: soggy mattresses left out on the ground everywhere, and it

469
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:17,159
Speaker 1: was you know, it looked like it looked like a

470
00:25:17,240 --> 00:25:19,520
Speaker 1: hurricane had come through and wiped out what was once

471
00:25:19,640 --> 00:25:20,480
Speaker 1: a promising thing.

472
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:25,040
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, So like imagine like a whole work site

473
00:25:25,040 --> 00:25:27,600
Speaker 2: of people getting ready for the festival the night before

474
00:25:27,640 --> 00:25:29,720
Speaker 2: and they were really behind and everybody's working hard, and

475
00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:32,359
Speaker 2: then a whole mon soon comes and everybody runs for

476
00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:35,680
Speaker 2: cover and then never comes back. That's what the Fire

477
00:25:35,760 --> 00:25:40,680
Speaker 2: Festival looked like when the first guests started to show up.

478
00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:45,200
Speaker 1: Maybe a second break. I feel like we're right at the.

479
00:25:45,080 --> 00:25:46,680
Speaker 2: Precipice I think so too, man.

480
00:25:47,119 --> 00:25:49,239
Speaker 1: I can't wait to hear Blink. Well, they already pulled out.

481
00:25:49,280 --> 00:25:51,800
Speaker 1: I can't wait to hear the other musical acts. So

482
00:25:51,840 --> 00:25:54,639
Speaker 1: we'll be right back after this. Just like the number

483
00:25:54,680 --> 00:25:59,960
Speaker 1: of stars the sky, there was so much stuff.

484
00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:20,840
Speaker 2: Okay, chuck. So it's festival day. It's April twenty eighth.

485
00:26:20,920 --> 00:26:23,919
Speaker 2: And on the morning of April twenty eighth, some of

486
00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:28,439
Speaker 2: the people started showing up. There was supposedly private jet service,

487
00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:31,600
Speaker 2: but actually it was just a small airline that was

488
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:35,439
Speaker 2: shuttling people from Miami's airport down to the Bahamas. And

489
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:38,000
Speaker 2: the first group showed up the morning of April twenty eighth,

490
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:41,680
Speaker 2: and the festival organizers were like, we have to figure

491
00:26:41,680 --> 00:26:44,560
Speaker 2: out what to do with these people. That's not ready yet.

492
00:26:44,880 --> 00:26:47,080
Speaker 2: So they got them on a shuttle like a bus.

493
00:26:47,440 --> 00:26:50,679
Speaker 2: They drove them to a local bar and said the

494
00:26:50,720 --> 00:26:52,760
Speaker 2: bar's open, everybody help yourself.

495
00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:55,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a school bus too, Just keep that in mind,

496
00:26:55,920 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 1: not that it matters. A bus is a bus, but

497
00:26:58,000 --> 00:27:01,679
Speaker 1: they're nicer buss buses than others. True, especially in the Caribbean.

498
00:27:01,880 --> 00:27:04,640
Speaker 1: And this was a school bus. Okay, maybe a bluebird,

499
00:27:04,680 --> 00:27:05,919
Speaker 1: who knows those are pretty nice.

500
00:27:06,280 --> 00:27:09,240
Speaker 2: The bluebirds are, Yeah, they're top quality, so.

501
00:27:10,480 --> 00:27:14,800
Speaker 1: They send them there. They tried in Vain, I guess

502
00:27:14,840 --> 00:27:19,280
Speaker 1: to initially at least actually assigned tents to people because

503
00:27:19,280 --> 00:27:21,320
Speaker 1: it wasn't like there wasn't one tint set up. They

504
00:27:21,320 --> 00:27:24,119
Speaker 1: had gotten a little bit done, but there were hundreds

505
00:27:24,160 --> 00:27:26,159
Speaker 1: of people there kind of wondering what to do and

506
00:27:26,200 --> 00:27:29,080
Speaker 1: where to go, and so much so that Billy who

507
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 1: was there, Billy mcfarney actually got up on a table

508
00:27:31,960 --> 00:27:34,840
Speaker 1: and said, just go find a tint, pick up your

509
00:27:34,840 --> 00:27:37,520
Speaker 1: own tint and take it to a place and set

510
00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:40,560
Speaker 1: it up. And some of those people were game enough

511
00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:42,240
Speaker 1: to like, well it's not going off well, but at

512
00:27:42,320 --> 00:27:44,760
Speaker 1: least we can get a tent and find a good spot,

513
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:47,159
Speaker 1: and so they tried starting to do that.

514
00:27:47,400 --> 00:27:50,440
Speaker 2: Yeah. I don't remember from the documentary, but apparently there

515
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:53,639
Speaker 2: was like that just opened the floodgates for people making

516
00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:56,120
Speaker 2: a mad rush to grab a tent before somebody else

517
00:27:56,160 --> 00:27:58,960
Speaker 2: grabbed it. For sure, and the tents, by the way,

518
00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:01,439
Speaker 2: we should say, so remember you mentioned glamping, like not

519
00:28:01,560 --> 00:28:05,240
Speaker 2: everybody was buying the quarter of a million dollar yacht

520
00:28:05,280 --> 00:28:09,600
Speaker 2: package that you could get tickets for, you know, several

521
00:28:09,680 --> 00:28:12,320
Speaker 2: hundred dollars and that's what these tents were. But they

522
00:28:12,359 --> 00:28:15,480
Speaker 2: were supposed to still be like really nice tents. I

523
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:19,240
Speaker 2: saw that they were leftover FEMA tents from Hurricane Matthew,

524
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:22,080
Speaker 2: and that that's what had been set up for these people,

525
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:24,680
Speaker 2: and not even set up in most cases, like you said,

526
00:28:24,760 --> 00:28:26,800
Speaker 2: they kind of had to finish setting these things up

527
00:28:26,840 --> 00:28:30,760
Speaker 2: themselves and drag the wet mattresses into their tent. So

528
00:28:30,880 --> 00:28:33,879
Speaker 2: this is how the fire festival is starting at this point.

529
00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:36,880
Speaker 1: Yeah, they didn't have their luggage, so they started inquiring

530
00:28:36,920 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 1: about that, and so they started, you know, just dumping

531
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:45,080
Speaker 1: their suitcases out onto the beach from the shipping containers

532
00:28:45,840 --> 00:28:50,520
Speaker 1: and just other supplies, and basically it turned into complete chaos.

533
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:52,840
Speaker 1: They just started dumping supplies on the ground and saying

534
00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:56,000
Speaker 1: because people were revolting and saying take care of yourself,

535
00:28:56,120 --> 00:28:58,200
Speaker 1: like there's the stuff, have at it.

536
00:28:58,200 --> 00:29:02,560
Speaker 2: It's frequently compared to like rich millennial Lord of the Flies.

537
00:29:03,400 --> 00:29:03,960
Speaker 1: Yeah.

538
00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:07,520
Speaker 2: So one other thing that they were that the festival

539
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:11,479
Speaker 2: organizers were doing was they were getting everybody super drunk.

540
00:29:12,080 --> 00:29:15,400
Speaker 2: There was one thing and great supply and for free,

541
00:29:15,440 --> 00:29:17,920
Speaker 2: and that was booze. They had like shot girls walking

542
00:29:17,920 --> 00:29:22,000
Speaker 2: around getting getting everybody super wasted on tequila, Like everyone

543
00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:24,000
Speaker 2: was starting to get really really drunk, and they were

544
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:26,960
Speaker 2: doing that to kind of keep everybody distracted from just

545
00:29:27,000 --> 00:29:28,600
Speaker 2: how horrible this thing was.

546
00:29:29,600 --> 00:29:31,720
Speaker 1: Yeah, but that's also not a great idea to add

547
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:33,320
Speaker 1: alcohol to a bolatical situation.

548
00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:37,160
Speaker 2: Exactly, No, it's not. It was a very irresponsible thing

549
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:40,040
Speaker 2: to do, and it just shows all of the incredibly

550
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:44,160
Speaker 2: short term thinking that went into every stage of this,

551
00:29:44,360 --> 00:29:46,920
Speaker 2: including the actual festival itself.

552
00:29:47,560 --> 00:29:50,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. So maybe the worst spout about all

553
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:53,680
Speaker 1: this is they couldn't A lot of people were like,

554
00:29:53,960 --> 00:29:56,240
Speaker 1: this is a disaster. I want to get out of here.

555
00:29:56,600 --> 00:29:58,280
Speaker 1: They couldn't just get out of there because it was

556
00:29:58,320 --> 00:30:01,440
Speaker 1: the same weekend as something called the National Family Regatta.

557
00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:04,960
Speaker 1: It's a really big event, and you know, most of

558
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:06,800
Speaker 1: the hotels were booked up, most of the flights were

559
00:30:06,800 --> 00:30:11,680
Speaker 1: booked up, so people were basically stranded down there. I

560
00:30:11,680 --> 00:30:15,840
Speaker 1: think eventually they were even like locked in the airport overnight,

561
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:18,200
Speaker 1: like when everything was closed. It wasn't like one of

562
00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:20,920
Speaker 1: those airports it still has stuff open overnight, right.

563
00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:23,480
Speaker 2: They were locked in with a chain and a padlock

564
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,400
Speaker 2: and there was no ac They weren't left with any

565
00:30:26,600 --> 00:30:30,840
Speaker 2: water or food. And remember everybody by this time who's

566
00:30:30,880 --> 00:30:33,680
Speaker 2: made it to the airport has been drinking all day,

567
00:30:34,160 --> 00:30:36,720
Speaker 2: so now they're starting to sober up, and they're hungover,

568
00:30:36,920 --> 00:30:39,960
Speaker 2: locked into this hot airport without any food or water.

569
00:30:40,360 --> 00:30:43,240
Speaker 2: So it's a really bad jam by this point. Even

570
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:46,760
Speaker 2: before that, when they started, when it became clear like

571
00:30:46,800 --> 00:30:49,640
Speaker 2: wait a minute, there's a lot of stuff wrong here. Remember,

572
00:30:49,680 --> 00:30:52,200
Speaker 2: these kids are like all on Instagram and Twitter and

573
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:57,240
Speaker 2: all sorts of social media, and they immediately started alerting

574
00:30:57,280 --> 00:31:00,440
Speaker 2: the world Fire Festival is a total fraud. And one

575
00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:04,240
Speaker 2: of the most iconic photos that came out of this

576
00:31:04,720 --> 00:31:09,800
Speaker 2: is a styrofoam to go container opened up with a

577
00:31:09,840 --> 00:31:13,120
Speaker 2: slice of bread, a piece of cheese, a skew on

578
00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:15,800
Speaker 2: that slice of bread, another slice of bread, a skew

579
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,520
Speaker 2: on the piece of cheese, a pile of lettuce, a tomato,

580
00:31:18,800 --> 00:31:22,920
Speaker 2: and some sort of oily condiment covering the lettuce and tomato.

581
00:31:23,160 --> 00:31:27,640
Speaker 2: And they said, this is the star catered food that

582
00:31:27,680 --> 00:31:29,480
Speaker 2: we were supposed to get. This is the food that

583
00:31:29,480 --> 00:31:31,440
Speaker 2: they're giving us at fire Festival.

584
00:31:32,120 --> 00:31:36,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, by this point they had already officially

585
00:31:36,120 --> 00:31:40,640
Speaker 1: postponed the festival. They came out and said it's due

586
00:31:40,680 --> 00:31:44,200
Speaker 1: to circumstances out of their control. They had, which the

587
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:46,200
Speaker 1: only thing of which that happened that was out of

588
00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:49,080
Speaker 1: their control was the rain, I suppose. But they officially

589
00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:52,520
Speaker 1: did postpone it, but word had gotten around via social

590
00:31:52,560 --> 00:31:55,920
Speaker 1: media and at least I think a lot of people,

591
00:31:56,200 --> 00:31:58,280
Speaker 1: you know, canceled their plans and didn't actually make it

592
00:31:58,320 --> 00:32:02,240
Speaker 1: down there. Yeah, but you know, people started poking around

593
00:32:02,840 --> 00:32:06,520
Speaker 1: about Billy McFarland and what really happened. The media got

594
00:32:06,560 --> 00:32:09,120
Speaker 1: involved and they were like, hey, this is more than

595
00:32:09,200 --> 00:32:12,760
Speaker 1: just an idea that, you know, good idea that didn't

596
00:32:12,760 --> 00:32:15,440
Speaker 1: work out, Like we think, actual crimes have been committed.

597
00:32:16,080 --> 00:32:19,440
Speaker 1: So over the course of a couple of years they

598
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:23,400
Speaker 1: realized that he had committed actual financial crimes and that's

599
00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:26,560
Speaker 1: what he ends up going to prison for. Billy McFarlane

600
00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:27,600
Speaker 1: served prison time for this.

601
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:30,920
Speaker 2: He did so the ticket holders, and I said before

602
00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:36,400
Speaker 2: that they were generally portrayed as rich millennials who like

603
00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:39,000
Speaker 2: to go to music festivals. There were definitely plenty of

604
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:42,200
Speaker 2: those there. This is like meant to be an instagrammable event,

605
00:32:42,640 --> 00:32:44,520
Speaker 2: but there are also plenty of people who like just

606
00:32:45,120 --> 00:32:47,800
Speaker 2: weren't rich, and they went because actually, in some cases

607
00:32:47,800 --> 00:32:50,120
Speaker 2: it was a good deal. For like eight or nine

608
00:32:50,200 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 2: hundred dollars, you could get eight friends together and cover

609
00:32:55,520 --> 00:33:00,600
Speaker 2: air travel, food, accommodations, and three days of music at

610
00:33:00,600 --> 00:33:03,280
Speaker 2: a music festival. It's actually not a bad deal. So

611
00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:06,200
Speaker 2: some people like really spent like money that they needed

612
00:33:06,520 --> 00:33:10,520
Speaker 2: on this and they got screwed. Over all the vendors,

613
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:14,840
Speaker 2: the people who who worked all those people went unpaid.

614
00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:17,320
Speaker 2: But it was the investors who were the ones who

615
00:33:18,040 --> 00:33:21,160
Speaker 2: the court ordered people to pay or court ordered McFarland

616
00:33:21,240 --> 00:33:21,760
Speaker 2: to pay back.

617
00:33:22,560 --> 00:33:24,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know, I know at the time, it

618
00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:28,160
Speaker 1: was it was it seemed funny to make fun of

619
00:33:28,560 --> 00:33:31,040
Speaker 1: this and the people that you know, these like you

620
00:33:31,320 --> 00:33:33,840
Speaker 1: would you say they were rich millennials, but like they

621
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:36,440
Speaker 1: spent money and they deserved to have a thing go

622
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:38,800
Speaker 1: off like they wanted to, and that's the way they

623
00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:41,320
Speaker 1: wanted to spend their time. It's not my deal. But like,

624
00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,000
Speaker 1: I don't think it's funny that anybody gets scammed out

625
00:33:44,040 --> 00:33:44,680
Speaker 1: of money, you know.

626
00:33:45,040 --> 00:33:47,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, there was a tremendous amount of shod and

627
00:33:47,800 --> 00:33:52,000
Speaker 2: frauday by people who are not rich millennials or on

628
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:55,680
Speaker 2: Instagram or just hate that whole Instagram life kind of thing.

629
00:33:56,880 --> 00:33:58,800
Speaker 2: There was a there were a lot of memes that

630
00:33:58,880 --> 00:34:02,800
Speaker 2: came out of it that basically portrayed this as like

631
00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:05,720
Speaker 2: it immediately descended into anarchy and they started eating each

632
00:34:05,760 --> 00:34:09,760
Speaker 2: other and yeah, again kind of Lord of the Flies esque.

633
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:13,879
Speaker 2: But again it was just the investors who were meant

634
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:15,960
Speaker 2: to be paid back. I think says quite a bit

635
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:18,680
Speaker 2: about a lot of stuff. He actually was taken down

636
00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:23,359
Speaker 2: on securities in Exchange Commission SEC charges, so he had

637
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:26,720
Speaker 2: a federal beef against him, and essentially what the court

638
00:34:26,800 --> 00:34:30,680
Speaker 2: concluded is that he built eighty investors out of twenty

639
00:34:30,719 --> 00:34:36,480
Speaker 2: four million dollars just for the fire festival. I saw

640
00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:41,680
Speaker 2: that he was on the hook for another ten twelve

641
00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:48,280
Speaker 2: million dollars for the other stuff, including the Magnesis scams. Essentially,

642
00:34:49,239 --> 00:34:52,640
Speaker 2: so if this guy is basically like, you have the

643
00:34:52,680 --> 00:34:55,200
Speaker 2: rest of your life to pay this back, and that's

644
00:34:55,239 --> 00:34:57,160
Speaker 2: what you're going to have to do. And on top

645
00:34:57,200 --> 00:34:59,759
Speaker 2: of it, he was sentenced to six years in federal

646
00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:01,560
Speaker 2: pri Yeah.

647
00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:05,040
Speaker 1: So you know, he did this by allegedly lying about

648
00:35:05,080 --> 00:35:09,720
Speaker 1: almost everything financially related to this whole thing, and including himself.

649
00:35:10,600 --> 00:35:13,320
Speaker 1: He said he had two million dollars in Facebook chairs. Personally,

650
00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 1: he had about one thousand dollars worth. He said the

651
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:19,239
Speaker 1: fire media app was taking in millions of dollars a month.

652
00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:22,840
Speaker 1: Over the whole lifetime of the fire Media app, that

653
00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:26,480
Speaker 1: made about sixty thousand dollars. So in addition to him

654
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:30,000
Speaker 1: being on the hook, like you know, with the law

655
00:35:31,040 --> 00:35:35,520
Speaker 1: and like the sec, he's on the hook with personal lawsuits.

656
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:38,239
Speaker 1: So a lot of people there was a class action

657
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:41,280
Speaker 1: lawsuits for one hundred million dollars. Like everyone got together

658
00:35:41,320 --> 00:35:44,399
Speaker 1: of course and sued them ticket holders, and then they

659
00:35:44,440 --> 00:35:47,279
Speaker 1: were like, hey, we should suit these ad agencies too,

660
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:50,799
Speaker 1: because they're collaborating with these people. They're putting out like

661
00:35:50,920 --> 00:35:55,160
Speaker 1: literal false information and in some cases they're deleting negative

662
00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:58,279
Speaker 1: comments about the truth of this thing. So a lot

663
00:35:58,280 --> 00:36:01,839
Speaker 1: of these lawsuits got dismissed. Others did go through and

664
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:05,760
Speaker 1: were successful. I think the class action the ticket holders

665
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:08,600
Speaker 1: were reimbursed. Who knows if they ever got it, but

666
00:36:08,800 --> 00:36:11,919
Speaker 1: at least they were awarded seven thousand dollars each, which

667
00:36:11,960 --> 00:36:12,919
Speaker 1: is you know, pretty good.

668
00:36:13,360 --> 00:36:15,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did not get it, and they probably never

669
00:36:15,400 --> 00:36:19,279
Speaker 2: will get it because as part of the federal sentencing guidelines,

670
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:22,320
Speaker 2: the investors are to get every penny of their twenty

671
00:36:22,320 --> 00:36:25,319
Speaker 2: four million dollars back first before anybody else starts to

672
00:36:25,320 --> 00:36:30,360
Speaker 2: get paid, vendors, ticket holders, anybody else. So one question

673
00:36:30,400 --> 00:36:34,840
Speaker 2: that I saw that was not asked almost anywhere. I

674
00:36:34,880 --> 00:36:36,680
Speaker 2: think I found one article that asked it because I

675
00:36:36,719 --> 00:36:39,400
Speaker 2: was looking to find out what happened? Where did all

676
00:36:39,440 --> 00:36:42,439
Speaker 2: the money go? He certainly did not spend twenty four

677
00:36:42,480 --> 00:36:45,800
Speaker 2: million dollars on the fire festival, not by a long shot.

678
00:36:46,360 --> 00:36:49,040
Speaker 2: And in the documentary they basically portray it as like, well,

679
00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:52,040
Speaker 2: he was just living it up, and he was, for sure,

680
00:36:52,719 --> 00:36:56,480
Speaker 2: I still would guess not twenty four million dollars in

681
00:36:56,600 --> 00:36:58,960
Speaker 2: six months living it up. So I can't help but

682
00:36:59,000 --> 00:37:01,800
Speaker 2: wonder if he's got money stashed somewhere or if he

683
00:37:01,920 --> 00:37:04,759
Speaker 2: really did just blow through twenty four million dollars in

684
00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:09,680
Speaker 2: six months creating this fire festival that was totally fraudulent.

685
00:37:11,160 --> 00:37:13,040
Speaker 1: Yeah. I'm not going to speculate. I don't want to

686
00:37:13,040 --> 00:37:13,520
Speaker 1: get sued.

687
00:37:14,360 --> 00:37:18,000
Speaker 2: Yeah, Yeah, I'm not speculating. I'm questioning. I really do

688
00:37:18,080 --> 00:37:18,920
Speaker 2: wonder what happened.

689
00:37:19,719 --> 00:37:22,279
Speaker 1: Yeah, who knows, But that's a lot of dough, that's

690
00:37:22,320 --> 00:37:25,399
Speaker 1: for sure. After he was arrested while he was out

691
00:37:25,400 --> 00:37:29,720
Speaker 1: on bail, he started another company called NYC vip Access.

692
00:37:30,719 --> 00:37:32,279
Speaker 1: He was like, I can't be the face of this

693
00:37:32,280 --> 00:37:34,799
Speaker 1: thing because everyone knows what I look like in my

694
00:37:34,920 --> 00:37:37,120
Speaker 1: name by this point, right, So we hired a guy

695
00:37:37,200 --> 00:37:39,680
Speaker 1: named Frank Tribble to kind of be the face of

696
00:37:39,719 --> 00:37:44,440
Speaker 1: the company, and he used the Fire Festival mailing list.

697
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:46,920
Speaker 1: You know, a mailing list can be a very valuable thing.

698
00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:50,000
Speaker 1: Sometimes companies are bought just because they have an extensive

699
00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:52,719
Speaker 1: mailing list, and they'll just shutter the company and use

700
00:37:52,760 --> 00:37:56,240
Speaker 1: that contact point. But he actually used the Fire Festival

701
00:37:56,320 --> 00:38:00,680
Speaker 1: mailing list, offering tickets to things that don't even celtickets

702
00:38:00,680 --> 00:38:03,080
Speaker 1: a lot of times, like the met gala in New

703
00:38:03,120 --> 00:38:06,880
Speaker 1: York City Fashion Week. And I think that Fire Festival

704
00:38:06,920 --> 00:38:10,960
Speaker 1: mailing list may have been as undoing there because that

705
00:38:11,120 --> 00:38:13,359
Speaker 1: was added to his list of criminal charges as well.

706
00:38:13,400 --> 00:38:14,840
Speaker 1: That VIP access scam.

707
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:18,359
Speaker 2: Yeah it was again. It was another scam. And this

708
00:38:18,440 --> 00:38:21,160
Speaker 2: guy who he hired to front at Frank Tribble, he

709
00:38:21,200 --> 00:38:24,160
Speaker 2: still lists himself as the CEO of New York NYC

710
00:38:24,360 --> 00:38:29,080
Speaker 2: vip Access on Instagram, I believe, and he also offers

711
00:38:29,120 --> 00:38:33,200
Speaker 2: discounted AirPods in the bio of his Instagram account.

712
00:38:32,840 --> 00:38:34,680
Speaker 1: Nice get a good deal in some AirPods.

713
00:38:34,760 --> 00:38:39,800
Speaker 2: So Billy McFarlane, I think he served four of his

714
00:38:39,960 --> 00:38:42,920
Speaker 2: six years. He was definitely let out early. He was

715
00:38:42,960 --> 00:38:45,759
Speaker 2: also transferred to a low security prison in Ohio.

716
00:38:46,320 --> 00:38:50,760
Speaker 1: Yeah, he tried to get out of prison when COVID happened.

717
00:38:51,680 --> 00:38:54,640
Speaker 1: Is what they call it, like a medical benevolence release

718
00:38:54,719 --> 00:38:57,120
Speaker 1: or whatever, because he said he had asthma and that

719
00:38:57,200 --> 00:38:59,759
Speaker 1: COVID would probably kill him, and so they moved him

720
00:38:59,800 --> 00:39:03,520
Speaker 1: into solitary during that time. Did not let him out then,

721
00:39:03,680 --> 00:39:06,319
Speaker 1: And he did get COVID oh really while he was

722
00:39:06,320 --> 00:39:07,640
Speaker 1: in prison, but he didn't die.

723
00:39:07,800 --> 00:39:11,960
Speaker 2: He did some other solitary stints for breaking the rules,

724
00:39:12,000 --> 00:39:15,239
Speaker 2: like he smuggled the recording device into the prison and

725
00:39:15,280 --> 00:39:18,400
Speaker 2: then used it to launch a podcast. I guess, assuming

726
00:39:18,440 --> 00:39:20,759
Speaker 2: that they the warden didn't listen to podcasts.

727
00:39:22,040 --> 00:39:22,799
Speaker 1: Low Hanging Fruit.

728
00:39:23,160 --> 00:39:25,719
Speaker 2: Yeah, and he was released early. I don't know how

729
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:28,080
Speaker 2: many years early. He was sentenced to six years, and

730
00:39:28,120 --> 00:39:30,720
Speaker 2: I think it did four, maybe five, But he definitely

731
00:39:30,719 --> 00:39:33,920
Speaker 2: got out early. And the first thing he did when

732
00:39:34,080 --> 00:39:36,920
Speaker 2: he got out, almost the first thing was he announced

733
00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:39,080
Speaker 2: that there would be a fire festival two.

734
00:39:41,080 --> 00:39:45,600
Speaker 1: Yeah, Fire I has not happened, but he did finally

735
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:51,680
Speaker 1: host and organize, and I guess successfully pull off a

736
00:39:51,760 --> 00:39:56,399
Speaker 1: music festival last year on Utilla Bay. He loves these

737
00:39:56,520 --> 00:40:00,919
Speaker 1: shortened sort of misspelled things. I guess he chose Phoenix, Yeah,

738
00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:04,480
Speaker 1: pH NX. I assuming because the phoenix rose from the ashes,

739
00:40:04,520 --> 00:40:07,480
Speaker 1: oh yeah, much like Billy McFarland did. But that one

740
00:40:07,480 --> 00:40:09,319
Speaker 1: actually went down. I went and looked at it, and

741
00:40:09,360 --> 00:40:13,000
Speaker 1: I hadn't heard of a single performer. But that doesn't

742
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:17,360
Speaker 1: mean that they were not noteworthy. It's just there's tons

743
00:40:17,360 --> 00:40:19,440
Speaker 1: of music out there now that I don't know about,

744
00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:21,080
Speaker 1: so they may all be great. Well.

745
00:40:21,200 --> 00:40:23,160
Speaker 2: So the one that I saw that I recognize the

746
00:40:23,200 --> 00:40:25,600
Speaker 2: name of it was French Montana, and he's a pretty

747
00:40:25,600 --> 00:40:28,120
Speaker 2: big name. He was a big big fish land and

748
00:40:28,200 --> 00:40:31,200
Speaker 2: he did show up and he did perform. But I

749
00:40:31,280 --> 00:40:33,760
Speaker 2: was checking it out too. There was a live stream

750
00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:36,200
Speaker 2: that you could pay for ninety nine to watch this

751
00:40:36,360 --> 00:40:41,120
Speaker 2: music festival, and so it's all very highly documented and

752
00:40:41,160 --> 00:40:44,520
Speaker 2: you can see there's like handfuls of people who are

753
00:40:44,560 --> 00:40:48,600
Speaker 2: attending this music festival. Like when French Montana is like,

754
00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:52,640
Speaker 2: you know, somebody say yeah, like he gets nothing in response,

755
00:40:52,719 --> 00:40:55,239
Speaker 2: and like it was just yes, it was not good.

756
00:40:55,520 --> 00:40:59,360
Speaker 2: They were apparently letting in locals. This is in Honduras,

757
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:02,600
Speaker 2: letting in locals for free and encouraging to come for free,

758
00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:05,279
Speaker 2: just to kind of fill out the crowd a little bit.

759
00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:08,640
Speaker 2: So but like you said, he did successfully hold the

760
00:41:08,760 --> 00:41:13,080
Speaker 2: music festival, but I saw that he's out of the

761
00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:16,520
Speaker 2: fire Festival game because he sold the brand.

762
00:41:16,760 --> 00:41:20,000
Speaker 1: Did you see anything on that, Well, I saw that

763
00:41:20,040 --> 00:41:22,359
Speaker 1: he sold the brand. He sold it on eBay chuck

764
00:41:22,400 --> 00:41:23,879
Speaker 1: for like a couple of hundred grand or something.

765
00:41:23,960 --> 00:41:26,319
Speaker 2: Yeah, like I think two hundred and forty grand. He

766
00:41:26,400 --> 00:41:29,640
Speaker 2: sold it on eBay, and he sold it to lime Wire,

767
00:41:30,120 --> 00:41:35,080
Speaker 2: I think, one of the original music download disruptor apps.

768
00:41:35,520 --> 00:41:39,080
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, so yeah, LimeWire owns the fire Brand now.

769
00:41:39,120 --> 00:41:41,760
Speaker 2: And if you want a Firebrand mug or a Firebrand hoodie,

770
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:46,400
Speaker 2: you can go look up fire Festival and LimeWire and

771
00:41:46,520 --> 00:41:47,839
Speaker 2: their site will come right up.

772
00:41:48,640 --> 00:41:52,200
Speaker 1: I am quite sure that to where a fire Festival

773
00:41:52,200 --> 00:41:54,759
Speaker 1: hoodie at this point, this many years later would be

774
00:41:54,840 --> 00:41:57,520
Speaker 1: a very ironic sort of fun thing to do.

775
00:41:57,680 --> 00:42:00,759
Speaker 2: Definitely. I think that's kind of what Lime going for.

776
00:42:02,280 --> 00:42:05,760
Speaker 1: It's they acquired the Mad Magazine of music festivals.

777
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:10,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, for sure if you. I don't know about

778
00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:11,920
Speaker 2: that now that I think about. No, I'm not gonna.

779
00:42:11,960 --> 00:42:12,439
Speaker 2: I'm not gonna.

780
00:42:12,440 --> 00:42:13,800
Speaker 1: You don't want to sell you mad magazine?

781
00:42:13,840 --> 00:42:18,560
Speaker 2: No, Yeah, yeah, they they do offer. Those hoodies are

782
00:42:18,560 --> 00:42:20,400
Speaker 2: two hundred and forty thousand dollars apiece.

783
00:42:20,920 --> 00:42:21,960
Speaker 1: Oh that's a good price.

784
00:42:23,040 --> 00:42:24,279
Speaker 2: Uh, you got anything else?

785
00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:28,640
Speaker 1: I got nothing else. I highly recommend at least watching

786
00:42:28,640 --> 00:42:30,960
Speaker 1: one of the documentaries. They're both about the same, I

787
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:33,080
Speaker 1: would say, although we should say that both of those

788
00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:37,399
Speaker 1: documentaries came under scrutiny, yeah, because they both I think

789
00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:40,120
Speaker 1: one of them paid Billy McFarland for an interview which

790
00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:43,400
Speaker 1: everyone thought was pretty untoard and give that guy any money.

791
00:42:44,239 --> 00:42:47,239
Speaker 1: And the other one that was partnered by one of

792
00:42:47,239 --> 00:42:50,760
Speaker 1: the PR companies who had scrubbed social media of negative

793
00:42:50,800 --> 00:42:53,480
Speaker 1: comments and they had partner and they don't cover that

794
00:42:53,520 --> 00:42:55,919
Speaker 1: in the documentary, and they were partnered in that documentary.

795
00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:58,040
Speaker 1: So that one was also untoured.

796
00:42:58,200 --> 00:43:02,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, and the net Netflix documentary didn't have Billy McFarlane.

797
00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:03,960
Speaker 2: They approached him to be in it and he's like,

798
00:43:04,000 --> 00:43:05,399
Speaker 2: you have to pay me, and they're like, no, it's

799
00:43:05,480 --> 00:43:09,400
Speaker 2: not ethical, but Hulu is like sure, yeah, so okay,

800
00:43:09,440 --> 00:43:11,640
Speaker 2: So that's it. That's all we have to say about

801
00:43:11,680 --> 00:43:15,040
Speaker 2: Fire Festival and Billy McFarland, and I think then it's

802
00:43:15,080 --> 00:43:16,560
Speaker 2: time for a listener mail. Chuck.

803
00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:21,960
Speaker 1: I'm going to promise this is the last mcguffin email,

804
00:43:22,920 --> 00:43:25,480
Speaker 1: just because I like to torture you. But I think

805
00:43:25,520 --> 00:43:28,800
Speaker 1: this one had the best definition that it finally clicks

806
00:43:28,800 --> 00:43:29,480
Speaker 1: in for everybody.

807
00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:30,080
Speaker 2: We'll see.

808
00:43:30,920 --> 00:43:32,759
Speaker 1: The idea that made it click for me, guys, was

809
00:43:32,800 --> 00:43:35,279
Speaker 1: that an item is a mcguffin if that item can

810
00:43:35,320 --> 00:43:39,200
Speaker 1: be substituted with almost anything else without making any changes

811
00:43:39,239 --> 00:43:42,280
Speaker 1: to the plot of the film. That's a pretty good definition.

812
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:45,880
Speaker 1: That mysterious briefcase could be a flash drive with important documents,

813
00:43:45,920 --> 00:43:48,480
Speaker 1: or a diamond necklace belonging to the royal family, or

814
00:43:48,520 --> 00:43:51,360
Speaker 1: any number of vaguely valuable things. The point of the

815
00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:54,120
Speaker 1: film is the action that unfolds around that central item.

816
00:43:54,440 --> 00:43:57,040
Speaker 1: If the plot is centered around something, it isn't about

817
00:43:57,040 --> 00:43:59,959
Speaker 1: that thing, it is a mcguffin. And this way both

818
00:44:00,080 --> 00:44:02,960
Speaker 1: definitions actually fit. The existence or the state of the

819
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:05,080
Speaker 1: object is what moves the whole plot, but the object

820
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:10,080
Speaker 1: itself doesn't actually matter. I just thought i'd throw in

821
00:44:10,120 --> 00:44:12,960
Speaker 1: my two cents because before I took this film class

822
00:44:13,239 --> 00:44:15,440
Speaker 1: that taught me this. I felt the same about mcguffin's

823
00:44:15,440 --> 00:44:18,279
Speaker 1: as Josh seems to. Thanks for a great show, guys,

824
00:44:18,320 --> 00:44:20,520
Speaker 1: been listening for over ten years, learn so much and

825
00:44:20,520 --> 00:44:23,480
Speaker 1: I have had so many great conversations inspired by stuff

826
00:44:23,480 --> 00:44:25,720
Speaker 1: you should know. And that is from Anna hell Camp.

827
00:44:25,800 --> 00:44:29,080
Speaker 2: Thanks Anna, thank you very much. I saw that definition

828
00:44:29,600 --> 00:44:34,920
Speaker 2: essentially something like that here there still don't understand, really no,

829
00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:38,360
Speaker 2: it doesn't. Okay, Well then what isn't a mcguffin? What

830
00:44:38,560 --> 00:44:39,520
Speaker 2: is not a mcguffin?

831
00:44:39,640 --> 00:44:43,840
Speaker 1: I have to know, I don't even know what that means.

832
00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:47,160
Speaker 1: What isn't a mcguffin then, is something that if you

833
00:44:47,160 --> 00:44:48,960
Speaker 1: could change it would actually change the plot.

834
00:44:49,040 --> 00:44:52,080
Speaker 2: What give me an example? What give me a real

835
00:44:52,280 --> 00:44:55,920
Speaker 2: life movie example of what's not a mcguffin that I

836
00:44:56,000 --> 00:44:58,799
Speaker 2: will be able to understand the difference between mcguffins and

837
00:44:58,880 --> 00:45:01,520
Speaker 2: things that aren't mcguffin. I demand it.

838
00:45:01,600 --> 00:45:03,480
Speaker 1: All right, Well I'll have to go do some research

839
00:45:03,480 --> 00:45:05,280
Speaker 1: on that then, all right, so we will do another

840
00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:08,080
Speaker 1: mcguffin email somewhere or maybe you know, like the murder

841
00:45:08,120 --> 00:45:11,960
Speaker 1: weapon that's not a mcguffin, because that actually matters to

842
00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:14,319
Speaker 1: the plot. A murder weapon couldn't be just some other thing,

843
00:45:15,400 --> 00:45:19,000
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? Yes, but how does this

844
00:45:19,600 --> 00:45:22,000
Speaker 1: we're searching We're searching for the gun that killed them

845
00:45:22,160 --> 00:45:24,080
Speaker 1: the whole movie. They're searching for the gun that killed

846
00:45:24,080 --> 00:45:27,200
Speaker 1: the person, because that is the central piece that would

847
00:45:27,200 --> 00:45:30,040
Speaker 1: actually land the person in prison. Okay, and you can't

848
00:45:30,080 --> 00:45:31,359
Speaker 1: substitute that for a can of coke.

849
00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:34,680
Speaker 2: But okay, then how does the where again does that

850
00:45:34,800 --> 00:45:39,040
Speaker 2: Maltese falcon fit in there? No one is doing anything

851
00:45:39,600 --> 00:45:39,880
Speaker 2: if the.

852
00:45:39,920 --> 00:45:42,080
Speaker 1: Maltese Maltese falcon, so I can't comment.

853
00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:44,480
Speaker 2: But you can replace the Maltese falcon with a giant

854
00:45:44,560 --> 00:45:47,360
Speaker 2: ruby or a flash drive, which would have been weird

855
00:45:47,480 --> 00:45:48,080
Speaker 2: in that era.

856
00:45:48,200 --> 00:45:51,200
Speaker 1: But I think that's why everyone calls it a mcguffin.

857
00:45:51,960 --> 00:45:54,839
Speaker 2: Right, but it's not the maguf Okay, all right, Maybe

858
00:45:54,880 --> 00:45:56,440
Speaker 2: it is starting to dawn on me a little bit.

859
00:45:56,440 --> 00:45:58,880
Speaker 1: Thanks to who that's Romana?

860
00:45:58,920 --> 00:46:01,880
Speaker 2: All right, thanks Sanna. I do want to hear a

861
00:46:01,960 --> 00:46:05,000
Speaker 2: specific example from a movie of what is not a mcguffin.

862
00:46:05,440 --> 00:46:07,360
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, I'm going to find a movie where

863
00:46:07,440 --> 00:46:09,440
Speaker 1: there's someone's searching for a murder weapon, because that's a

864
00:46:09,480 --> 00:46:10,000
Speaker 1: great example.

865
00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:13,160
Speaker 2: I think in the meantime, if you want to be

866
00:46:13,239 --> 00:46:15,759
Speaker 2: like Anna and send us an email where you try

867
00:46:15,760 --> 00:46:18,640
Speaker 2: to crack through my thick skull, I'm up down for

868
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Speaker 2: that kind of thing. You can send it off to

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Speaker 2: stuff podcast at iHeartRadio dot com.

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Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For

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Speaker 1: more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

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Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.