This $12,000 Luxury Festival Turned Into The Modern Day Hunger Games When Attendees Got Stranded On A Remote Island

By Callie Byrnes,
Youtube / Fyre Festival, Twitter / FyreFestivalFraud and Twitter / @DylanACOP

Everyone loves a good castaway story, but that doesn’t mean they’d want to live one. Unfortunately for Fyre Fest attendees, they’re going to have firsthand accounts of what it’s like to be stranded on a remote island.

If you haven’t heard of Fyre Fest, all you really need to know is that it’s a luxury festival put on by Ja Rule that cost some people up to $12,780 to attend. The festival lured Instagram-loving Millennials in with the promise of luxury beaches, wild parties, big name concerts and models in bikinis — but when people arrived on their private jets and yachts, that wasn’t quite what they found.

It all started when the main acts began cancelling, and it all went downhill from there.

What was meant to be an Insta-worthy weekend quickly became the equivalent to Lord of the Flies. Not only was the festival canceled, but so were all flights to and from the island, stranding Fyre Fest attendees.

https://twitter.com/alliharvard/status/857773112842125312

If that wasn’t bad enough, the living conditions were less than glamorous. The “luxury housing” they were promised turned out to be just tents.

The meals they’d been promised were definitely lacking, but what was even scarier was how scarce the food and water was.

And when nighttime came around, not only were people left without electricity, but they didn’t have their luggage, either.

Considering everything they’d been promised, it was more than just a letdown — it was a nightmare.

Worst of all, there wasn’t any beer. Are you telling me you’re going to strand them on an island and you’re not even going to let them drink away their problems?!

The whole thing was definitely a shit show.

Luckily, people have started making their way off the island in small groups. Or, at least, they’ve been trying to.

The whole story is wild, honestly, and I can’t get enough of it.

Hopefully everyone makes it home safely before it really does turn into Lord of the Flies: Ja Rule edition. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

About the author

Callie Byrnes

Callie joined Thought Catalog as an intern in 2017 and now works as the Editorial Director for its sister site, Collective World. She enjoys writing personal essays and articles about pop culture, astrology, and tarot. She published her first book, ‘The Words We Left Behind,’ in 2024.

These are the “Words We Left Behind.”

These are the “Words We Left Behind.”

My favorite memories are the ones that never seem noteworthy—the ones you never tell at parties or recount to your family, the ones that don’t have a plot or a reason. There’s something in those excerpts of life, something so beautifully, achingly human.

These are the moments that matter the most.

These are the words we leave behind.

This debut collection written by Callie Byrnes is bound in a beautifully textured uncoated cover featuring gold leaf foil.

More From Thought Catalog