The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019) Documentary

Instructions: Watch Netflix’s FYRE-The Greatest Party That Never Happened about a failed music festival that was to take place in the Bahamas a few years ago and answer any 2 questions below (short answer-100-125 word response to each of the 2 questions you choose. It’s okay if you write more or go over 125 words, but it’s not necessary).

You only need to submit one worksheet per Consulting Pair or Triad.

*HULU also produced a documentary in 2019 called, FYRE Fraud, but that documentary focuses more on an interview with Billy McFarland after the failed festival, even though it has some of the same footage as the Netflix documentary. You should be able to answer 2 of the 9 questions below by watching either documentary.

A major impetus of Module 2 is about how to apologize to people that have been hurt by a company’s or individual’s actions. After you watch the FYRE documentary, think about the layers and layers of bad news that had to be given to investors, employees, influencers, consultants, workers, and other individuals close to Billy McFarland. If you had to construct an apology message for Billy, what would you say? If you received an apology as an event-goer, do you think you would accept it? This documentary shows what can happen when plans go terribly, terribly wrong and it’s a good precursor to the 2 major projects that follow (even though those 2 projects have no direct relationship to the FYRE documentary).

Questions (choose 2 of the 9 questions)

1. Discuss the power of social media, social media influencers, the effectiveness/strategy of the burnt orange tile, the marketing video that was produced that featured some of the top super models, and/or any other thoughts about social media as it relates to the documentary.

2. Would you have been tempted to go to the FYRE festival based on the marketing video, the hype, and the influencers’ recommendations? Or, do you know anyone that actually paid to go to the FYRE Festival? How easy is it to be scammed via social media?

3. Discuss the payment of $250,000 to Kendall Jenner to send out 1 post to her followers and how the FYRE Festival failure triggered legislation that, “influencers” are now required to reveal their “influence” as “paid advertising.” If you can still find Kendall’s apology, feel free to comment on what she said.

4. Andy King tells a story about Billy persuading him to, “take one for the team,” (quite vulgar; can be found at about 49+ minutes into the documentary) and about how guilty he felt after the event. Did Andy have any responsibility to apologize? If so, to whom? What should he say?

5. The workers of Great Exuma that helped set up the tents and construct the stage for the festival lost $250,000 in day wages and restaurant owner, Maryann Rolle, lost at least $50,000. Do a little research and see if any of the workers were ever paid their wages; what about Maryann Rolle? (I tear up every time I watch her talk about what happened to her.)

6. Certainly, when it comes to apologizing, writing an apology message, producing an apology video, etc., there is an interplay between the actual apology, the guilty party displaying remorse, being genuine, and accepting responsibility. Thoughts about how you judge remorse, being genuine, or someone truly accepting responsibility for their actions that hurt people?

7. In Grant’s message, when everything was falling apart, Grant began the message with, “due to circumstances beyond our control…” and several interviewees comment about how disgusted they were with Grant’s message. What do you think of Grant’s message? What about Billy? Should Billy have apologized?

8. Billy McFarland was sentenced to 6 years in Federal prison, yet investors lost approximately 27 million dollars. The charges were based mostly on fraud and, “cooking his books.” One attendee in particular was awarded $5 million dollars as part of a class action lawsuit. Thoughts? (BTW, I Googled Billy McFarland’s net worth and it shows, -5 million dollars; thought that was interesting).

9. Open ended-comment or write about anything in the video that stood out or that you and your partner(s) would like to write about.