Fyre Festival documentary gets trailer and Netflix release date

Fyre, a documentary about the Fyre Festival debacle from the director of Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond, has been acquired by Netflix.

The doc will hit the streaming service on 18 January, telling the story of how a desert island festival billed as being the height of luxury swiftly turned into a disaster zone.

Netflix posted a teaser trailer for Fyre on Monday, which plays on the “expectation vs reality” meme.

Guests to Fyre Festival were told to expect bikini-clad supermodels, luxury cabanas and A-list music performances. They arrived on the Bahamian island however to find a staggering lack of infrastructure, with the festival lacking plumbing, food, and accommodation more substantial than emergency tents.

Festival-goers documented their Lord of the Flies-esque experiences on social media, with many people around the world following their progress as they attempted to make it off the island.

The festival’s organisers, Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule, subsequently faced lawsuits seeking more than $100 million in damages collectively. McFarland was convicted of wire fraud and sentenced to six years in prison.

This is not the only Fyre Festival project in the works. Hulu also has a docu-series planned, which is expected to arrive later in 2019.