What Fyre Festival Can Teach Us About the Importance of Execution
You Mean it Takes Hard Work to Turn Ideas into Reality?
“Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” — Thomas Edison
When it comes to the disastrously botched Fyre Festival*, Mr. Edison has never been more correct.
*A festival that ironically, had no electricity.
By now, most of you have probably heard of Fyre Festival, the luxury cultural festival that wasn’t. Fyre Festival promised a “once-in-a-lifetime musical experience on the Islands of the Exumas” and was marketed heavily by social media influencers who promised an ultra-luxe, exclusive experience, with (questionably) popular musical headliners, catered meals, and VIP accommodations on yachts, eco lodges, and private villas. Tickets ranged from $1,500-$12,000.
The idea? Alluring. The marketing? Flawless. Expertly produced videos showed models parading around in bikinis. Social media influencers like Kendall Jenner promoted the festival and drummed up enthusiasm on Instagram. Marketing materials touted an exclusive destination: a private island called “Fyre Cay” previously owned by Pablo Escobar.
If it sounds (and looks) too good to be true, that’s because it was.
Not one of the promises advertised on the website or in the promotional materials came to fruition.
“Fyre Cay” was not an exclusive private island, but rather a barren wasteland with no plumbing or electricity. The accommodations were not luxury cabanas, but rather FEMA tents used for disaster relief scenarios. The food was not gourmet catering, but rather slices of cheese and wheat bread.
With ticket-holders unable to evacuate the island, the festival descended into chaos and disarray. In a scene befitting Lord of Flies, attendees fought over tents and beds, and clamored over food scraps. Some fainted from the heat and dehydration.
I don’t know whether Fyre Festival was an intentional scam or not, (the $100mm fraud lawsuit filed over the weekend seems to think so), but it’s clear that the festival organizers, Billy McFarland and Ja Rule, heavily marketed their lofty idea before they gave any thought to how they’d pull it off. And guess what?
They didn’t pull it off.
The organizers never put in the work required to execute their vision. Not even close.
As someone who got married earlier this year, the demands and intricacies of wedding planning are freshly etched in my memory, which makes the organizers’ failure here even more shocking to me (and confusing).
Anyone who has planned a large-scale event knows how much work goes into hosting and feeding and entertaining large groups of people. It baffles me how the organizers thought they could build a luxury music festival for thousands of people on an island with no electricity or running water. How did they remotely think they could pull this off? And why didn’t they cancel the festival once they realized they were in over their heads?
It makes me wonder if Ja Rule and Billy McFarland ever planned a large-scale event before. A wedding? A birthday party? A charity event?
Scratch that — had these guys planned anything before? Because it really seems like they spent less time planning Fyre Festival than I did making a dinner reservation last weekend. (Try finding a table for 6 in San Francisco on Friday night. Not. Easy).
Fyre Festival’s failure is a reminder that bringing your ideas into reality — the perspiration — that’s the hardest, and arguably the most important part of the of whole equation. That’s the 99% that separates the dreamers from the innovators; wantrepreneurs from the moguls. Or in this case, it’s what separates a laughing-stock being sued for fraud from a marketing genius CEO who pulled off the most buzzworthy, coveted music festival in the world.
Bringing your ideas into reality — the perspiration — that’s the hardest part of the of whole equation.
Lots of people have ideas, and even fewer have great ideas. But almost no one puts in the work to bring their ideas to life.
It takes a lot of hard work to turn ideas into reality. Looks like the Fyre Festival creators didn’t get the memo.
(On a side note, I’d totally hire McFarland to do a marketing campaign).
“The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers. But above all, the world needs dreamers who do.”
– Sarah Ban Breathnach
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