scha·den·freu·de/ˈSHädənˌfroidə/noun
noun: Schadenfreude; noun: schadenfreude
- pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune.
I have been deeply engrossed in the two Fyre Festival documentaries, yes TWO, and the Caroline Calloway situation on Instagram.
Okay so if you don’t live on Twitter, you might not have heard much about the Fyre Festival. Billy McFarland and Ja Rule (yes, “It’s Murdaaaaa” Ja Rule of early 2000s rap fame) got together to scam thousands of bougie kids of of mo thousands of dollars. It was supposed to be a high end music festival Instagram dream vacation. All those things tied together in one. Millennials were spending all their bitcoins on villas that turned out to be FEMA tents. I didn’t know much about the Fyre Festival until the whole thing went south on Twitter with this
Here’s the dinner they fed us tonight. Literally slices of bread, cheese, and salad with no dressing. #fyrefraud #fyrefestival #dumpsterfyre pic.twitter.com/NmNXakSFlq— Trevor DeHaas (@trev4president) April 28, 2017
It was a great night on Twitter but the irony of a festival brought together by social media getting taken down by social media that was very very 2017.
And no it doesn’t warrant two documentaries, but it’s not like you have to go to the theater to see it. They’re streaming because of course they’re streaming. There’s Fyre Fraud on Hulu and Fyre : The Greatest Concert That Never Happened on Netflix. Yes they are both worth watching as they are separates of a whole story. Plus like this is how you get Tr*mp and I am very certain this dude will be running for President one day.
Billy McFarland is actually interviewed on the Hulu version and it’s lighter with more meme worthy clips added in, but more of the people behind the festival (aside from Ja Rule) are on the Netflix version and talk more of the financials.
And now, Caroline Calloway @carolinecalloway. She is an Instagram “influencer” that decided to have an international tour to promote her authentic lifestyle and oat milk? I’m not sure but at one point she had a high paying book deal to write an actual book about her life. She has like 800,000 Instagram followers and mostly just seems to talk about how she loved Cambridge and living in New York and eating on the floor and watering plants. I am not judging so much as that’s honestly what I have gathered for stalking her Instagram for a week.
Anyway Caroline set up some visit dates and took some credit card monies ($165 per person) and was very up front that she had absolutely no workshop space or planning experience. Then she had the first workshop and none of the things went even half way as planned and it went downhill from there.
Read this: First Fail
And this: When She Went Ahead With The Tour After The Storm of Press Coverage Anyway And Even Invoked Fyre Festival Banners
(yes I was outraged at the Fight Club quote)
It’s not limited to white kids either. There was a major scandal in Black Twitter where a black nerd conference went as far south as Fyre festival did. There are business brunches ALL the time where you “network” and “boss up” whatever that means. Small scams happening all the time. Everywhere you look.
This one nurse scammed these people out of millions of dollars and went to Paris to trick off on her girlfriend.
As an older millennial I refuse to blame this on the age of these scammers. They didn’t just come up with the term “Ponzi Scheme” or televangelism. And I assume there’s something to be said about capitalism or the lie of the American Dream that if you work hard you will get money. Sometimes people would rather just do a little work and take a lot of money and run. Who can blame them?! Or if you don’t feel like you got scammed, did a scam actually occur? But I have no real deep thoughts. I just like to pass the time. But research before you pay for anything cause they’re not going to make a documentary about your Bestie Brunch that ended up being bad mimosas and cold pancakes. And be wary if Ja Rule is involved. Obviously. And for the love of everything, don’t let your family members order that holy water from the late night TV preacher.
If I had known how hard it was, I never would’ve tried
– Caroline Calloway
In the mad dash to turn our lives into perfect Instagram aesthetics, folks will buy into just about anything. The shame of it all. lol
I watched the Netflix Fyre Festival this week. I cannot believe the thing with the event planner and what he was asked to do. The entire thing is WILD. I know Maryann had a go fund me, I hope the local workers they stiffed have something too.
I watched the Netflix one this week too! I don’t recall hearing a thing about it when everything went down. I think part of the problem that social media ‘influencers’ have a lot of power because they are popular on social media and can post pretty pictures, but nothing else to back it up. This guy’s festival idea could have taken off and been okay if he hadn’t wanted to include every single Instagram drool worthy cliche known to man. But that’s part of why it was so in demand. Because too many people live for Instagram #goals. I felt so bad for the hard working people who got scammed.