Fyre goes down in flames

Schadenfreude isn't my usual reaction to festival-goers enduring nightmarish experiences, but with Ja Rule's Fyre Festival I'll happily make an exception. After all, punters had been sufficiently seduced by the prospect of seeing Blink 182 in the Bahamas and hanging out with the gaggle of models/"influencers" who were relentlessly plugging the bash on social media to part with up to $12,000 for a single ticket.

Most new festivals experience a few teething troubles, but Fyre's problems went a long, long way further than that. The photos of the site and catering were reminiscent of those pictures of winter wonderlands that are rather less than wonderful. A combination of the inexperience and arrogance of the "organisers" and weather conditions led to woefully inadequate infrastructure, the cancellation of the festival and chaotic scenes that gave the idiots who'd shelled out stupid amounts of money an unexpected insight into what life is like in a war zone. It's poetic justice that an event deliberately puffed up on social media was then destroyed by the same means.

There have been apologies of sorts from Ja Rule and the organisers, who maintain that the whole affair wasn't a scam and have promised disgruntled attendees both refunds and free VIP passes to the proposed event next year. But, as has been noted, the festival's wanky pitch deck was beyond parody and a $100m lawsuit has now been launched, so anyone who believes that Fyre will be resurrected for 2018 and that it'd be a good idea to go is even more of a moron than they were for signing up in the first place.