The Fyre Festival is undeniably the biggest festival disaster of the year, or of the entire history of music festivals. What has been raved to be a luxurious festi-cation in the Exumas turned out to be a complete disaster of poorly made tents and dubious meals, while the promised musical festive is nowhere to be seen.  Billy Farland, the 25-year-old entrepreneur, met Ja Rule and thought up of the Fyre Festival during a trip to the Bahamas in 2015. In 2016, they put up the first round of tickets on sale and spent thousands of dollars on influencer marketing. A group of influencers including Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner (who were reportedly paid $250,000) were recruited to endorse the festival on their Instagram, called “Fyre Starters.”

Then, they decided to see if the venue would work. The plan starts to fail from there as the logistics of operations are not properly planned through. With event management technology, several mishaps could have been prevented from Day 1. Here’s how.

Venue Logistics is the Top Factor

According to a study from GBTA foundation , venue is the most important factor to host an event.  With event management technology, organizers could gain access to data about venue availability and location specs such as accommodation and food accessibility. McFarland claimed that he picked the Exumas because of its beauty and later learned that there was no working water or sewage on the island. These informations would have been made available on an event management platform where customers have access to data related to the venue. Moreover, Fyre Festival organizers would have been able to make more informed decisions in transporting sound and stage system, accommodation materials, and gourmet meals to Exumas if only they have access to data on the availability of things in Exumas. “This was a development lot covered in gravel with a few tractors scattered around…,” said one talent producer for the Fyre Festival. If Fyre organizers want to build a city of music festival from scratch, just like how Coachella was built from Indio City, a more comprehensive approach to scouting venue alongside with the assistance of technology is necessary to make the festival probable.

RFPs are Keys

Following venue scout, organizers should be sending multiple RFPs (Request For Proposals) to a number of vendors to have a pool of options. Using event management technology such as Youcanevent allows event organizers to send one RFP to multiple vendors. With multiple options responded directly from vendors, now organizers can make informed decisions with an ease of vendor pricing comparisons.

1 month before the Fyre Festival was supposed to happen, high-end caterer Starr Catering Group cancels its contract with the production since organizers rejected the six-figure cost requested from Starr. If Fyre organizers had a number of options in terms of accommodations and catering, the festival shouldn’t have been so appalled when it comes to providing their festival-goers gourmet meals. Choosing the right vendor to fit with Fyre’s budget would have made it possible to pay vendors and make the event happen.

Understanding Your Budget

Prior to the festival, several bands pulled out because they hadn’t been paid. Meanwhile, influencers were reportedly paid thousands of dollars for Instagram posts to promote for the festivals months ahead. Also, accommodation and meals were found to be nowhere near the high standard that the organizers had promised. Event management platform such as Youcanevent provides organizers an overview of budget spending and therefore gives organizers a more balanced view of how the budget should be allocated.

With all being said, those are some of the major advantages where technology can save the Fyre Festival. We are continuing with Part 2 next week. Know a major solution? Let us know!