Some of the reasons why there is some schadenfreude is the customers being motivated in large part due to Fyre’s explicit marketing promising an not only a luxurious music event with fancy A/Ced villas, but also “insider” exclusivity playing on a sub-demographic who so desires such status that they are willing to pay hundreds or even tens of thousands for the seeming privilege.
The groups with this attitude seem to fall into two broad camps…those who are contemptuous of them for believing genuine exclusivity/insider status could be had by merely paying large sums for it(seems to come from those perceiving themselves as high status “genuine insiders” running in exclusive circles) or those who are contemptuous of them for being motivated by such SES-based exclusivity status seeking in the first place(Folks like many Obie classmates/alums from my undergrad years and earlier).
While a bit of this schadenfreude is understandable, what happened went well beyond the customers being “noveau riche upstarts” or “trust fund/rich idiots who deserved to be taken to the cleaners”.
The customers were ripped off and placed in genuine danger as shown by folks losing their luggage and/or getting mugged/physically assaulted by locals and even reportedly by security guards who were supposed to be protecting those customers.
Could you both be referring to the same person who wrote the following?
http://nymag.com/thecut/2017/04/fyre-festival-exumas-bahamas-disaster.html
Some reports said some of the organizers were there in the only villa in the sea of shabby tents…and brusquely told the hapless stranded customers to “figure it out yourself”.
Doesn’t help that Ja Rule’s apology emphasized that he wasn’t at fault for what happened despite being one of the key organizers or that McFarland was quoted as saying that they were naive.
Doesn’t exude any signs of taking responsibility for the fiasco or even having an apparent clue as to how badly their enterprise flopped.
And a class action lawsuit has already been filed: