THERE’S BEEN A lot of chat about Fyre Fest the past week, what with Hulu’s surprise drop of their documentary on the whole fiasco, ‘Fyre Fraud’.

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The thing is though, Hulu isn’t available to European users (unless you access it via nefarious internet means), so most people have been holding out for the Netflix one, ‘Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened’. 

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A few things to note before we dive in to what the people think: Hulu’s documentary features an interview with the man behind the shit show, the now-imprisoned Billy McFarland, with reports that he was paid around the six figure mark. 

Ja Rule and FYRE Festival organiser Billy McFarland

Netflix chose not get McFarland on board, but did bring on Jerry Media – the company originally responsible for marketing the festival that never materialised.

Ethically grey areas aside, here’s wht the critics are saying about ‘FYRE’ so far:

The A.V. Club gave ‘Fyre’ a B+ rating.

Alex McLevy reckons the Netflix doc inches ahead of Hulu’s offering because of it’s director, Chris Smith.

Ultimately, where Fyre excels over Fyre Fraud is Smith, a director with a razor-sharp point of view and eye for crafting a narrative that captures surprising, small moments of human foibles amid all the madness.

Smith knows just how outrageous this story is, and lets his narrative be guided by the inside scoop from his parade of subjects, nearly all of whom witnessed firsthand this slow-motion train wreck of a music festival as it unfolded, whether as part of McFarland’s handpicked team of event producers or the luckless folks tasked with carrying out various aspects of his impossible vision.”

Mashable says Fyre use of “deliberate pacing, creative narrative building, and wildly resourceful imagery” makes for a great watch.

Fyre manages to transform its seemingly mundane subject into a tense slow burn with new consequences around every corner.”

Vox gave the documentary 3.5/5.

The film mostly steers away from broad cultural strokes, focusing more on the ways McFarland’s actions affected the people around him.

People talk about how they were suckered in, why they trusted him, why he seemed like he could be a visionary. You can see, briefly, why McFarland was appealing. You might even start to empathise.”

Yikes.

… As well as initial impressions coming in on social media:

Some people struggled to believe some of the gritty details:

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(A Fyre Fest event producer told by McFarland to offer oral sex in exchange for water that was being held at customs. Yeah.)

If you’re staying in over the weekend, this looks like something worth sinking your teeth into. 

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