Monetizing Failure: Fyre Fraud, Social Media, and the Normalization of Crisis

Abstract

This essay analyzes the social media rebranding of the infamous Fyre Festival, a disastrous and fraudulent music concert that went viral in 2017. The posthumous life of the ill-fated festival illustrates the unique confluence of neoliberal crisis and the entrepreneurial logics of social media that enable failed entrepreneurs to exploit their own abject spectacles of fraud and unethical business practices into lucrative opportunities. By looking at how three individuals deeply involved in planning Fyre Fest monetized the media spectacle surrounding the festival's failure through unrelenting spin, ironic self-branding, and the commodification of kitsch, we show how the emerging character of a socially mediated failure industry that revels not only in failure but in the unprincipled nature of risk-taking in the current economy. We conclude by reflecting how the entrepreneurial discourses in the aftermath of the festival are indicative of evolving entrepreneurial logics that normalize the detached and ironic enjoyment of neoliberal spectacles.