Did Tal write this article? Wow!

The MOT doesn't have time to answer any questions cause they to busy trying to hide the monies that they received.
And Normans Cay? Where would they have stayed there? There can only be half a dozen or more places to stay.

"*The organisers were again advised to reschedule the event to avoid competing with the famous 60 and more-year-old Georgetown regatta; one of the few times each year during which many Exumians - across all walks of life - can make a good bit of change.*"

I don't understand why this was just "advice". A concert like this needs permits. These island communities can only sustain a certain number of people at any given time. All it would take was for one of these MOT reps, who now backing up faster than Bolt, to say, "you can't get a permit for that weekend", and poof problem gone. "How many people are coming and where are the rooms booked?". **I think MOT dropped the ball on this one**. This is looking just like the Junkanoo carnival "change the date for a rally" decision. I wonder if the same person ok'd this. Did someone take money to overlook all of the issues?

Guess what, it een Jah Rule who name getting drag through the mud, it's "The Bahamas", there's no "we weren't a part of this" on this one. The Bahamas is a major stakeholder. Unfortunate.

Please Tribune.... Is this a real article?
Or is it a fake comment?
Piers Morgan? Are you for real? A notable intellectual?
Who allowed these musicians to run roughshod over The Bahamas?
Who can't seem to reign in the murderers, the criminals, can't figure out how to raise the education level above a D-? Foreign musicians? Jeez.
Is it really possible that we Bahamians can criticize another country for their "culture"?
Have you not driven through Nassau?
Do you not see the filth, the homeless, the lack of courtesy on the roads?
Any person who interacts with The Ministry of Tourism understands how far we have to go as a nation.
Perhaps, this is the problem here.
We do not take ownership of our utter failures.
It is always "the other" who has sullied our reputation, caused our problems, infected our culture.
The Bahamas could begin the reversal of our obvious national and social decline by accepting and acknowledging the truth. Looking in the mirror, so to speak.
This opinion does nothing to help us along the road to reality.

I actually think the "Piers Morgan" comment is very apropos. Just take a look at their President!

And, look a Perry Christie........better?

A most excellent commentary. Bravo. But as the story has been reported in the U.S., it doesn't seem that anybody with any sense is blaming the Bahamas -- rather the absolutely clueless, brain-dead "celebrities" who think the Bahamas is just an extension of Miami Beach and they can organize a major event just by gassing about it on social media.

Ask those people if they're coming back to "the Bahamas" again

Yeah. That's the biggy. Doesn't matter what or how it happened.

As an American who loves the Bahamas I feel for you. Months ago I saw the hype about such a festival and figured it had to be a scam. No way, (Norman Cay at the time) was going to support such an event. And the details were so sketchy. Your MOT really really dropped the ball on this one when they allowed it to run with the regatta. It's too bad as it gives your tourism trade a bad taste.

We approved this mess and weeks and days before our officials could see this was a disaster , but too many of local government had contracts for busing etc ,,we did what we always do took the money ..It will be interesting to see who got the big contracts for the NEMA tents etc ..I saw who got the contracts etc ,,and who ,which MP approved this for Regatta week , they had to get approval ..As another poster said ,our problem is we never take responsibility for anything ,in public ,governance or our private lives

I bet those came from the unforgettable Chinese riot gear gift.

I guess they didn't pay off the right people!

Ja might have forgotten to tell MOT about the $250,000 tickets. https://www.wsj.com/articles/fyre-festi…

WTH ,,Mr Carron we showed disrespect for our own people by approving it .Who wrote this Bradley Roberts ..Come on Robert

From the BBC:

Statement from Billy McFarland and Jah Rule: "*The pair said 'Suddenly, they found themselves transforming a small island and trying to build a festival....Thousands of people wanted to come. They were excited, but then the roadblocks started popping up'. The statement says that **the infrastructure on the island wasn't there and they "tried" to build it themselves. They installed waste and water management**, as well as bringing ambulances from New York*"

So the Bahamas doesn't have a proper sanitation system now? **See why the MOT "it wasn't our fault" falls flat**?

From an attendee: "*He claims he and other fans spent hours "locked" inside the island's airport with some collapsing from exhaustion and heat. 'A guy just passed out in the airport because it's so hot since they locked us in. The guards just got into it with some guys'*"

Pass out from the heat and locked in the airport? That part on the Bahamas

McFarland and Jah Rule "*All festival goers this year will be refunded in full.... Also, all guests from this year will have free VIP passes to next year's festival*"
What next year?

A blind man could of seen a week out this was a disaster . first who approved it for regatta week ,,,next .local government weren,t checkin some of them had contracts ,, the fully staffed MOT on the island must of saw something different than us ,,and the MP was out there days before ,,and enviromental health ?? Someone should have stood up and saved up some dignity and bad press and pulled the permit

Especially since it was reported in multiple magazines.

From what I have read, this was supposed to be held on Norman's Cay. Even if Norman's Cay is inhabited, the infrastructure would not be enough to support thousands of concertgoers. How could the organizers promise cabanas and luxury accommodations when they weren't even aware that the infrastructure was lacking? Since they provided renderings of the would be cabanas, they had some idea of what was involved from the start. The truth is they focused too much on marketing and waited until the last minute to get things done. It sounds like they were also relying on ticket revenue to get these things done. According to one attendee, and unfortunately for them, most of the tickets sold were for the $3k base package and not the other horrendously priced options.

Locked in the airport, or maybe the airport was filled to capacity and no one else could be let in for safety reasons perhaps? What would be the point of locking them in the airport?

Yeah they got locked in, there's a video of a security guard putting a big chain on the door, if this stuff wasn't on video I'd believe it was all some giant prank...actually I'm still wondering. Wake me up when we get to Kansas.

I am not saying that the door was not locked, just that there was likely a logical reason for doing so such as the airport being at full capacity. No doubt the RBDF was there to ensure order, and not to wrongfully imprison irate tourists.

I hope there was a reason, lol. But if you went to the US, (not even some place behind God's back) and they bolted you in a room with no A/C and no food, what would you be thinking? *Oh, it's ok, they're just watching out for my safety, I hope that lock holds. And look, they brought in the military to watch us too, and they have guns*. I mean this thing is hilarious..if it weren't so serious....I'm 100% certain we're going to find out someone took some outside money for this

This is almost as funny as when Banker tell Reality "*hello mudda*". I still laughing.

Well, if I were part of a group that included members that were alleged to have threatened to burn down the island and were involved looting, why yes, I would have a very antagonistic view of law enforcement and their actions. The fact that they were frustrated added to how they viewed any actions as antagonistic toward them, and that is if they didn't already have condescending and preconceived notions about law enforcement in 3rd world countries. Also, there was a snack machine in the image so I don't know about the no food and water bit. While I speculate on plausible reasons why this was done, you cant seem to come up with anything other than feeding into hysteria. Angry people are the most rational and should be believed without question right?

So 10 people threatened to burn down the island and they locked everyone in?

Once again, I am simply speculating on reasons why they might have done that. However, panicked and angry concertgoers reacting as if RBDF is in cahoots with the organizers to further disenfranchise them is true hilarity. We don't know how many reports of threats and unrest were received, so until proven otherwise, as always, I will trust that law enforcement acted in the interest of maintaining order.

Ok great. I'm saying, no matter how we on the island see this as "reasonable", the cameras will interpret it as "OMG!!!!", they did what?? For example, there was a report of "feral dogs" running through the camps. Yes they're talking about poor pot cakes just looking for food, "to us", to the international news, they're "feral dogs".

Yeh, not being use to strays they must have thought it was dogs being sicked on them in the concentration camp.

I don't know what to make of your random reference, but okay, at least you take time out to laugh cause with all your sky is falling episodes, it sure does not come across that way.

It was hilarious LOL

Possibly an Immigration idea for some convoluted or even legitimate reason??? The locked door is hazardous and probably illegal on some basic level.

Yep, Fire drill 101

It should be pretty easy to find out if it is legal or not. I mean laws of The Bahamas are available online. Secondly, with someone stationed near the door, presumably with a key, it is not quite a hazard now is it? Do you not ever see this happening at businesses around closing time where the last of the patrons are locked in and let out as they wrap up their business? Schools and businesses also go on lock down for safety reasons when deemed necessary, so it really is a judgement call.

Public buildings should have at least two exits...I could be wrong but I think that's fire code...all of these excuses are great, but people realize this should have been managed better by local officials

They claimed to be attacked by locals ( who couldn't get anywhere near) and chased by strays, so this would have been for their safety.

Or a new way of locking up the 1%'s trust funds : D

The locked door in the video is the airline gate/exit to the tarmac. Locking and chaining it was probably the best decision of the whole debacle, considering the departure lounge was full of angry, tired, cheated attendees who had probably spent too long in the sun drinking free rum before it ran out.

Unfortunately the international news organizations have reported everything about this verbatim from twitter and reddit, where the internet trolls sitting at home in the US decided to spice things up on thursday night with all sorts of false and malicious claims agains local residents (looting, detention, violence, feral dogs, sharks... the list goes on). No due diligence at all in the so-called reporting. And where are the basic facts... how many people actually arrived? how many were scheduled to arrive? These are not hard to discern - just check the number of swift/charters that were scheduled or arrived. Looks like 6 or 8 plane 737 planes at most arrived on Thursday.... that's at most 1000 people.

Funny that there seem to only be a couple of dozen photos and videos of the event in circulation, given the number of cameras in attendance. There was someone one photo of a few attendees making the best of it on the beach friday morning. "it could be better in the bahamas", but easier to gripe and complain.

The never ending talk of the cost ("up to 250000") also fails to take into account that most paid 1500 or less. How this was going to pay for infrastructure and band fees, in addition to flights, food, etc is anyone's guess. A weekend trip from miami with flight, basic accommodation, food and ground transport easily runs >$1500 without the music festival, or the need to procure mattresses(!) for each attendee.

Hopefully the aftermath of this is not left on the local government - the "organizers" better be held responsible to deal with their detritus... but if they are actually refunding the attendees, can't imagine that will happen.

O look at that. There is such thing as outdoor AC. How clever. http://www.desertaireportable.com/make-…

Where is Obie in all of this?????? .......... Was he in on the deal (like Fitzie and Shame)?????

We're thes your regatta clients ? Noooooo so shut the hell up. Y'all ain't ready.

Blew a whole new industry. It was up to the company to charter and accommodate the all inclusive event. Sounds like vendors were jealous they couldn't have both events. Well welcome to big business, if you're lucky enough to bend one , then you don't expect to take on the other.

Stupid for people to be lashing out as if anyone blasted Bahamains. Sometimes the ignorance is just unbearable and damaging.

Uhhhhh hello , the Music Festival wasn't for raw bone! A Coechella would have made Exuma straight for life.

If MOT pressured Exuma organizers and ignored turning it over to actual Major Production professionals, then why didn't those who recommended other locals simply outsource the management themselves or put them on to Fyre organizers!

Meanwhile the US Embassy will clearly be MOT's new competition. Kiss inclusive growth goodbye.

And if you don't know the market behind social influencers , don't run your trap. The reason everyone is struggling here is because they ignore marketing. You have no idea how much earnings were to come from their product placements, btw some of your products. Those "wannabes" have sponsors that probably paid.

I was thinking about it earlier and I said maybe this will be a good lesson for people to start using their brains rather than listening to anyone with a camera. Years ago they used to call it fast talkin'

That aside the MOT shouldn't have allowed it to go on during the festival, (not a fear thing) it should have been clear that the private island wasn't going to be ready. A technocrat could have given a good estimate for the buildout time required. and Exuma proper wouldn't have the resources to spare. Too much public health concerns in limbo, too much to lose if everything went wrong.

100% certain this will boil down to greed from some local "social influencer", i.e. corrupt government official with "minister" in their title

The last people that you want to be saying the Bahamas is a horrible experience is persons with millions of followers and all agreeing with each over it on the net.

More than attempting to defend the location to individuals, local production organizers have to get MOT to share these things with them and do some positive advertising for event hosting.

I've heard a number of people suggest that no foreign promoter should be able to come in without a partnership with a local production company. But we so corrupt they'd mess that system up too. Next thing you know Shane Gibson is an event promoter and Fitzgerald begging for gig. *Watch him, watch him ah Mr fast talkin*. lol

I had a suggested a market entry guide with business matchmaking some time ago. That's to say everything arriving should scope who to work with here!

But officials dominate all the contracting.

"The end result is that, for the vast majority of Exumians, the festival appeared as if it was attempting to usurp our beloved George Town Regatta by directly competing for the visiting tourists and locals with scantily-clad, wannabe models, NFL stars and recording acts."

That type of fear has to stop. Time and time again local monopolist hide their counterintuitive sabotage tactics behind "poor vendors and deprived local hire". Like Pablo Escobars themselves. That's when you got your business from drugs. It's a repeat of Bimini Superfast Ferry vs Bimin's own, Euthera protesting Disney's egg island because they get their own tourists, fear mongering against advocacy on opening Cuba.

Exuma Regatta operators clearly didn't even read Fyres site to realize Regatta. Tourists are simply tourists, there's different types of tourists and channels. These ones wanted to be in glamorized tents and use porter potties for $12,000, not blow through conch shells and drop crabs off their heads. Regatta didn't invite the instagrammers and Fyre didn't invite regatta revelers. There was no turf war! Fyre was exclusive to elites and not even advertised to your leads. O yeh, it was never intended to be annual but a launchpad location like many other premier destination events.

I'm sure you could have told Fyre that Exuma Regatta is second to Junkanoo instead of letting the milllenials fall into a shit pile.

A number were kids of the biggest names and are probably too embarrassed to say they were there starving.

Cold.

This just shows how pathetic our nation and people have become. There is so much uproar over this concert, yet everyone silent on all issues relating to the failure of our State.

Not true at all. And this FESTIVAL may have been money directly in the hans of locals, calculate that. It equals less reliance on government to get things done.