Fyre Festival’s Food Fiasco Is Not Stephen Starr’s Fault
At this point, you’re probably well aware of the Fyre Festival disaster unfolding in the Bahamas. The short and sweet of it: rapper Ja Rule and tech tycoon Billy McFarland set out to host an ultra-high-end, VIPs-only music festival on the Islands of the Exumas. It came with its own video starring Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski. People who bought tickets to the festival were promised “first-class culinary experiences and a luxury atmosphere”, which meant everything from chartered yachts to morning yoga to food catering by Starr Events. But when guests arrived on Thursday, they were met with, as the New York Times put it, “soggy tents, bad food, and general disappointment verging on panic”. Obviously, the festival’s been postponed until further notice.
The “bad food”, by the way, was a styrofoam take-out box filled with sliced bread, cheese (not grilled cheese), and salad.
Some people are attributing the failure to “Steven [sic] Starr”, so we just wanted to clear up any confusion.
The dinner that @fyrefestival promised us was catered by Steven Starr is literally bread, cheese, and salad with dressing. #fyrefestival pic.twitter.com/I8d0UlSNbd
— Tr3vor (@trev4president) April 28, 2017
Stephen Starr and Starr Restaurants are not affiliated with Starr Events at all. In fact, Starr sold his catering arm, Starr Events, two years ago to North Carolina-based TrustHouse Services Group.
Starr Events isn’t at fault either. According to a statement released this morning via Twitter, “the food services agreement Starr Catering Group entered for the Fyre Festival was terminated on April 2nd, 2017 and since that date Starr Catering Group| Starr Events has not been involved with or provided any services in connection with this event.”
To resolve any confusion STARR Catering Group is not providing any catering services at the Fyre Festival. pic.twitter.com/TriMP52tRD
— STARR Events (@STARRevents) April 28, 2017
Fyre Festival, a Luxury Music Weekend, Crumbles in the Bahamas [NYT]
