Hulu Drops Surprise Fyre Festival Documentary Four Days Before Netflix’s Release Date

Just a few days after Netflix released the first trailer for their documentary about the disastrous Fyre Festival in 2017, called Fyre: The Best Party That Never Happened, Hulu began streaming its own exposé on the same subject. The service made a surprise announcement on Monday that its in-depth look at the Fyre Festival, called Fyre Fraud, is now available to watch. Netflix is planning to release its version on Friday, according to Polygon.

Hulu’s film, directed by Jenner Furst and Julia Willoughby Nason, follows the events of the Fyre Festival, a music festival that was scheduled to occur in April and May 2017 on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma.

Fyre Media founder Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule marketed the festival as a “luxurious” getaway and paid social media influencers like Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Emily Ratajkowski to promote the event. However, guests who had paid thousands of dollars arrived at the festival’s opening weekend to small tents and pre-packaged sandwiches instead of luxury villas and gourmet meals.

McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison on fraud charges in October 2018, NBC News reported at the time.

Netflix’s documentary, directed by Chris Smith, takes on the same angle and includes input from the festival’s organizers. According to Hulu, though, Fyre Fraud has something that Fyre lacks: an interview with the convicted con artist himself, McFarland.

In addition, Hulu’s documentary reportedly also features interviews with former employees of Elliot Tebele, a promoter for the festival and owner of F***Jerry Media. Interestingly enough, Tebele is also an executive producer for Netflix’s documentary.

Fyre Fraud reveals that problems began to rise early on in planning the festival, but Tebele ensured that his employees covered up the signs of trouble.

A source told Entertainment Weekly that the streaming service released its documentary ahead of Netflix’s in order to “provide enlightening context” for the upcoming Tebele film.

In response to Hulu’s release, representatives for Netflix’s Fyre said that they “stand behind their film.”

“We were happy to work with Jerry Media and a number of others on the film…We believe it is an unbiased and illuminating look at what happened, and look forward to sharing it with audiences around the world,” they said.

McFarland was reportedly set to appear in Fyre as well, but he wanted to be paid for the appearance. Smith recently told EW that the filmmakers “didn’t feel comfortable with him benefiting after so many people were hurt as a consequence of his actions.”

Fyre: The Best Party That Never Happened will be available to stream on January 18.