If I had a dollar for every time someone said they didn’t need to hire event professionals because their friends/volunteers/church members/board/family could handle it,  I might be able to pack my binders away for good.  Many people believe they can plan an event until they get eyelids deep in the logistics.  A good event planner can filter through the processes of moving an event from concept to completion that the novice may overlook. Those well intended people run the risk of missing vital steps that can cause an event to fail. Hire a event professional.

The Netflix and Hulu streaming services are airing two documentaries about the Fyre Festival which is being called “the biggest party that never happened”.  Human nature allows people to derive pleasure from witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another.  But everything in my event guru body cringed as I looked on, anticipating that train wreck on the horizon.

“…everything in my event guru body cringed as I looked on anticipating that train wreck”

From the onset, the  Fyre Festival, displayed three glaring deficiencies that would raise the hair on the neck of any skilled festival planner. Number one, the event timeline screamed impossible. Secondly, no skilled planner would approve advertising, ticket sales or engagement with top social media influencers before a location was secured.  Thirdly, a professional would have required a budget and secretly tracked the money back to a person/organization with the ability to sustain a large scale undertaking.  The Fyre Festival displayed negligence on a whole different level with a tinge of malicious intent that warrants the legal troubles the event founders are now navigating.

This is a cautionary tale as to why your friends/volunteers/church members/board/family, as well meaning and hard working as they are,  can’t be your “go to” when planning a major event.  Event people really don’t say these things just to get a contract.  We know that part of the job is to set realistic expectations which would have included asking questions that would have shut this fiasco down long before the guests arrived.  This unfortunate nightmare was not on Elm Street..it was on Exuma Island in the middle of paradise and we simply can’t believe it.

“This unfortunate nightmare was not on Elm Street…it was on Exuma Island in the middle of paradise”

Seriously people, lets stop discounting the worth of event professionals. We really do earn our keep.  The tale of the Fyre Festival proved our point to almost biblical proportions and we will be talking about it for a very long time.