Republic of Extra Cold hiccups inspire Fyre Fest comparisons

To top of the year and kick off a new decade, alcohol brand Castle Lite took their epic party out of Johannesburg, all the way down to Cape Town and out on to the seas for an experience like no other.

For weeks on end, fans were sold the dream of partying on the ocean and got the chance to see what the event was all about this past weekend.

Fyre Fest? 

Due to the event experiencing a number of hiccups before it even began, in addition to the fact that party-goers found themselves confused about what to do and where to go once the event began, it was compared to the now-infamous Fyre Fest event that happened between the United States and the Bahamas.

That castle lite event ke fyre fest mos..

— Ro Shwela Clifton (@ThabisoMadie) December 28, 2019

Fyre Festival was a fraudulent luxury music festival founded by CEO of Fyre Media Inc Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule.

Scheduled to take place over two weekends in April and May 2017 on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma, the event was promoted on Instagram by social media influencers such as Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin, and Emily Ratajkowski.

Their involvement in the promotion of the event caused a scandal because a number of them initially did not disclose they had been paid to do so. This then led to advertising standards authorities all over the world requiring influencers to disclose which of their content had been sponsored.

The event ended up descending into chaos due to problems related to security, food, accommodation, medical services and artist relations, resulting in the festival being postponed indefinitely.

Instead of the luxury villas and gourmet meals for which festival attendees paid thousands of dollars, they received prepackaged sandwiches and FEMA tents as their accommodation and they shared these developments on social media as they happened.

The organisers ended up facing legal action which resulted in McFarland going to jail and the release of two documentaries about the events of the festival in 2019 titled Fyre Fraud (on Hulu) and Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened on Netflix.

Castle Lite event starting an hour and half after promised. And everyone baking in the sun waiting. What a fucking surprise in SA

— Chelsea Wilton (@Chellaballsss) December 28, 2019

The problems for Castle began when they experienced a delayed start time. In pre-event promotion, the event was billed to start at 3pm and due to the fact that boats were set to depart at that time, partygoers made sure to not to miss their chance to get on a boat.

As they were waiting to be let into the event venue, they were dismayed by tweets stating that the event was set to start at 5pm.

We finally go in. We’re given tags and passports. We load our tags with money for drinks and ask what the tags are for, no one knows. So we keep them and walk in.

The venue is empty LOL.

— Pop Nana (@LilRacing_) December 28, 2019

Furthermore, very little was communicated about the procedure on the day and fans were left frustrated by the confusion. Chief among the confusion was the fact that people were let into the venue long before the bars were open and one couldn’t even purchase water until waiting staff were given the all-clear to begin selling beverages.

No one knows what’s going on. That’s the bottom line.

The Castle Lite Twitter account said the party starts at 5, but there was another info flyer from them claiming that the party starts at 5. https://t.co/3m9qGDHqCv

— Pop Nana (@LilRacing_) December 28, 2019

So I missed the Castle Lite boat by a minute😭 pic.twitter.com/NZss1egIzI

— Gie Star Raw™ (@RegGieNobleSA) December 28, 2019

Attendees were given “passports” that they were told would be used to get access to alcohol on the boats but they were not even used for that purpose. This after some party-goers were let into the event venue with said passports not knowing that they needed them to board the boats.

A man performing stunts at the Republic of Extra Cold | Image: Supplied

The actual party

Prior to the party, the event was reportedly set to take place on a cruiseliner and one of the artists was supposed to float in on a man-made iceberg.

They said there'd be a man made iceberg. Then it was a container ship. Now we're all just lamming on multiple boats and it fucking sucks #castlelite

— b. (@bang_broek) December 28, 2019

Attendees were later informed that about nine boats had been hired by the brand to transport attendees to the middle of the ocean where they would dock around one main boat that would serve as the stage while party-goers would watch performances and party from the other boats.

Costa Tich performing alongside Pearl Thusi at the Republic of Extra Cold, December 28 2019 | Image: Supplied

However, when the time came for Costa Tich’s performance, it was quickly realised that what was happening was not the idea that was originally sold.

The sound on some of the boats was stopped in order to enable people to hear what was happening on the main boat while other boats continued playing their music.

Thusi had to scream just to be heard from the other boats while others struggled to hear the music when it came time for Tich to perform.

No contingency seemed to have been made to ensure that the boats were somehow wirelessly connected to the same sound system.

#RepublicOfExtraCold was completely disrespectful. A shit show of disrespect.

— b. (@bang_broek) December 28, 2019

Shortly thereafter, partygoers were speedily whisked back to shore for the main party at The Lookout – an event venue situated near the V&A Waterfront shopping complex.

Ayanda MVP played her DJ set from her boat as attendees sailed off and had to compete with the wind as well as the music blaring from the other boats.

DJ Ayanda MVP at the Republic of Extra Cold | Image: Supplied

There was yet another delay in letting people into the main event area and once that was sorted, staff had to move tables and chairs from the welcome area into the main area just to accommodate the crowd.

In between all of this, some attendees were gifted helicopter rides to make up for the day’s events.

It then took even more time in between this chaos before Pascal & Pearce eventually made their way to the stage for their set.

From then on, however, things finally seemed to get under way, allowing party-goers to enjoy some food from the venue’s food trucks, the drinks provided and sounds from Boity, Youngsta CPT, and DJ Zinhle.

Donovan Goliath at the Republic of Extra Cold | Image: Supplied

Thusi and Castle Lite then ended off the night by gifting citizens (which is what they called the day’s partygoers) with a year’s supply of Castle Lite.

“I couldn’t be more proud to be President of the Republic than I am tonight. I want to thank all citizens of the Republic for their endearing support. From myself, your fierce president, your extra cold cabinet of minister and of course, Castle Lite, thank you for coming to the coolest place to be this summer. Let’s do it again next year!” she said.

While The Republic of Extra Cold was no Fyre Fest, the hiccups they experienced on the day, unfortunately, had fans making that association.

Hopefully, organisers can take the lessons learned this year and iron out all the kinks for an even better experience in 2020.

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