This Fyre Festival Situation Keeps Getting Weirder

First came the memes, then the first-hand accounts from attendees and former staff. Then came the offer to give guests VIP tickets for next year in lieu of a refund - an offer that people are actually taking them up on, even though the organizers have been banned from doing business in the Bahamas - plus the expected lawsuits against the festival. But there’s even more; an article for Vanity Fair reveals that Fyre is also a company that provides “talent” to businesses trying to advertise through the more-subtle product placement of products in a pretty person’s Instagram. They call these people Fyre Starters, and some are also being sued for promoting a model-filled Bahamas getaway of a festival that turned out to be a few tents and an inadequate water supply. These influencers allegedly failed to mark their posts as sponsored content, and were obviously a misrepresentation.
How Taking Away The ACA Affects Musicians

The Chicago Reader reports that before the ACA, musicians were more than twice as likely to be uninsured, and a study conducted before the act passed “concluded that uninsured working-age adults have a 40 percent higher risk of death than their privately insured peers.” While a famous rockstar might not have it so bad, the article also stresses that the average musician is definitely not wealthy, getting their income from multiple, sometimes unreliable sources and may not be able to have a full-time job that provides insurance because they have to, you know, tour a lot. Read more about how the ACA can be crucial to keep your favorite struggling artists insured, including the stories of real Chicago musicians, here.
RIP Col. Bruce Hampton & Kevin Garcia

Bruce Hampton was considered the “grandaddy of the jam band scene,” regarded for his surrealist music and for mentoring many musicians. He collapsed onstage during a concert celebrating his own 70th birthday, on April 30th. Read his full obituary here.

Kevin Garcia was a founding member of the band Grandaddy, who died on Tuesday after suffering a stroke. The band has cancelled their upcoming tour for March’s Last Place, and wrote a heartfelt message about the bassist you can read here.

Other Highlights

Radiohead is finally releasing “Lift,” watch Michelle from Japanese Breakfast wield a blowtorch, Skipping stones + frozen lake = cool sounds, a new video from Paramore, Austin City Limits lineup announced, and PWR BTTM’s Pageant is now streaming.

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NEWS ROUNDUPFyre Festival Debacle, Grandaddy Cancels Tour and More