It’s been days since the Fyre Festival fiasco gifted us with endless hours of quality entertainment, and the news is still pouring in about just how much of an epic fail Ja Rule’s “once-in-a-lifetime” event really was.

The big question is — how exactly did a disaster of this magnitude even happen? Just how bad did these guys have to be at their jobs to create such a catastrophically terrible failure of an event?

Remember When Australia Hosted Its Very Own Fyre Festival Disaster?

One thing’s for sure: Ja Rule and his friend and co-organiser Billy McFarland do not know the first thing about how to put on a music festival. If they had, there would’ve been contingency plans. You know, the usual stuff like food, transport, and accomodation that isn’t disaster relief tents.

We’re assuming Ja Rule and McFarland are planning to stick to their jobs from now on, which won’t be hard given they have now been banned from putting on any more events in the Bahamas and are facing a US$100 million class action lawsuit.

But in the wake of the cataclysmic nightmare that is Fyre, Music Junkee asked three Australian festival organisers – Mike Christidis from Beyond The Valley, Jess Krishnaswamy from FOMO Festival and Ignacio Garcia from Fiji destination festival Your Paradise – to shed light on how an event can fail so spectacularly.

Here are their key tips to planning a remote camping festival. Are you listening Ja Rule?

#1 Planning Is Everything

Mike Christidis, Beyond The Valley: “We begin our build a month before the event so it takes the entire month of December. If any problems arise where we cant execute the build as to our plans, there’s plenty of time to iron out issue and look at alternatives.

The fact that Fyre let people arrive to those conditions is gobsmacking, when they would’ve evidently realised they were underprepared weeks, if not even a few days out.”

#2 Location, Location, Location

Jess Krishnaswamy, FOMO Festival: “Finding and locking in a site is the number one most important thing you need to do. You need to weigh up so many factors. Going somewhere remote and developing a green field from scratch takes years (and a great deal of expense and planning to ensure everything is safe and well organised).

This [Fyre Festival] honestly looks like people who are not event producers trying to hold an event in a location that would be difficult for even the most experienced festival promoters!”

#3 If You Promise Glamping, There Better Be Glamping

Christidis: “Our worst nightmare is someone who has paid for a tent, who is depending on the festival for accommodation to arrive with nothing for them. I head up the glamping section for Beyond The Valley which is the largest collection of pop-up luxury tents in the Southern Hemisphere. We sell over 300 packages which accomodate over 1000 of our punters.

This ordeal alone, which is just one of the moving parts of the entire festival, begins on site set up two weeks prior to the event and has a dedicated team working intensely to ensure we have all the correct packages allocated.”

#4 Destination Festivals Are Incredibly Hard, And Expectations Must Be Met

Ignacio Garcia, Your Paradise: “When you operate an event in a remote tropical location you’re exposed to the elements and this is something organisers need to be aware of and ensure attendees expectations are set, clear communication is key.

Beyond nature, [Fyre] lacked the foresight to understand their limitations and simply didn’t meet deadlines. Practicality should always exceed ambition.”

#5 Building A Festival Requires Dedication, Transparency And Communication

Garcia: “Your Paradise has a dedicated, full-time, year-round team curating the experience for just 600 attendees. Our team just works knowing every aspect of the experience is considered including itineraries, flights, transfers, accommodation and entertainment.

When an issue arises, communication and transparency are above all, most people are understanding and appreciate when they see the effort.”