Influencers are criticising clothing retailer Revolve and comparing its latest event to the infamous failed Fyre Festival after transportation issues plagued the annual Revolve Festival and reportedly left attendees waiting for hours in the sun.
Over the weekend, Revolve held its annual Revolve Festival during the first weekend of Coachella, with the event bringing popular influencers and celebrities such as Kendall Jenner to the desert party.
However, unlike years previously, this year’s exclusive event encountered a number of issues from the start, with numerous influencers taking to TikTok to document the obstacles facing guests.
According to those invited to the event, and videos shared to the platform, attendees were only allowed to attend the California Revolve Festival via the retailer’s arranged transportation. However, the event appeared to struggle to accommodate the number of guests invited, with multiple videos showing crowds of people waiting in the desert sun, and then fighting to get on one of the Revolve coach buses.
“Revolve Festival: absolute chaos,” influencer Averie Bishop said in a TikTok posted on Sunday, before showing clips of the crowds of people attempting to gain entry onto the Coach bus. “So the Revolve Festival is an invite-only party going on the same weekend of Coachella, and the only way you can get to Revolve Festival is if you take their specific shuttles to their grounds.”
Bishop then revealed that she “didn’t even get into the festival,” despite waiting in line for two hours. In a clip taken in the parking lot where attendees appeared to be gathered, Bishop explained that she and a friend were “bailing on Revolve because of the transportation…”
Her friend interjected: “It was Fyre Festival 2.0.”
“The logistics of getting to the festival were dangerous,” Bishop continued, with the influencer adding in her TikTok that there was “pushing, shoving, shouting, yanking people in front of the buses”. “Just to get on these buses and get to the Revolve Festival. Big yikes,” she continued. “Sorry Revolve, but I really hope you take into consideration everyone’s safety and security next year.”
In the comments, Bishop’s followers praised her for the honest and transparent review of her experience.
“Yess I literally love you for this. Hold them accountable!” one person commented, while another said: “It’s the way these other influencers are making it seem all peachy and fine.”
In another video uploaded by Madison Crowley, she captured the large crowd of waiting attendees, as well as the rush to the shuttles when two buses pulled up.
“Revolve x Fyre Festival,” Crowley wrote in the text caption on the video.
In a TikTok uploaded by Taylor Langius, he also shared footage of the waiting crowd, adding that “everyone waited for the shuttle that was never coming” and that “people never made it to the event”.
According to Los Angeles Magazine journalist Joseph Kapsch, the transportation issue left influencers “stranded in the dirt with no water” under the “hot sun for HOURS”.
“‘Alleged fights, screaming, everyone is dizzy.’ @LAMag told that police are coming. AND in an Only in LA Moment: Coachella Edition: Security had crowds of influencers yelling how ‘important they were and why they deserved the first seat,’” Kapsch wrote in another tweet.
In a follow-up tweet, Kapsch said that Los Angeles Magazine had spoken to “security on the ground” and that one of the guards said: “‘I don’t know who is actually important and who is lying, or if any of them are important.’”
The criticism over the festival from influencers has prompted others who tried to attend to share their own experiences with one person commenting on TikTok: “Waited two hours in line and left because it was literally influencer Hunger Games to get on a shuttle.”
Others shared additional comparisons to Fyre Festival. “Why did Revolve invite so many freaking people?” another person asked, while someone else said: “It’s giving Fyre Festival.”
The Independent has contacted Revolve for comment.
