Disaster Stories
Updated 15 June 2018
You guys, I love disaster stories*. I know it means I’m a bad person, but I just can’t help it. There are specific types I like, though, and here they are:
Con disasters
Company disasters
- Amy’s Baking Company
- Chef feeding non-vegan food to vegans
- #ButtholeGate
- Blockbuster! (Not sure this really counts, but it’s funny as hell.)
- Really the best/worst corporate collapse story I can think of revolves around Enron. Watch the movie or read The Smartest Guys in the Room for some epic corporate shenanigans.
Music festivals
- Fyre festival shenanigans: Vanity Fair, Vulture, and Spin, among others. Fyre festival shenanigans update!
- The Gathering: Digital Music News and Dancing Astronaut.
- Pemberton Music Festival: Digital Music News and New York Times.
- The Newport Contemporary Music Series: The Boston Globe.
- Rolling Stone piece on famous music festival fails.
- The Guardian piece on 2017 music festival failures.
- Not a festival, but a huge band fraud: Threatin.
Other disasters
- Libertarian Governance in Texas.
- Requires Hate part 1.
- Requires Hate part 2.
- Ooops, our boat sank, and we had no insurance.
- Apparently Fifty Shades Freed is not a great movie? Shocker.
- Stupid HOA garage hi jinks, part 1 and part 2.
- And, in case you were wondering: The difference between a snafu, a shitshow, and a clusterfuck.
Cockygate
- Jenny Trout’s discussion of this stunning disaster.
- Kayleigh Donaldson’s take on Pajiba.
- Foiled!
Because there’s never been a cringefest I could walk away from, and because I’ve got some friends here and on FB who’ve been blocked by #ByeFaleena and can’t see her video, I’m gonna grab some coffee, watch, and live tweet. I am unsettled.
— 🏳️🌈Jenny “suck this cocky” Trout (@Jenny_Trout) May 8, 2018
This list is just getting started–send me good examples if you find them!
*Also, let me clarify that I don’t in any way like when bad stuff happens to good people, which is clearly a part of what’s in these stories (like the ones involving harassment, or even just people paying for something they didn’t receive), but the stories are still compelling–and it’s essential to know what can happen in order to avoid some of these negative consequences. I also enjoy me some justice/comeuppance, when it’s on offer!
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