TikTok users are comparing Revolve Festival to Fyre Fest after some creators have spoken out about their experiences this weekend.
The most coveted party during Coachella weekend, Revolve Festival is often described as a more exclusive event for its star-studded guest list, iconic social media displays, and A-list musical acts.
Returning for its fifth year (after a two-year pandemic hiatus), this year’s Revolve Festival has a stacked musical lineup including Post Malone, Willow, Jack Harlow, and Latto. Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, and Cindy Kimberly have already made an appearance at this weekend’s event.
The backlash began earlier this week when some micro-creators received a last-minute “invite” via email. While invited celebrities and influencers usually have the option to bring a plus one and are often given a store credit to select a variety of styles from the retailer’s inventory to wear to the event, some micro-creators took to TikTok saying this wasn’t the case for them, including Maria of @mariicaballeroo who shared the alleged email “invite” she received from Revolve asking her to pay $2000 to secure her spot on the guest list.
Several micro-creators in the comments say they were sent the same email.
“When you get an email from REVOLVE inviting you to REVOLVE festival but they’re asking you to pay $2k instead of [bringing] a +1,” Maria wrote over a screenshot of the alleged email she received.
Though it seems the email Maria received was likely not an official invite to the Revolve Festival but rather email marketing prompting her to buy a ticket, many users still took issue with how Revolve framed their alleged “invite” to micro-creators.
“@Revolve it’s giving greedy,” one user commented on Maria’s video.
Another wrote, “Lmfao not them charging u to pay for the other influencers ??”
Criticism of the retailer has continued to snowball as the festival kicked off this weekend.
On Saturday, vlogger Averie Bishop posted a TikTok about her experience at Revolve Festival, calling the logistics of the event “chaos” and “dangerous”.
“The Revolve Festival is an invite-only party that’s going on the same weekend as Coachella. And the only way you can get to Revolve Festival is if you take their specific shuttles to [the festival] grounds,” she said. “I didn’t even get into the festival guys, I waited in line for two hours.”
Averie shared clips of the queue for the Saturday shuttle buses while her friend called Revolve Festival “Fyre Festival 2.0”.
“There was pushing, shoving, shouting, yanking, people in front of the buses, people standing in between the buses, like, while they were moving,” she continued. “Sorry Revolve, but I really hope you take into consideration everyone’s safety and security next year.”
Posted only seven hours ago at the time of writing, Averie’s video has racked up over 600K views and 80K likes.
Some commenters are comparing Averie’s experience to Fyre Fest and TanaCon while some are thanking her for sharing a realistic account of what happened.
“Honestly love to see realistic videos, tysm glad you are safe,” one user wrote, to which Averie responded, “And I’m like, why [are influencers] acting like they didn’t just wait for two hours and fought to get on a bus ??”
Others in the comments claim that Averie’s experience at Revolve Festival is common. “Isn’t this a repeat of what happened the last time they tried doing [Revolve Festival],” wrote @rosalyngambhir. “Influencers out here must be lying through their teeth,” Averie responded.
TikTokker @queenofgettingbanned was also invited to Revolve Festival and commented on Averie’s video saying she stayed “another couple hours after” Averie left and “still didn’t get on a bus. It was terrible”.
On what went wrong, Averie speculated in the comments that the brand “poured so much money” into sending invites to influencers rather than planning “the transportation logistics effectively”.
One influencer who is currently attending Revolve Festival and wishes to remain anonymous due to contractual obligations with the brand told Centennial Beauty her experience with the buses on the first day was fine. “They tell you to get there on time, these are all the people that came later on,” she said. “They also say once they reach capacity, they reach capacity, so I reckon that’s what happened and that’s why it was so slow.”
Following Averie’s video, others invited to Revolve Festival have taken to TikTok to share similar experiences, including commentary creator Hannah Kosh.
Hannah referenced tweets by entertainment journalist Joseph Kapsch who reported on the conditions (albeit, satirically), saying “it was all of that and more”.
“People were raiding the buses. The bus drivers refused to come back,” she said. “I saw three people pass out in line myself.”
While people have always used social media to share their experiences (remember the infamous Fyre Fest Twitter posts?), the rise of TikTok amidst the pandemic means feedback holds new weight when instant virality is attainable for the average poster.
Consumers expect more transparency and authenticity from companies they support, and influencer-focused brands like Revolve may begin to lose control of their own narrative as the world opens up.
Here’s hoping day two of Revolve Festival runs smoothly.