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Hope Watermelon Festival Treasure Hunt Raises $6,650 For Clinton Primary Angel Tree

By Mark Keith, 12/26/23 7:06 PM

The annual Hope Watermelon Festival Treasure Hunt is big fun for those who hunt the treasure…but the funds raised go to a very good cause. We'll share the remarks posted by the Treasure Hunt's organizer, John T. Miller…

I would like to take a moment to share what has happened this year.

I have learned to not think to hard about exactly how I think things will go with the treasure hunt each year and just say a prayer that the good Lord will bless the effort and good will of the people around Hope that make it possible.

With a goal of $4000 that could be donated to the Clinton Primary Angel Tree, I never know exactly how it will go.

After about 3 days of calling and seeing people it was obvious it was going to be a great year.

After giving away $1000 to the one that found the treasure, on behalf of the sponsors and the treasure hunters in Hop , I was able to deliver a check for $6,650 to the school.

I was able to take a few pictures this year of exactly what was going on in preparation for Christmas and hear the stories of the people and kids involved.

I would once again like to thank the sponsors and the hunters for allowing me the opportunity to have the feeling of being apart of something I not only believe in to be a positive part of this community but seen in action with my own eyes.

Proud.

Proud of this community for supporting the hunt.

Proud of the sponsors that without it would not be possible.

Proud of the teachers that take hours of their time to buy ,wrap, and in some cases deliver the gifts.

I hope that each of you feel even a small amount of what I feel because you should.

As a hunter, sponsor, or teacher, it take us all to make this happen.

Thank you so much , the words seen so small compared to how I feel but I hope you take them to heart.

I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed and happy New Year.

I wish God's blessings on you all.

John T Miller

Fyre Festival: Inside The World's Biggest Festival Flop

By Michael BaggsNewsbeat reporter

Fyre Festival was the most talked about festival experience of 2017, but not because anyone had any fun there.

Advertised by famous faces including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Hailey Baldwin, it was billed as a glamorous party on a deserted island.

Tickets cost up to $100,000 (£75,000) and guests who booked were promised luxury accommodation and "the best in food, art, music and adventure" in the Bahamas.

Instead they turned up to mattresses on rain-soaked floors, meals of cheese slices on bread and their luggage thrown into a unlit car park.

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Fyre Festival is now the subject of two new documentaries, one of which premieres on Netflix on Friday.

Seth Crossno, a blogger and podcaster, and his three friends spent $45,000 (£34,785) on tickets, travel and luxury accommodation.

But when they turned up they found it was still practically a building site.

"There were still workers, pick-up trucks and 18-wheelers everywhere," he tells Radio 1 Newsbeat.

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"I tweeted out a picture of a planning notebook we found on the ground and it's hysterical.

"There's a list of things the organisers wanted to order and it's things like 6,000 Skittles sweets and 9,000 glow-lollipops. Did anyone think about planning the actual festival?"

Seth, who blogs under the name William Needham Finley IV, live-tweeted his experience and his videos have now had millions of views.

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The Netflix documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, focuses on the disastrous build-up to the event - which was organised by businessman Billy McFarland.

A rival doc was released earlier this week on US streaming service Hulu.

While Fyre was promoted as an exclusive party for wealthy Instagram influencers, Seth says there were more ordinary people at the event than Insta-famous models.

"Everyone watching assumed everyone there was an influencer who was wealthy, who had been flown down and was expecting this life of luxury but was being slapped in the face with reality," says Seth.

The most famous image from Fyre Festival was of a bad cheese sandwich reportedly served to guests

"Some people I talked to had spent $500 (£386) on their tickets and it was their spring break from college. They thought it just looked like a cool trip.

"Watching on Twitter you think all of these influencers are getting a taste of the real world here.

"I think it's just human nature to see people who are in that situation and laugh or get some sort of pleasure from seeing somebody taken down a notch.

"But there's so much more to the story than rich kids of Instagram meets Lord of the Flies."

Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner both promoted Fyre Festival before its launch

While the chaos of the festival was mostly told on Twitter, the Netflix documentary focuses on what went on behind the scenes on the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas.

"The organisers had six to eight weeks to pull off something that should have taken close to a year," says Chris Smith, who directed the documentary.

"But what was most surprising to me was going to the Bahamas and seeing the aftermath of what was left behind and the effect on the people there."

Fyre Festival wasn't just a miserable experience for the people who paid to party, it also had a major impact on the local people of the island who helped organisers build the festival.

"They had engaged with so much of the local community to try and pull this off. There were hundreds of day labourers working," says Chris.

"Fyre had such a high profile that I don't think anyone could have assumed that it wouldn't work out."

Billy McFarland is currently serving a six-year jail term for fraud

One restaurant owner in the documentary admits she stumped up $50,000 (£38,500) of her life-savings catering for Fyre Festival in the build up to the event.

"She put in a huge part of her savings to try and live up to the obligations she had made to them," says Chris.

"In the end, when things fell apart everyone just left. She was left having to deal with this.

"Nobody went back to deal with that and that people moved on and came back to living their lives in New York and didn't own up to the responsibility of their actions."

Organiser Billy McFarland failed to pay workers on the island for their time or resources.

Excitement on Great Exuma was short lived once festival goers arrived at the Fyre site

He's the one man missing from the documentary - Chris says he refused to be interviewed unless he was paid for his time.

"We just didn't feel comfortable with him benefitting after so many people had been hurt based on what he had done," he adds.

Following Fyre's collapse, Billy was convicted of fraud and jailed for six years in October last year.

Rapper Ja Rule was originally described as a co-organiser of the event - but was not arrested or charged in connection with the fraud. His lawyers have argued that McFarland used his name and connections to promote the event.

"Six years doesn't seem to fit with what he did and the impact he had on everyone else," says Seth.

He successfully sued Billy for $2.5m (£1.9m) - but expects to wait up to 20 years to get his money back as the fraudster must pay back $27m (£20m) to investors before settling other debts.

"I'm not in a position to say he should spend 20 years in prison but six years doesn't seem like a lot.

"I don't think we've heard the last of Billy - at all."

Ja Rule's lawyers argued that McFarland used his name and connections to promote the event

Seth hopes money gets to the people on Great Exuma first, and believes attention from the new documentaries could be what helps get them repaid.

"Hopefully we can work on getting the people in the Bahamas paid back too," he adds.

"With people like Netflix involved and these influencers, there's no reason why some money can't be raised to make it right for those people."

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Huge N.J. Balloon Festival Canceled For 2024

The beloved New Jersey Lottery Festival of Ballooning will not take place in 2024, the event's organizers said Friday.

The three-day event — which sends hot air balloons soaring over Solberg Airport in Readington — is a staple of New Jersey's event calendar each summer. Last year, it drew 155,000 visitors to Hunterdon County and featured live bands, food vendors, a night-time drone show and interactive exhibits.

"After months of difficult soul searching following this past year's festival, the event's organizers — The Festival Group — have made the extremely difficult decision to place it on a one-year hiatus in order to reimagine, refresh and relaunch the next version of this great festival in 2025," the organizers said in a statement.

Howard Freeman, executive producer of The Festival Group, cited post-pandemic economic conditions as the primary cause for the hiatus. Since 2020, the festival has experienced enormous increases in operational costs from inflation and supply chain disruptions. It has also had increased fees for musical talent.

The increased costs are happening across the festival industry, Freeman said.

"In order to properly address these challenges, we have made the difficult decision to take a one-year hiatus to reimagine and relaunch the festival in 2025," Freeman said in the news release.

The Festival of Ballooning celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2023, and Freeman has run the festival since he purchased it in the fall of 1992.

Freeman said next year's festival is canceled partly because organizers didn't want to pass increased costs on to the public. Daily general admission tickets this year cost $32 for adults and $12 for kids ages 4-12.

The New Jersey Lottery has been the lead sponsored of the event since before the pandemic, organizers said. The Festival Group will spend the next year looking for additional investors and partnerships to join the New Jersey Lottery in helping bring the festival back in 2025.

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Matthew Enuco may be reached at Menuco@njadvancemedia.Com. Follow Matt on X

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