SEA Games in Rodrigo Duterte’s Philippines likened to Fyre Festival after series of complaints
- Long waits, poor organisation and incomplete facilities at the competition have garnered complaints and a flurry of coverage
- While social media users liken the games to the failed Bahamian festival, politicians are more concerned with a bout of finger-pointing over who is responsible
A half-painted stadium with few working toilets and a “media centre” resembling a barely lit warehouse; bad roads leading to unfinished venues; teams waiting hours for transport and then being forced to sleep on hotel floors.
This unpreparedness is on display in everything from crudely written signs to poorly organised accommodation and strained logistics. One Filipino reporter covering the games, speaking on condition of anonymity, said from what he had gathered so far this is “the worst games – before this it was the [2017 edition] in Malaysia”.
When the first qualifying football match was held in Manila’s Rizal Memorial Stadium, there was no scoreboard and most of the audience had to make do with outdoor chemical toilets. Restoration work on the historic arena was not yet finished, although one part that had been completed was bizarre – a single cubicle in the women’s bathroom had two toilet bowls side by side.
Mishaps such as this have not gone unnoticed on social media, with many Filipinos comparing the games to the 2017 Fyre Festival in the Bahamas, which was slammed for defrauding ticket buyers who were promised a luxury experience. There’s even a Twitter hashtag: #SEAGames2019fail.
The logistics have been made more complicated by the Philippines’ decision to decentralise the games, distributing the 56 competitions among 23 cities.