The Winter Version of Fyre Festival Just Happened in China

Chinese festival-goers were extremely disappointed with their experience at a recent event, leaving some to refer to it as the “Winter Fyre Festival.”

The Chengdu Snow Village project in Sichuan advertised a winter wonderland for visiting guests to celebrate the Lunar New Year last month. Photos of the event featured snow-covered cabins and thick drifts of frosty fun.

However, upon arriving, guests discovered no real snow. Instead, the village used bedsheets, white sand, soapy foam, and cotton balls to attempt to replicate a snowy paradise.

The cotton and sand were scattered across fields and attached to bushes, while sheets were stapled to the cabin roofs.

“I feel cheated. I think my intelligence has been insulted!” said one offended visitor in a social media clip.

After the fake wonderland went viral, the Chengdu Culture and Tourism Bureau launched an investigation into the project. The village later apologized and offered refunds to guests, according to Reuters.

some compared Fake Winter Wonderland to the infamous Fyre Festival

“In order to create a ‘snowy’ atmosphere, the tourist village purchased cotton for the snow … but it did not achieve the expected effect, leaving a very bad impression on tourists who came to visit,” they shared on their official WeChat account.

“Following the precedents of previous years, we typically have snow in winter. So we set up this spot for a photo shoot in advance to wait for the snow to come,” a Snow Village staff member told the state-run paper Global Times. “However, this year, the weather didn’t cooperate, and it didn’t snow.”

China’s weather bureau has confirmed the weather concerns. They noted that the southwestern province—along with the rest of the country—is facing more extreme heat waves and more frequent and unpredictable heavy rain as a result of climate change.

In fact, since the beginning of the year, temperatures in Chengdu have not dipped below freezing once.