Fyre Fest fraudster says sequel has a date, location — and a $1.1M ticket package
Fyre Festival is set to return for round two next spring, this time on a privately owned island off Mexico.
The infamous Fyre Fest in 2017 fell so far short of its promises that its name has become a cultural shorthand for an epic disaster — but its founder, Billy McFarland, thinks he can pull off another try.
McFarland said in an interview that the first time around, he was a 24-year-old trying to pull together a festival with a few of his friends. Now, he insists he’s going about it professionally.
“We have the chance to embrace this storm and really steer our ship into all the chaos that has happened, and if it’s done well, I think Fyre has a chance to be this annual festival that really takes over the festival industry,” said McFarland, now 32.
McFarland said he hopes to gather 3,000 people for Fyre Fest II, scheduled for April 25-28. Ticket prices will range from $1,400 on the low end to $1.1 million for the most expensive festival package (which he said would include luxury yachts, scuba diving and island hopping).
McFarland claimed he has hired a festival production company to “handle the stages and the bathrooms and all the stuff that I clearly don’t know how to do.” He declined to name the island or the production company, saying more details will be revealed in the next few months. He added that the festival has not yet booked its artists.
Whereas he gave himself only six months from the idea for the first Fyre Fest to its attempted execution, McFarland said, he has spent a full year working on Fyre Fest II, with more than seven months to go.
“It’s not about 10,000 people staring at a stage with their hands in the air,” he said. “It’s about getting on a plane with six people — two might be your friends, three might be people you met that morning — and going and exploring an island or a beach or a reef that you didn’t even know existed until you got in the airplane.”
It’s an ambitious endeavor for a world-renowned fraudster.
The first iteration of Fyre Fest promised ticket buyers luxury villas and gourmet food at what was supposed to be an extravagant music festival in the Bahamas. Instead, attendees were met with disaster relief tents, cheese sandwiches in plastic foam boxes and no concert.
The festival had been promoted by the likes of Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski, among other celebrities and influencers. Upon arrival, however, hundreds of people circulated viral social media posts of their botched experiences, inspiring multiple documentaries and podcasts about the failed event.
“I was totally guilty. I committed a crime. Obviously went to prison, and I deserved that prison sentence,” McFarland said. “But it wasn’t until the day after the festival was canceled and I had one of my early investors call me and basically say, ‘We need to do this, this and this, or else you’re going to be in the front page of The Wall Street Journal in handcuffs.’”
That was the call that made him realize he had violated federal law, he said, describing it as a “heart-skipping moment where it’s like, wow, I knew what I was doing was morally wrong.”
It was a fiasco that got McFarland sentenced to six years in prison on fraud charges. Released in 2022 after having served four years, he was quick to announce plans for a second Fyre Fest even as he continues to chip away at $26 million in restitution he owes for the fraudulent event.
In August 2023, the first drop of 100 presale tickets for Fyre Fest II (at $499 apiece) sold out within a day, even though its website at the time offered no lineup, no specific location and no details about accommodations.
He said he believes much of the initial interest is credited to Fyre Fest’s notoriety, even if (or, possibly, because) it generates expectations for another catastrophic failure.
“I think there’s a large number of people who want to go to Fyre II because they’re unsure of the outcome, and they would like to have a front-row seat no matter what happens,” McFarland said. “Thankfully, we have good partners who will make sure they’re safe and obviously make sure things work out.”
He emphasized that the festival’s island actually has the physical hotels and villas this time.
“We will have cheese sandwiches, though,” he joked. “They’re going to be super expensive, too. We’re going to make them, like, really good. Like, that’ll be the highest-priced food item, I think.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
