Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland is back with Fyre 2, a sequel to the disastrously scammy 2017 music festival that landed him in prison for six years for fraud (he served four, released early for good behavior) after federal prosecutors labeled him “the consummate con artist.”
So, yes, let’s do it again! Tickets, which are on sale as of Monday, February 24, range in price from $1,400 to $1.1 million. And, as a redirect page that shows up when you search for tickets reassuringly insists, “Fyre Festival 2 is real.” Real! Just like Fyre Original Recipe partner Ja Rule. (Ja Rule has not been publicly named as a collaborator this time around.)
During an interview with Today, which aired Monday, McFarland insisted that “Fyre 2 really isn’t about the past and it isn’t about me, it’s about taking the vision, which is strong.”
So, who’s going to be there? Unclear! McFarland sidestepped questions about whether any artists have actually been booked for the event. He pointedly stated that he isn’t in charge of booking and that he “hopes” the talent will be A-list. Not only does McFarland apparently not know what talent will be there, he doesn’t even know if the terms of his release from prison will allow him to travel internationally to Isla Mujeres, Mexico, where the event is slated to take place from May 30 to June 2.
In 2023, NPR reported that the terms of McFarland’s release from prison had him under supervised release for three years, with regular check-ins with a probation officer and permission required if he wanted to travel beyond southern New York. From March 2022, however, those three years would be up approximately now-ish. There’s hope for McFarland to light the Fyre yet, despite his worry in the interview that he’d be sadly watching from home via livestream.
“It’s not just music,” he said of his plan for a hand-wavy luxury experience, where he promised that buyers of the $1.1 million “Prometheus Pass” would stay on a private luxury yacht and get up close and personal with that unnamed talent. “We might have a professional skateboarder do a demonstration. We might have an MMA champion teach you techniques in the morning.”
Though there are more than a few red flags even beyond McFarland’s undeniably terrible track record (eating dry cheese sandwiches and sleeping in a FEMA pop-up tent does not a luxury experience make, as original Fyre Fest attendees would attest), he talked a big game.
“We are selling the experience of Fyre,” McFarland insisted. “I want to be one of the first festivals that can sell out with no artists.”
Want. It’s good to want. It’s important to dream.
Though he acknowledged that “there is a risk component to it” for ticket-buyers, this time around McFarland has partnered with a production company and a ticketing company for Fyre 2: Electric Boogaloo.
“It’s 2,000 people taking the risk, seeking the adventure, and wanting to be there for the moment,” he said of prospective attendees.
In a 2022 interview with Vanity Fair, McFarland said that he was totally above board with future ventures (he was pitching an app allowing access to celebrity experiences at the time). “I know that I’m going to try really hard and just do it the right way,” he said. “If I lie to anybody again, I go to jail for a very, very long time.”
In Monday’s interview, McFarland said that he hasn’t seen either of the two documentaries that have been released about the Great Fyre Flop, and he still owes $26 million in restitution for Fyre Festival. Ten percent of the profits from Fyre 2 will go toward that, with a minimum of $500,000.
“My dream is finally becoming a reality,” McFarland told Today.
In a statement released on his X (formerly Twitter) Monday, McFarland celebrated the opening of ticket sales, telling hopeful attendees to expect “boundary-pushing excursions by day” and “intimate beach-side performances by night.” The festival takes place over four calendar days, but is billed in that statement as “a three-day escape to the Mexican Caribbean.”
As for what that fourth day will be? That’s anyone’s guess.
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