The Fyre Festival is making a comeback, despite previously going up in flames.
Now that he’s out of prison, convicted promoter Billy McFarland is planning Fyre Fest 2.0. He posted a video on YouTube Sunday saying the event will take place in 2024, and pre-sale tickets are now available.
“It all started during my seven-month stint in solitary confinement,” McFarland explained in the video. “I wrote out this 50-page plan of how I would take this overall interest in demand in Fyre and how it would take my ability to bring people from around the world together to make the impossible happen.”
He said he spoke to “people as far away as the Middle East and South America,” but instead decided to bring the festival back to the Caribbean.
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The event’s website says it’s schedule to take place on Dec. 6, 2024. Tickets are not cheap and cost up to $7,999.
McFarland and rapper Ja Rule co-founded the original 2017 festival, which was heavily promoted on social media by models Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski, and Hailey Baldwin.
The festival was touted as an ultra-exclusive music event on an island “once owned by Pablo Escobar.”
But anyone who saw the 2019 Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, knows the event was a disaster.
Instead of a luxury experience, attendees were left stranded, forced to sleep in tents, and fed cheese sandwiches after traveling to the Bahamas.
Following the chaotic gathering, McFarland and Ja Rule were hit with a $100 million class-action lawsuit from disappointed festival attendees.
In 2017, McFarland was arrested and charged with defrauding Fyre Festival investors and ticket vendors out of more than $26 million, prosecutors said.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in March 2018, and was sentenced to six years in federal prison. In a press release at the time, federal prosecutors said: “McFarland found out the hard way that empty promises don’t lead to jet-setting, champagne, and extravagant parties – they lead to federal prison.”
He served just under four years and was released in May 2022. Ja Rule managed to avoid jail time.
But apparently memories about the ill-fated festival have faded, because McFarland claimed Tuesday on Twitter/X that tickets for the new festival are on fire.
“The first FYRE Festival II drop has sold out,” he wrote.
“This time we have incredible support. I’ll be doing what I love while working with the best logistical and infrastructure partners. In addition, all ticket sale revenue will be held in escrow until the final date is announced,” McFarland added in the post. “We look forward to surprising the world alongside our partners as we build FYRE and FYRE Festival II into the island adventure of a lifetime.”
Buyers beware because McFarland’s Wikipedia page lists his profession as “American con artist.”
If you need a recap on how the previous festival unraveled, here’s an exposé from Business Insider.
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