Fyre Festival wants a second chance. Hopefully this time it provides ... something
It was an event of a lifetime. Well, it was supposed to be an event of a lifetime. Guests of the 2017 Fyre Festival were promised luxuries such as a concert from Blink-182 and an opportunity to hang out with “It girl” Kendall Jenner. There was none of that.
What festivalgoers got were cheese sandwiches, disaster-relief tents and exactly zero appearances from A-list celebrities. They were scammed. (If you want an in-depth look at the infamous scam, check out the Netflix documentary “Fyre.”)
Fyre Festival organizer Billy McFarland was convicted of wire fraud and sentenced to six years in federal prison, per The Washington Post. Now, MacFarland is a free man seeking Fyre Festival redemption.
On Monday, McFarland announced through Instagram that Fyre Festival 2 tickets were dropping. He previously teased the music festival’s sequel earlier this year and officially put up 100 presale tickets on Aug. 21 for $499 apiece. Every ticket sold.
But fear not: If you fancy yourself a risk-taker and hope to give the Fyre Festival a second chance, there will be more opportunities to do so. Presale tickets will continue to drop, with the price increasing incrementally. The final round of tickets will cost $7,999 apiece.
The event still has no artists lined up to perform, no exact location and no official date. A tentative date has been set for Dec. 6, 2024, according to the festival’s official website, and all money be be kept in escrow until an official date is set.
“It has been the absolute wildest journey to get here,” McFarland — wearing a white bath robe and wireless headphones — said on Instagram. “And it really all started during the seventh month stint in solitary confinement.”
He went on to describe how he began drafting a plan to do the “impossible” and “execute Fyre’s vision to the highest level” and channel the “interest and demand in Fyre” into new projects such as a new Fyre documentary following the events after the failed festival and a Fyre Broadway musical. There will also be “pop-ups and events across the world” held up until the event.
“Since 2016 Fyre has been the most talked about festival in the world. We now saw this convert to one of the highest priced GA pre-sales in the industry,” he wrote on Tuesday on Instagram. “This time we have incredible support. I’ll be doing what I love while working with the best logistical and infrastructure partners.”
What happened at Fyre Festival?
In 2017, a 25-year-old Billy McFarland attracted thousands of guests to Fyre Festival, a “luxury” music festival which promised top-notch meals, performances from Blink-182, Migos and Major Lazer, as well as the opportunity to spend time with models and celebrities on a private island in the Bahamas.
Festivalgoers arrived to a lack of food, poor shelter and none of the entertainment they were promised.
Fyre Festival founder McFarland was sued in 2017 for a “get-rich-quick scam,” per The Washington Post.
“The festival’s lack of adequate food, water, shelter, and medical care created a dangerous and panicked situation among attendees — suddenly finding themselves stranded on a remote island without basic provisions — that was closer to ‘The Hunger Games’ or ‘Lord of the Flies’ than Coachella,” the lawsuit filing stated, per The Washington Post.
McFarland pleaded guilty to charges of wire fraud, bank fraud and making false statements to federal law enforcement, per CNN. He was convicted to six years in prison in 2018. Nearly four years into his sentence, McFarland was released.
“The remorse I feel is crushing,” McFarland said in New York federal court in 2018, according to Vice News. “I lived every day with the weight of knowing that I literally destroyed the lives of my friends and family.”
