It looks like Billy McFarland, the mastermind behind the Fyre Festival fiasco, is running it back. After pulling off a multi-million dollar scam and ruining countless lives, you’d think this 31-year-old con artist would switch to a new career path. But no, he’s not letting a little criminal record stand in the way of a good party. Now, either McFarland has learned from his mistakes and is honestly attempting to make things right, or he’s just desperately trying to pay off his mountain of debt by milking the most accessible cash cow out there.
Regardless of the potential risks and concerns, we can’t help but admit that the idea sounds thrilling, and we shamefully find ourselves wanting tickets.
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“Fyre Festival II is finally happening,” McFarland tweeted over the Easter break. To stir up engagement for his upcoming shindig, he also asked his followers to give him a reason why they should be invited. Easy answer Billy: those soggy cheese sandwiches looked delicious! However, the tweet has amassed over 1.7 million views and based on the reaction in the comments, we suspect he’d have no issue finding people looking to witness round 2.
Only last March, the 31-year-old got a lucky break and was let out of the slammer early, cutting short his six-year sentence. This came after he fessed up to pulling a fast one on over 100 investors in the infamous 2017 festival, resulting in a forfeiture order of a whopping USD$26 million.
For those needing a refresher, Billy and his buddy Ja Rule tried to pull off a luxury music festival on Pablo Escobar’s old private Bahamas beach in 2017. He managed to sell over 5,000 tickets for what he promised would be two weekends of non-stop partying with A-list musical acts and eco-friendly accommodations. What he failed to deliver, however, was adequate food, water, shelter, or actual artists.
To make matters worse, McFarland recruited influencers like Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber to promote the event (see above), leading thousands of naive fans to reportedly shell out up to USD$75,000 for tickets. When attendees arrived at the “venue” in the Bahamas, they found themselves stranded on a deserted island with no music and barely any supplies. It’s safe to say that the only thing luxury about this festival was the price tag.
After photos and videos of the disastrous event went viral on social media, Netflix and Hulu both released documentaries chronicling the epic fail. Perhaps the worst all was seeing how the poor Bahamian locals were taken advantage of. These hardworking individuals were conned into building and catering for Billy McFarland’s failed festival, but they were never paid for their efforts. Luckily after the documentaries exposing the scam were released, some kind-hearted souls took to GoFundMe to raise some much-needed cash for the locals (per Business Insider).
The Now-Iconic Photo of the Fyre Festival ‘Sandwich’ | Image: Twitter/ @trevordehaas
While we don’t have any more information on Fyre Festival II, MacFarland has recently been on the interview circuit discussing his ambitions in the tech world. Last N, November on the Nelk Boys Full Send Podcast, he announced his first post-prison startup called PYRT. What is PYRT, you ask? Well, we’re not really sure. It’s some kind of influencer metaverse/travelling hybrid thingy. Honestly, it sounds like the kind of idea you come up with after a few too many drinks.
But wait, it gets better. During the interview, McFarland even hinted at the possibility of a “PYRT fest”. Because clearly, his first attempt at event planning went so well. “So I have to do a PYRT fest, right? It can’t be tomorrow, it can’t be in four months, but there’s going to be PYRT fest,” McFarland confidently declared to the podcast hosts.
Good luck, Billy. We’ll be watching (and waiting for tickets). Everyone deserves a second chance, right?
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