Embed from Getty Images
One of the biggest pop culture stories in 2017 was the absolute disaster that was the Fyre Festival. You know, the so-called exclusive music festival that basically tricked a bunch of rich millennials out of their money by promising them an elite experience with fancy meals, luxury hotels, and big musical acts, only to end up being muddy FEMA tents, cheese sandwiches, and zero A-listers? There were two documentaries about it and FF founder Billy McFarland went to jail for both fraud and wire fraud charges in 2018. He was released in May 2022 after serving four years of his six-year sentence. Prison did not teach Billy anything, though, because he’s bringing it back.
Last summer, Billy started teasing Fyre Fest II, claiming that the first 100 tickets to the event had already sold out at $500 each. Now, we have official confirmation that a Fyre Fest sequel is a thing. On Monday, Billy appeared on NBC News to reveal that it’s going down on April 25-28, 2025 on an unnamed “private island” in the Caribbean, off the coast of Mexico. No talent has been booked yet, but a production company is handling everything. And get this – tickets will cost between $1,400 to $1.1 million. Here we go again!
It’s on, baby: “Fyre Festival II is happening April 25, 2025, so we’re seven and a half months away,” he said. “We have a private island off the coast of Mexico in the Caribbean, and we have an incredible production company who’s handling everything from soup to nuts.”
We’re light on the specifics here: He said the festival will run for three days until April 28, 2025. He couldn’t confirm the name of the island just yet, but said the plan is to lean on existing infrastructure for lodging, eateries and restrooms. The aforementioned production company, the name of which he didn’t indicate, will handle logistics. He added, “But we are developing and building out the private island for the actual festival festivities.”
Music…and karate combat: “We haven’t booked any talent for Fyre II,” he said. “It’s not going to be just music — for example, karate combat. We’re in talks with them to set up a pit to have, like, live fights at Fyre Festival II.”
He’s gonna steer that ship right into the chaos: “Since 2016 Fyre has been the most talked about music festival in the world,” he said. “Obviously, a lot of that has been negative, but I think that most people, once they kind of get under the hood and study the plans and see the team behind Fyre II, they see the upside. 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.”
Ah yes, the money: It won’t be cheap to go to Fyre Festival II, either. McFarland said he already sold 100 tickets for $500 a piece, and other packages will soon go on sale ranging from $1,400 to $1.1 million.”
And for your $1.1 mil, you can expect: “You will be on a boat, have the luxury yachts that we partner with who will be docked and parked outside the island,” he said. “But once again, Fyre is not just about this, like, luxury experience. It’s about the adventure. So you’ll be scuba diving with me. You’ll be bouncing around to other islands and other countries on small planes.”
Finding ways to make it up to the people who were hurt before: “It’s hard because this is the deeper issue, where there are people who were legitimately hurt and let down from Fyre I, whether that was an employee and a family of a member of an employee, a ticket holder,” he said. “So there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to repay those people. I don’t think it’s practical. I don’t actually think it’s right to try to do all that in the first year. I think that would lead to short term decisions. So we were trying to find small ways to give back to everybody that was hurt along the way.”
The cheese sandwiches will return: Although he is looking to revamp the festival and the brand this time, one thing will remain: the cheese sandwiches. The meal in the styrofoam box that went viral in 2017 will get a twist for Fyre Festival II. “We will have cheese sandwiches,” he said. “They’re going to be super expensive, too. We’re going to make them, like, really good. That’ll be, like, the highest priced food item, I think.”
Clearly, like any good fraudster, Billy recognizes that there’s still money to be milked out of people who have too much of it. Luxury yachts, small planes, and scuba diving with a convicted felon? Sounds like a real “adventure” to me! In a world in which a con artist like Anna Delvy can leave house arrest to appear on Dancing with the Stars while wearing an ICE-manded ankle monitor, I suppose it should not be surprising that there are people out there who are willing to invest money into or buy tickets to attend a second attempt at a fake music festival.
Let’s be honest, here. The people who are shelling out four to six figures to attend Fyre Fest II are influencers or wannabe influencers who are hoping to make money or gain notoriety from the content they’ll create. They want to be scammed. They want to drop $100 on a f-cking cheese sandwich.
Do people really want to go scuba diving with this guy that badly? Whoever falls for it this time around deserves whatever they get (or don’t get).
He didn’t even have Fyre Festival One. I feel another scam coming. I guess he misses jail. The fact that he’s standing there with the world’s number one grifter, (Trumo) should tell people everything they need to know.
I wonder if TFG feels Billy encroaching on his corner a bit – those gullible people should be buying trading cards and pieces of his suit, not concert tickets!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
I want to believe that the people who pay for this only do so for the content and notoriety. If I were a young influencer with money to burn, I’d probably go. As a middle aged mom of two, I’d never go anywhere near this. I saw the doc on netflix. This idiot would put a crowd of people into fire hazardous, infested or toxic circumstances without a second thought
But will there be swimming pigs?
Anyone who shells out one penny for this BS deserves to be ripped off at this point. There is absolutely no reason to trust this lying loser.
The two Fyre documentaries were some of my favorite watches (and rewatches) when they were released. The sheer idiocy of McFarlane and Ja Rule was crazy.
I wish I could laugh. But I remember from the documentaries that island restaurant that he hired to provide meals that went bankrupt and the business owners who were lied to about to number of people. The employees at the festival, putting up tents, passing out food and blankets. Interns in the office making frantic phone calls, trying to figure out how to get help and supplies to the festival site. And he had disappeared. None of those people ever got paid. But they dealt with the fall out, not him, because he was long gone. He’s a terrible person. I really hope this is all just made up in his head this time.
I watched that Netflix film in absolute horror. The accommodations were tents. Tents that anyone could access. I am frankly surprised there weren’t numerous sexual assaults. I felt complete panic watching that. What they did to those local businesses was unforgivable.
Can we keep him in prison for a little while longer this time around ? Also maybe the people getting scammed by that guy after such a spectacular failure deserve to get scammed.
This gave me a great big LOL this morning. Thank.
The fact the media is entertaining this con artist (AGAIN) brings legitimacy to the ‘event’. So shame on them for giving him airtime.
This wasn’t some laugh at some wanna be influencers and rich kids out a few bucks. He hurt the local businesspeople who thought they would get paid. And he stiffed them all.
Honestly, this is just gross. He will do it again.
This effin’ guy…
I think the thing that pisses me off the most about him is that to make Fyre (and now Fyre II) happen at all, he needed buy in from people who should have known better. But because he’s a white guy, he wasn’t asked to supply anything other than the idea before they gave him the green light.
You know — YOU KNOW — that if a woman or a POC tried to pitch something like this, they would have had to come to the pitch meeting with very solid and baked strategy docs, financials, a business plan, logistical plans, market research, cost analysis, etc and even THEN it would have been up in the air whether anyone would give them money for it.
This dude just kind of skids into a boardroom on a jet ski loaded up with IG models and they throw money at him.
GRRRRRR…
Quick reminder that FF1 did a lot of damage to the locals who were contracted to provide services and were not paid. Its not all laughs.
Also, Billy learned nothing because he has a personality disorder. He will be this person until the day he dies.
A fool and their money?
This sounds like the plot outline for a dystopian movie about rich people in 2060.
Anyone buying a ticket deserves to be scammed at this point, I just hope the local businesses and suppliers stay well away.
Reminds me of Anna Delvey’s fundraiser while she was incarcerated. The company you keep shows who you are.