Convicted fraudster Billy McFarland has claimed that the first batch of tickets for his second attempt at the disastrous Fyre Festival have sold out.
It took a day for the hundred $499 tickets – the cheapest price point – to sell out on the website for the revamped event set to take place on December 6, 2024.
In typical McFarland fashion, the details are fuzzy. The event’s website doesn’t list a lineup, and details are sketchy as to where the event will actually be held, listed simply as the “Caribbean Sea.”
Even the proposed date of December 6, 2024 is “subject to change,” according to the event’s website.
McFarland was convicted of fraud in 2018 after selling 8,000 tickets – priced between €1,000 – €12,000 – for the originally failed Fyre Festival. It was canceled on opening day, leaving people stranded on the island without much of a basic amnesty.
Billy McFarland was jailed in 2018 after being convicted of fraud
The disgraced promoter is now trying to make a comeback
He was sentenced to six years in prison for the failed Fyre Festival
The gourmet meal packages offered to the festival’s guests, many of whom paid more than $1,000 for the retreat, were served barely reasonable food in the school cafeteria
Luxurious accommodations turned out to be tents that looked like bomb shelters and could barely withstand the bad weather that plagued the guests
A year later, McFarland pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud and was sentenced to six years in prison, in addition to being ordered to repay approximately $26 million to his investors.
He was also banned from ever serving as an officer or director of a publicly traded company after he misled investors by altering a share ownership statement to increase the number of shares he supposedly owned in a publicly traded company to make it appear that he personally guarantee the investment. .
McFarland was released in March 2022. It took him just over a year to announce Fyre Festival II.
Tickets to the event will be issued to daring revelers with different levels listed as ‘coming soon’. The next starting point starts at $799 and reaches a whopping $7,999 in the final release.
McFarland’s attempts to turn Fyre Festival into a success story follow the scandal that erupted after his first attempt in 2017.
Ticket holders, who thought they were heading to a “luxury music festival” on Pablo Escobar’s former private island, were actually lured into a cataclysmic event that was mired in problems with everything from food to lodging.
Guests—who paid as much as $13,000 for luxury packages—were left with unfinished accommodations, no transportation, and no food beyond cheese sandwiches served from polystyrene boxes, the images of which quickly went viral.
During the first Fyre Festival, McFarland teamed up with rapper Ja Rule to raise millions in investment, promising to host a unique luxury music festival event in the Bahamas featuring models, DJs, luxury residences and extravagant meals. .
McFarland paid Kendall Jenner to promote the event on Instagram, which distributed promo content to entice people to buy tickets for thousands of dollars each.
But the event faced heavy criticism, with people arriving on the island of Great Exuma finding much less than they expected.
Court documents describe the scene as “utter disorganization and chaos.” The “luxury accommodations” were FEMA disaster tents, the “gourmet food” was barely passable cheese sandwiches served in Styrofoam containers, and the “hottest musical acts” were nowhere to be seen.
McFarland was the founder and CEO of Fyre Media, launched in 2016, which aimed to build an app that would allow individuals hosting major events to bid for artist and celebrity bookings.
During that year until May 2017, McFarland was involved in a scheme to defraud investors out of millions of dollars. According to Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, this plan caused losses to at least 80 individuals, totaling more than $24 million dollars.
In April, he announced that he would try again to get it right with Fyre Festival II. On Monday, he shared that he had been on the “wildest journey” but was ready to create something incredible.
McFarland was the focus of two different documentaries in 2019, produced by Netflix and Hulu
Festival guests were left with no place to stay or put their luggage and when the festival was canceled on the first day, they were stranded
“This is a big day because as of now, tickets for Fyre Festival 2 are officially on sale,” he said in a TikTok video.
“It’s definitely been the wildest journey to get here, and it all really started during the seven-month stint in solitary confinement.
“Finally, we’ve decided that Fyre Festival 2 is coming back to the Caribbean.
“We’re targeting Fyre Festival 2 for late next year and in the meantime we’ll be doing pop-ups and events around the world.”
After selling the first batch of tickets today, McFarland shared his excitement on social media.
“The first FYRE Festival II drop is sold out,” he said. ‘Since 2016, FYRE has been the most talked-about festival in the world. We now saw these turn into one of the best priced GA presale in the industry.
“FYRE is about people from all over the world coming together to achieve the impossible. This time we have incredible support.
“I will do what I like while working with the best logistics and infrastructure partners. In addition, all proceeds from ticket sales will be held until the end date is announced.
“We look forward to surprising the world with our partners as we build FYRE and FYRE Festival II into the island adventure of a lifetime.”
While some of his followers promised to support him all the way, others were not impressed that he came back for round two.
“How is it possible that you are legally participating in this scam again?” someone said.
“Whoever ever bought a ticket is an asshole,” wrote another.
“It took two days to sell 100 tickets. Soft question,’ someone else said.
McFarland was released over a year ago after being convicted and jailed on charges of the 2017 fraud
McFarland announced in April that the sequel to his disastrous event is ‘finally happening’
“What nonsense and what fools to buy a tix for eighteen months, no date, no venue, no acts, run by a con artist,” a fourth added.
Last year, in his first interview since being released from prison, McFarland admitted he was “wrong” in going through with the doomed event.
“I was wrong,” McFarland said during an appearance on Good Morning America.
‘I messed up. I was so driven by this desperate desire to prove people right. I had these early investors, financiers, employees, and I think I was just so insecure that I thought the only way to prove myself to them was to succeed and that led me down this horrible path of bad decisions.
“I have to apologize and that’s the first and last thing to do. I’ve let people down… I really should have canceled everything and stopped lying.’ he said.
McFarland claims his time in prison — during which he was placed in solitary confinement several times as punishment for breaking the rules by conducting several interviews while behind bars — also gave him a new perspective on how to conduct business. doing.
“I prided myself on getting things done, not how things were done,” he said.
“I think the most important thing for me is to build relationships throughout the process. Whether there is success or failure in the business sense of the word, it’s more about the way it’s done than about being proud of this “by all accounts” idea that is wrong.”