Billy McFarland, the brains behind the disaster that was 2017’s Fyre Festival, is relentless. Despite serving four years in prison for defrauding investors and attendees, he’s determined to revive the concept that left thousands stranded in the Bahamas amidst chaotic conditions.
He also still needs to pay off his creditors for the original Fyre Festival. He’s about $30 million deep in debt, and it’s starting to appear as if the only way out he sees is doing a second installment of the very festival that put him in debt.
He’s been trying to raise money for the new event for a while. In August, he claimed that pre-sale tickets were selling out. Then in January, he announced the “final” ticket pre-sales with passes going up to as much as $1 million. The ticket page on the website has since been replaced by a Typeform that captures email addresses for a mailing list.
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In a now-deleted Tweet posted on March 4, he took to social media, asking willing individuals to send him cryptocurrency, promising to bring the top two donors as his “personal guests” to Fyre 2. So far, the largest contributions amount to approximately $200 each, according to Protos.
McFarland claimed that Fyre 2 is in the early planning stages in a recent Spaces discussion. But like his previous “updates,” people have yet to hear about a confirmed lineup or location. It’s still all up in the air that he even candidly admitted that buying a ticket would “promise nothing” and hinted that the event could take place within a year if it materializes.
McFarland also teased the possibility of incorporating a digital metaverse component and livestreaming capabilities into Fyre 2. However, as usual, he provided no concrete plans on how these ambitious ideas would be realized. In May last year, he also claimed there was going to be a Broadway musical — he has since pretended people would forget by deleting the TikTok announcement and the related tweets.
Filming has also reportedly begun for a documentary chronicling the development of Fyre 2, despite the event’s uncertain future.
McFarland claims to have an investor backing 51% of the festival and a team working to bring it to fruition. But again, there isn’t much in terms of details or credibility — just the same convicted fraudster looking for a way to pay back his creditors.
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