Organisers say Fyre Festival 2 will be held this spring on Isla Mujeres, an island off the coast of Mexico. Photo / NZME
Organisers say Fyre Festival 2 will be held this spring on Isla Mujeres, an island off the coast of Mexico. Photo / NZME
Eight years - and one prison sentence - later, Billy McFarland is back with another attempt at the event.
Luxury accommodation at a tropical resort. World-class hospitality. “Boundary-pushing” excursions by day. Beachside musical performances by night. And exorbitant ticket prices to boot.
All of that might sound familiar to anyonewho followed the well-chronicled saga of the Fyre Festival, an ill-fated musical carnival that, in 2017, was such a spectacular failure that it spawned duelling documentaries on Netflix and Hulu. Billy McFarland, the festival’s organiser, wound up going to prison for nearly four years after he entered a guilty plea to charges that included wire fraud.
But McFarland, 33, a self-described tech entrepreneur, is back – and he is trying the whole thing over again.
McFarland announced this week that Fyre Festival 2, replete with all the trappings listed above, is scheduled for May 30 to June 2 on Isla Mujeres, a Mexican island and vacation destination a few miles off the coast from Cancun. More specifically, the event will be staged at “Playa FYRE,” according to the festival’s website – though the GPS coordinates provided on the festival’s website appear to point to a landless spot to the west of Isla Mujeres.
Scepticism would not be out of place when it comes to a sequel of an event where everything seemed to go wrong, but people willing to roll the dice can get started immediately, as some tickets are already on sale.
What is planned for the sequel?
The festival is being advertised as “an electrifying celebration of music, arts, cuisine, comedy, fashion, gaming, sports and treasure hunting – all set in the stunning location of Isla Mujeres, Mexico”.
Billy McFarland organised the original Fyre Festival with, among others, the rapper Ja Rule. He has a new set of business partners for the event’s sequel. Photo / Ben Sklar, The New York Times
But details are otherwise scant, and organisers were not immediately available for comment. No musical artists have been announced, though McFarland told NBC’s Today in an interview this week that the genres would include electronic, hip-hop, pop and rock.
“I’m not in charge of booking the talent,” McFarland added.
There is much left to plan. The Isla Mujeres municipal Government said in a statement that no permits had been requested or approved for the festival.
How will ticketing work?
A total of 2000 tickets are now available, ranging in price from US$1400 ($2460) to – wait for it – US$1.1 million ($1.9m).
The US$1.1m ticket, which covers admission for eight attendees, is being billed as the “Prometheus” tier and will include round-trip airfare via “Fyre Air” from Miami to Cancun, a helicopter ride to Isla Mujeres, and the option of a four-stateroom yacht or a four-bedroom villa.
Festival organisers describe it as “not for the faint of heart, nor is it for the casual attendee. It is for those who seek to rise above, who don’t just want to witness history but aspire to share it”.
Doesn’t this sound a lot like the original Fyre Festival?
It sure does! Back in 2017, the festival was originally billed as an exclusive, musical-themed getaway in the Bahamas – a sort of Coachella with the splendour of a five-star resort. The event was scheduled for two weekends, in April and May 2017.
McFarland, who partnered with the rapper Ja Rule on that venture, said he had booked musical acts including Major Lazer, Migos and Blink-182 to perform for guests who were willing to pay premium prices.
Attendees had been told they would be able to “start each day with morning yoga and guided meditation on the beach,” while also enjoying “massages, henna tattooing, sound healing, chill-out sessions and a festive Bahamian junkanoo parade kicking off each weekend”.
High-end ticket packages included a US$400,000 ($702,000) “Artist’s Palace,” which was said to include four beds, eight VIP tickets and dinner with one of the festival performers.
What went wrong?
When attendees arrived, they discovered that their luxury villas were actually disaster relief tents on a makeshift campground. Their gourmet meals were, in some cases, cheese sandwiches. The headlining musical acts had all backed out. Thousands of guests were left stranded. Many local businesses lost money, too, after agreeing to contracts with McFarland for various goods and services. One local restaurant owner reported a loss of more than US$50,000 ($88,000), which was eventually recouped by way of donations to a GoFundMe page.
Trash, discarded materials and remnants of the failed Fyre Festival remain on the festival site in Exuma, Bahamas, May 14, 2017. Photo / Scott McIntyre, The New York Times
And while the festival sold a total of about 8000 tickets for both weekends, according to a lawsuit, only a few chartered planes made it to Great Exuma Island, where the event was to be staged.
It was, in other words, an unmitigated disaster.
It turned out that McFarland and his company had been selling tickets even before a location had been nailed down. Fyre employees later said that higher-ups had concocted some of the festival’s more extravagant elements just to see if people would pay for them. (The Artist’s Palace, for example, was never constructed.)
In a statement, organisers blamed “circumstances out of our control”.
Why did Billy McFarland end up in prison?
Two months after the Fyre Festival collapsed, McFarland was arrested by federal agents and charged with wire fraud. He later entered guilty pleas and was sentenced to six years in prison.
McFarland had defrauded investors and customers out of US$26m ($45.6m), prosecutors said, both for his role in organising the festival and for launching a sham ticket-selling business while he was out on bail.
McFarland said on Instagram that many people would think he is “crazy for doing this again”.
He still owes nearly US$26m to the people he defrauded, and Today reported that a portion of the revenue from Fyre Festival 2 will go to them. McFarland also said he was partnering with a Mexico-based events producer, Lostnights, and established vendors to help the event run smoothly.
“After years of reflection and now thoughtful planning,” McFarland said on Instagram, “the new team and I have amazing plans for Fyre 2. The adventure seekers who trust the vision and take the leap will make history. Thank you to my partners for the second chance.”
