Words: Harry Shukman
You would be forgiven for thinking that after Fyre Fest — the luxury music event that has since become a byword for “shitshow” — that Billy McFarland would have put his festival organising days behind him. But apparently part-way through his prison sentence for fraud, when the 31-year-old McFarland was in solitary confinement, he came to the conclusion that once was not enough. Recently released from prison — and still repaying the $26 million he owes his fraud victims — he is now planning Fyre Fest II. What could go wrong?
Announcing the festival’s comeback on his social media pages this week with the first round of ticket sales — they sold out — McFarland said: “It has been the absolute wildest journey to get here… Guys, this is your chance to get in. This is everything I’ve been working towards, let’s fucking go.” Anyone brave — or dim enough — to buy a ticket will be testing the phrase “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me” to its very limits.
Billy McFarland and Ja Rule advertising Fyre Fest I in 2017
The details of the original Fyre Fest are so ingrained in the popular imagination that they now have a cultural status as big as the Moon landings or the coronation of King Charles. Everyone can remember the outlandish promises made by McFarland, back in 2017, when he revealed Fyre Fest. It was meant to be the festival to end all festivals — a luxury extravaganza advertised by Kendall Jenner, Hailey Baldwin and Bella Hadid — partying with models on a private island in the Exumas, lavish Michelin-starred cuisine, accommodation on yachts and villas.
And then the incredible failure: no music acts, nowhere to stay except disaster-relief tents, no food except some truly depressing processed cheese sandwiches, a photo of which went viral and summed up the catastrophe that ultimately sent McFarland to prison. Five thousand people attended, some of them paying $12,000 for tickets and more in VIP extras worth up to $250,000. Even though the organisers knew they weren’t ready to stage the event, they decided to go ahead with it, with McFarland saying, despite advice to postpone: “Let’s just do it and be legends.”
More than anything, this image sums up the disappointment felt by festivalgoers in 2017
This is the man who is now courting investors and customers to pay up to $8,000 for Fyre Fest II. His legal troubles — and the two documentaries that aired in recent years — present him as a seasoned liar. “He could convince anyone of pretty much anything,” recalled a colleague in the Netflix movie. It’s hard to take his word as gospel, but he now claims to be a changed man. “I lied to investors to get money,” McFarland has said in his various mea culpa interviews. “Looking back, it was so incredibly stupid.”
He says that his desire to launch the first Fyre Fest wasn’t to make millions and millions of dollars but to take “different people from diverse backgrounds and bring them together through adventures and experiences… when this was happening, it was almost like I found my little slice of magic in the world”. Which is one way of putting it. In reality, McFarland is a champion liar. While on bail for Fyre Fest, he went on to defraud customers with his “NYC VIP Access” scheme, selling tickets that did not exist to the Met Gala, Coachella, and the Grammys, netting $100,000. He already seems to be saying different things about how long he spent in solitary confinement — in one interview, he says it was seven months, in another, he says it was 309 days. He has also said he served six years in prison, when it was in fact four.
The VIP concierge area during Fyre Fest 2017
So why launch Fyre Fest II? “I could crawl in a hole and die of remorse, and I think that’s something a lot of people probably want,” he said in an interview with Piers Morgan. “But for me, I need to find pride in my life by at least trying to right my wrongs and make it up to everybody I hurt.” America loves a second chance, so it’s a smart move of McFarland to spin his fraudulent career into a speak-my-truth, I’m-the-comeback-kid kind of story, like a cross between Meghan Markle and Rocky Balboa.
What seems clear is that McFarland is very sure of himself and his celebrity. “I feel like I’m the pilot of a single-engine propeller plane right now, flying through the storm, where everybody wants to watch,” he said in an interview. “And whether I crash or land, they want to have a front row seat.” He is reportedly planning a Broadway musical about his life.
Fyre Fest II, if you believe him, is going to be in the Caribbean in December 2024. Tickets make a typically McFarlandian promise of “Pre-events, pop-ups… VIP Access to FYRE Experiences, including FYRE Fights, Documentary and Film Screenings, Weekend Trips, and More”. What could go wrong?
“Fyre is about people from around the world coming together to pull off the impossible,” he wrote on Instagram. “This time we have incredible support. I’ll be doing what I love working with the best logistical and infrastructure partners.” So should you get a ticket? Maybe just do it and be a legend…
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