Billy McFarland, the convicted fraudster who masterminded the 2017 Fyre Festival, says there will be a sequel to the failed luxury music fest, with tickets already being sold.
On Monday, McFarland took to his Instagram page to announce that pre-sell tickets are available in a selfie-style video. By Tuesday, he posted that “the first FYRE Festival II drop has sold out.”
According to the official website, the initial drop consisted of 100 tickets at $499 each. The remaining tickets will be released in six stages, with various price points. The following 400 tickets will be priced at $799, and the final 20 will cost $7,999.
McFarland credits a seven-month stretch in solitary confinement for inspiring him to revive the event that led to his nearly four-year incarceration. It was there that he “wrote a 50-page plan” to “make the impossible happen.”
No music acts, lodging arrangements, or specific venue details have been set. Dec. 6, 2024, is listed as the tentative target date with “The Caribbean” vaguely set to hold the event.
The Bahamas, where the original ill-fated concert festival took place, is highly unlikely to be on the list of potential hosts.
“The Government of The Bahamas will not endorse or approve any event in The Bahamas associated with him,” The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism said in a statement, after labeling him a “fugitive.”
The epic disaster of the original Fyre Fest has become the subject of two separate documentaries that were released days apart from one another in January of 2018: Netflix’s “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” and Hulu’s “Fyre Fraud.”
What was billed as a luxurious island getaway on a private island with an A-List music lineup, celebrity endorsements, and gourmet meals, turned into a calamity on multiple levels. Acts like Pusha T, Blink 182, and Migos canceled their appearances. Upscale suites and villas were replaced with FEMA shelters, and fine dining amounted to simple cheese sandwiches.
Multiple lawsuits followed, and the Bucknell University dropout was sentenced to six years in federal prison. He was ordered to pay $26 million in restitution after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud. After unsuccessfully attempting to be released in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, McFarland was released to a halfway house in March of 2022 and taken off of house arrest that September.
McFarland also announced plans for a Broadway show based on the original Fyre Fest is in the works, along with a television show documenting the sequel, and an upcoming kickboxing match.
