Billy McFarland, the convicted fraudster behind 2017’s notorious Fyre Pageant, says followers are already snapping up tickets—starting from $400 to $1.1 million—for the occasion’s second version.
Regardless of the unique competition’s catastrophic failure, which spawned two documentaries and landed its founder in jail, McFarland has revealed that he hopes to collect 3,000 individuals for Fyre Fest II.
The 32-year-old disgraced founder revealed yesterday the place and when the competition shall be happening throughout his social media channels—and already, he says, over 1,200 individuals have utilized for tickets.
10 hours in: 1,208 distinctive functions for over 5,000 tickets. fyre 2 will solely maintain 3,000 individuals
— Billy McFarland (@pyrtbilly) September 9, 2024
Scheduled to run from April 25 to April 28 subsequent 12 months, Fyre Pageant II will happen on a privately owned island off the coast of Mexico—and regardless of solely being seven months away, the competition has not but booked any artists.
Nonetheless, in an interview with NBC Information, McFarland insisted that Fyre Pageant’s sequel received’t be a repeat of its first act.
For starters, this time round, he claimed that he has employed a competition manufacturing firm to “handle the stages and the bathrooms and all the stuff that I clearly don’t know how to do.”
McFarland didn’t identify the manufacturing firm, however in a separate interview with the Wall Road Journal, he mentioned that it has purchased a 51% stake within the Fyre Pageant’s father or mother firm, Fyre Media.
Plus, in an interview with The At the moment Present he insisted that Fyre Pageant II is “not going to be just music”.
For instance, for $1.1 million he mentioned that followers can spend their time scuba diving with him whereas “bouncing around to other islands”.
One other exercise concept McFarland has for the competition is reside fights on the seaside. Though he hasn’t booked any entertainers but, he claimed that he’s in talks with Karate Fight to set this up.
Fortune has contacted McFarland for remark.
The notorious Fyre Pageant fiasco
The unique Fyre Pageant was pitched as a “luxury musical festival” on Pablo Escobar’s former personal island within the Bahamas and was backed by celebrities together with Emily Ratajkowski, Kendall Jenner, and Bella Hadid.
Tickets ranged from $500 to $12,000, and the occasion promised luxurious villas, chef-made meals, and a stellar lineup together with Pusha T, Blink-182, Main Lazer, Disclosure, and a few 30 different artists.
In actuality, the competition was set in a car parking zone, with not one of the celebrities talked about in sight; in the meantime, friends have been welcomed with tents, prepackaged sandwiches, and unsanitary circumstances that included no operating water.
To make issues worse, there weren’t sufficient beds to go round, baggage had been “lost”, there was no cellphone sign and festivalgoers have been pressured to fend for themselves.
The catastrophic realities of Fyre resulted in documentaries on Hulu and Netflix, class motion lawsuits, and jail time for McFarland in 2017.
He was ordered to pay again the $26 million he took from his buyers and spent 4 years behind bars earlier than he was launched on probation in 2022.
“I was totally guilty. I committed a crime. Obviously went to prison, and I deserved that prison sentence,” McFarland instructed NBC Information.
“But it wasn’t until the day after the festival was canceled and I had one of my early investors call me and basically say, ‘We need to do this, this and this, or else you’re going to be in the front page of The Wall Street Journal in handcuffs.’”
McFarland’s second act ‘has to work’
The large failure of McFarland’s earlier—and borderline harmful—competition try could clarify why so many individuals are concerned with spherical two.
In August 2023, the primary drop of $499 presale tickets for Fyre Fest II bought out inside a day, though its web site on the time provided no lineup or location.
“I think there’s a large number of people who want to go to Fyre II because they’re unsure of the outcome, and they would like to have a front-row seat no matter what happens,” McFarland instructed NBC Information.
“Thankfully, we have good partners who will make sure they’re safe and obviously make sure things work out.”
Nonetheless, McFarland is aware of that his second go on the infamously botched music competition “has to work”—or his status dangers being additional broken.
“It’s going to be very hard to get other opportunities, whether that’s a marketing job, a podcast appearance, a TV show or a relationship,” McFarland instructed WSJ.
“People are going to be hard-pressed to trust me if I put it all on the line and fail at it twice.”
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