Fyre Fest 2: The convicted fraudster behind the worst music festival never staged wants your money again

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By ( Louder ) published

We regret to inform you that Billy McFarland is at it again

A photo of Fyre Fest's Billy McFarland sticking his tongue out in 2014
(Image credit: Patrick McMullan/Getty Images)

Remember Fyre Festival? That cursed, shambolic, millennial-fleecing shit-show, which promised to deliver a luxurious, immersive music festival "on the boundaries of the impossible" in the Bahamas in 2017, but ended with zero artists performing, panicked guests fighting for sub-Guantanamo Bay lodgings and food scraps, festival producer Andy King being encouraged to perform fellatio to obtain water and promoter Billy McFarland getting sentenced to six years in jail after defrauding investors of $27.4 million?

That was a right hoot, wasn't it?

Well, 13 months on from his March 2022 release from a federal prison after serving four of his six year sentence, Billy McFarland has revealed that a sequel to this epic bin-fire is in the works.

“Fyre Festival II is finally happening," McFarland tweeted yesterday, April 10. "Tell me why you should be invited.”

What an opportunity.

It's possible that if you don't live your life on social media, nothing you have read here will make any sense at all. So here's a quick recap. Promoted by glossy adverts on social shared by popular models/actresses/reality TV stars including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski, the original Fyre Festival was billed as a two weekend high-end music festival like no other, and booked to take place on the island of Great Exuma on the weekends of April 28-30 and May 5-7, 2017.

The brainchild of Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule, the event advertised appearances from Blink-182, Major Lazer, Skepta, Disclosure, Pusha T and more, with tickets costing up to $100,000. Music, sunshine and the chance to gloat at the jealous peasants who couldn't afford this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a paltry $100,000? Take our money now!

As you may have suspected, things did not go according to plan, if indeed there ever was anything resembling 'a plan' for the festivities. Listing exactly how badly Fyre Festival failed to deliver the experiences it promised would take hours, so let's just say that basically everything that could go wrong over the weekend, went wrong. So wrong, that social media posts documenting the fraudulent fiasco became the stuff of legend, and had The Internet enrapt and in hysterics.

For the full horrific details, you could watch one of both of the two compelling and hilarious documentaries that were made about the non-event, Netflix's Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019) and Hulu's Fyre Fraud (2017). 

Anyways, that was then and this is now, so who knows, maybe Fyre Fest II will be a massive success, and become legendary as one of the greatest cultural events ever staged, an inspirational touchstone for generations to come and a powerful illustration of humankind's ability to learn from setbacks and rise anew in triumph and glory.

Yeah, that's probably what will happen. 

Paul Brannigan
Paul Brannigan
Contributing Editor, Louder

A music writer since 1993, formerly Editor of Kerrang! and Planet Rock magazine (RIP), Paul Brannigan is a Contributing Editor to Louder. Having previously written books on Lemmy, Dave Grohl (the Sunday Times best-seller This Is A Call) and Metallica (Birth School Metallica Death, co-authored with Ian Winwood), his Eddie Van Halen biography (Eruption in the UK, Unchained in the US) emerged in 2021. He has written for Rolling Stone, Mojo and Q, hung out with Fugazi at Dischord House, flown on Ozzy Osbourne's private jet, played Angus Young's Gibson SG, and interviewed everyone from Aerosmith and Beastie Boys to Young Gods and ZZ Top. Born in the North of Ireland, Brannigan lives in North London and supports The Arsenal.