Will Fyre Festival 2 Go Up In Flames?
In 2016, Billy McFarland and Ja Rule co-founded a mobile app called Fyre that was supposed to revolutionize how people booked talent—making celebrities and musicians available at the tap of a button for the right price. They thought the perfect way to promote their new app was to hold a music festival unlike anything before.
Most people remember what happened with the Fyre Festival. The luxury music festival was promoted by hundreds of influencers, celebrities, and some of the top models in the world on social media. Boasting an impressive lineup with Tyga, Blink-182, Pusha T, and many more, this festival was supposed to be the event of the decade.
The founders, Billy McFarland and Ja Rule claimed they bought Norman’s Cay and would be hosting a music festival unlike any other on this private island in 2017. They assembled a team of the best marketing and media professionals to build this event online and sell it to the public. After creating the promotional videos, capturing the content that showcased their vision, and launching the social media campaign things quickly began to go downhill. After selling out approximately 5,000 tickets in less than 48 hours the event became real. Prices ranged from $500-$1500 for day tickets to $12,000 tickets that were supposed to include airfare and luxury tent accommodations.
With four months until the festival, the Fyre team was kicked off the island by the owners after claiming on promotional posts that it had once been owned by Pablo Escobar. Left with no choice but to find another island, they decided on the Great Exuma island, which was not private nor remote as they had promised to their guests. The area that they secured was an unfinished construction site that was set aside by the government for a housing development. With promises to boost the island’s economy and create hundreds of jobs, the team was granted a permit. With as many local workers as they could find and just weeks to build all the infrastructure required to safely host the guests, they worked day and night.
The festival was planned for April 28-30 and May 5-7. In the days leading up to the kick-off, it became increasingly obvious that they had nothing to show for. The luxury tent accommodations were leftover hurricane relief tents that would only house 1/3 of the guests that were expected to come. They had cheese sandwiches in Styrofoam containers for them to eat. The rain the first morning had soaked everything they had set up before the guest’s arrival.
When the first flight arrived, the guests were bused to a beach bar and held for 6 hours without any news or direction of where they would be staying. When they were finally taken to the festival site, chaos ensued. People began looting the sites and destroying the tents. The musicians were then canceled by the member of the Fyre team in New York that hired them, and Billy McFarland had no choice but to cancel the festival with no way to pay any of the debts owed.
The guests were stranded in the local airport and locked in for hours without food and water. No outgoing flights could take them back to the U.S. for a long period. Local workers, vendors, sponsors, and the government were owed millions of dollars. Many investors in New York were also expecting a return of their millions.
Many lawsuits were filed against the Fyre team for fraud. Several class action lawsuits were filed seeking more than $100 million in damages for ticket buyers. In October 2018, Billy McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison and to pay a restitution of $26. If he was ever allowed to start another business venture that money was expected to go towards paying back what he owed.
Netflix and Hulu both created documentaries showcasing what occurred. Netflix released “Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened” and Hulu produced “Fyre Fraud.”
Well, Billy McFarland decided he wasn’t done yet. In February 2025 he began selling tickets for Fyre Festival 2. These tickets range from $1,400-$1,100,000 including some of the same accommodations as last time. The Prometheus package being the most expensive includes your choice of a 4-bedroom yacht or a 4-bedroom villa. The festival is supposed to take place from May 30 to June 2. The Fyre social media recently announced that it would be hosting the festival in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. But as the city denied it would be hosting the festival; on April 16 the festival was postponed being rescheduled for another date.
Will Fyre Festival 2 go up in the flames like the first? Or will Billy McFarland be able to pull it off?