Fyre Festival 2 flames out as Billy McFarland puts brand up for sale: ‘I need to step back'
When promoter and convicted fraudster Billy McFarland sought to revive his infamous Fyre Festival this year, he wanted to do it 'with honesty, transparency, relentless effort, and creativity.'
Now, Fyre Festival 2 is indefinitely postponed (shocker) and McFarland seeks to distance himself from the event, putting the Fyre brand up for sale. 'This brand is bigger than any one person and bigger than what I'm able to lead on my own,' McFarland said Wednesday in a statement shared to the Fyre Festival website and Instagram page.
'It's a movement. And it deserves a team with the scale, experience, and infrastructure to realize its potential,' McFarland said. 'We have decided the best way to accomplish our goals is to sell the FYRE Festival brand ... to an operator that can fully realize its vision.'
McFarland announced his decision to step away from Fyre two months after declaring in February that 'Fyre Festival 2 is real' and was set to come to Isla Mujeres in the Mexican Caribbean from May 30 to June 2. At the time, he said he saw the Mexico event as a 'second chance.'
The first iteration of McFarland's Fyre Festival in 2017 advertised two weekends of a luxury music event on a private island in Exuma, the Bahamas. Attendees, some who shelled out more than $10,000 for tickets, were instead met with canceled shows, plain cheese sandwiches and flimsy tents that struggled to withstand stormy conditions at the botched event, founded by McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. The fiasco quickly went viral and in the following years inspired documentaries from both Hulu and Netflix.
A year after the first Fyre Festival, McFarland pleaded guilty in 2018 to defrauding investors of $26 million in the failed event and over $100,000 in a fraudulent ticket-selling scheme. Dubbed a 'serial fraudster' by a New York judge, McFarland was sentenced to six years in federal prison. He was released early and placed under house arrest in 2022.
Fyre Festival 2 (not to be confused with the other Fyre Festival 2 that was announced and quickly scrapped in 2023) touted four ticket tiers ranging from $1,400 to $1.1 million. The website for the fest also featured vague promises of 'an electrifying celebration of music, arts, cuisine, comedy, fashion, gaming, sports and treasure hunting.' Fyre Festival 2 boasted 'unforgettable performances, immersive experiences,' but an artist lineup was never revealed. Pages detailing ticket sales and accommodation have since been scrubbed from the website. The Instagram post announcing the return of the festival has also been deleted.
The road to Fyre Festival 2 seemed turbulent even before McFarland announced his search for a buyer. A week after the promoter confidently unveiled his plans for Fyre Festival 2, the tourism board of Isla Mujeres said it had 'no knowledge of this event.'
A spokesperson for the tourism board told the Guardian in early March, 'For us, this is an event that does not exist.' Not long after, McFarland disputed those claims in a since-deleted Instagram video, reassuring followers that the event's team did have accommodations in place for festival goers and 'we have talent.' The Fyre Festival team, in a statement to ticket holders reviewed by The Times, said it was 'blindsided' by Isla Mujeres officials' claims and instead opted to host the event at Mexico's Playa del Carmen.
In late March, McFarland shared videos from a beachside press conference about the event featuring himself and a panel of Fyre Festival partners and organizers. On April 2, Playa del Carmen government officials issued a statement in Spanish on Instagram with a familiar message.
'After a thorough review, there is no record or planning of any such event in the municipality,' the statement said, according to NBC News.
In its notice to ticket holders last week, the Fyre team claimed it had paid for the necessary permits to move forward with the event at Playa del Carmen and accused the local government of theft. 'Due to this, we have decided to move FYRE Festival 2 elsewhere.'
The third location has yet to be revealed — just like the new dates and artist lineup.
McFarland referenced the planning challenges on Wednesday and claimed Fyre has since received interest from 'several Caribbean destinations eager to host.' However, he said, 'it's clear that I need to step back and allow a new team to move forward independently, bringing the vision to life on this incredible island.'
In his notice, McFarland attempted to appeal to potential buyers with arbitrary claims that supposedly stemmed from Fyre Festival's reputation: 'one of the most powerful attention engines in the world' and 'one of the world's most talked-about music festivals.' Earlier this week, Deadline reported that the festival will get another life as a streaming service after documentarian Shawn Rech acquired some Fyre IP.
This week, the event's website transformed into a site focused on selling the brand instead of tickets. Metrics touting the brand's supposed online and social media clout now stand in place of vibrant slides detailing the perks of each ticket tier. The website also features a form where potential buyers can name their price.
'Giving control of the brand to a new group is the most responsible way to follow through on what we set out to do: build a global entertainment brand, host a safe and legendary event, and continue to pay restitution to those who are owed from the first festival,' McFarland said.
He concluded his letter: 'The next chapter of FYRE will be bigger, better, and built to last without me at the helm.'
Where Fyre Festival 2 goes from here remains to be seen. A silver lining to these latest developments, however, is that McFarland announced his intentions to step away before faithful festival goers descended on a yet-to-be-determined destination for a host of vaguely vibey activities and a possible tropical nightmare with a side of sad cheese sandwiches.
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