Latest news with #FYRE:TheGreatestPartyThatNeverHappened
Euronews
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Convicted fraudster Billy McFarland (under)sells Fyre Festival on eBay
Billy McFarland, the scam artist and convicted fellon who gained notoriety for the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival, has officially sold the rights to the event's brand on eBay for $245,300 (approx. €211,135). The auction, which reportedly drew a 175 bids, included intellectual property, trademarks, and social media accounts tied to the Fyre name. The identity of the buyer remains unknown. In a livestream during the eBay auction, McFarland appeared disappointed with the result, commenting: 'Damn. This sucks, it's so low.' According to Rolling Stone, the sale will barely make a dent in his outstanding $26 million (approx. €22.3m) restitution order tied to his criminal conviction. Nonetheless, the disgraced founder took to social media after the sale, saying: 'Fyre Festival is just one chapter of my story, and I'm excited to move onto my next one.' He continued: 'The auction became the most-watched non-charity listing on eBay during its run, proving once again that attention is currency, and views are the root of attention. That belief is at the core of what I'm building next.' McFarland then shared that he's working on a 'tech platform designed to capture and power the value behind every view online.' Cue: death by a thousand eyerolls. Une publication partagée par Billy McFarland (@pyrtbilly) McFarland was given a six-year prison sentence in 2018 for wire fraud related to the original Fyre Festival. He was released early in 2022 and attempted to relaunch the event multiple times - without success. What happened at Fyre Festival? McFarland founded Fyre Festival with rapper Ja Rule. As part of their advertising scheme for the supposed luxury music festival, they employed influencers including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski to post on Instagram about the festival. The influencers didn't clearly disclose that it was a paid advert. McFarland also falsely claimed that the festival's location was on Pablo Escobar's private island. In reality, it was located on a beach in the Bahamas, and when the glamorous (and wannabe glamorous) flocked to McFarland's promised luxury event in 2017, all was not as it seemed. When the punters arrived, they were confronted with unfinished stages, tents instead of fancy accommodation, and a notoriously rubbish welcome meal of some pre-sliced cheese and a depressing-looking salad on dry bread. As for the star-studded line-up of acts including Pusha T, Tyger, Blink-182, Disclosure, Migos, and Skepta... They all pulled out. To make matters worse, the 500+ guests were stranded on the island, as flights were cancelled by the Bahamian government. The ordeal was captured in the Netflix documentary FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, as well as the Hulu doc Fyre Fraud. McFarland and Ja Rule were hit with multiple lawsuits for fraud and other charges seeking damages. McFarland was investigated by the FBI for mail fraud, wire fraud and securities fraud. After pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud, he was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to hand over $26 million. Since his release from prison, McFarland reportedly arranged meetings with rappers for Donald Trump's most recent election campaign – in a bid to reach and appeal to more Black voters. Une publication partagée par Billy McFarland (@pyrtbilly) And because once a scammer, always a hardened scammer, McFarland has tried to revive the festival – adventurously named Fyre Fest II. It was announced that the second edition of the festival would be taking place on a tropical island off Cancún, Mexico. However, it was soon revealed that the permit McFarland had obtained only allowed for a 12-hour listening party that only could have fewer than 300 people. McFarland set the tickets for between $1,400 (€1,200) and $25,000 (€21,500) – with 'premium packages' priced as high as $1.1 million (€947,000). As you can guess, the Fyre Fest II never took place. Now that the rights to the Fyre brand have been sold, anyone else fearing the outcome of McFarland's new tech platform 'designed to capture and power the value behind every view online'?
Sky News
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
Fyre II: $1m tickets on sale for Fyre Festival II after fraudulent disaster
The second Fyre Festival has officially been announced, nearly 10 years since the first infamous event quickly turned into a disaster. The failed festival in 2017 hit headlines after charging guests up to $100,000 per head to travel to the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas, but failing to deliver the white sands, luxury accommodation and first-class food that was promised. It even led to co-organiser Billy McFarland serving nearly four years of a six-year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges relating to the festival and various fraud charges stemming from a separate ticket-selling scam. Plans for Fyre II have been on and off since 2023, but this is the furthest it has ever come, with the event set for 30 May to 2 June and 2,000 tickets officially having gone on sale earlier this week. Relaunching the festival, Mr McFarland told Sky News' US partner NBC News that Fyre II is "not about the past" but about "taking the vision, which is strong". Unlike the original festival, Fyre said in a statement that live event organiser Lostnights has signed up to handle the details, along with hotel, travel and ticketing companies also coming on board to help plan and organise the event. One thing that has not changed is ticket costs, with prices ranging from $1,400 (£1,100) to an eye watering $1.1m (£869,000). The website states that the top-tier ticket - named the Prometheus package - gets eight people into the festival as well as the option to stay on a yacht, have a 24/7 private chauffeur, access to one of the stages as well as exclusive "additional experiences". "You will be on a boat, have the luxury yachts that we partner with who will be docked and parked outside the island," Mr McFarland told NBC's Today show. "But once again, Fyre is not just about this, like, luxury experience," he added. "It's about the adventure. So you'll be scuba diving with me. You'll be bouncing around to other islands and other countries on small planes." Mr McFarland has also promised performances from a number of artists across the electronic, hip hop, pop and rock genres. But no artists are yet to be announced to be taking part. "It's not just music. We might have a professional skateboarder do a demonstration. We might have an MMA champion teach you techniques in the morning," he said. 'There is a risk component to it' The disaster of the first Fyre festival became the focus of the Netflix series FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened in 2019. It portrayed stranded guests who were faced to battle for a limited number of tents, had issues with access to water, and instead of gourmet meals, were served limp cheese sandwiches in Styrofoam boxes, a photo of which went viral on social media at the time. When asked if there was a risk to buying a ticket to the second attempt at the festival, Mr McFarland told Today: "Until it's experienced, there is a risk component to it." "You're taking a risk because I made a lot of bad decisions and messed up the first festival," he said. "Since 2016, Fyre has been the most talked about music festival in the world. Obviously, a lot of that has been negative, but I think that most people, once they kind of get under the hood and study the plans and see the team behind Fyre II, they see the upside." He said if the festival is a success, he thinks it has the chance to be an annual event.
Sky News
26-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Sky News
Fyre II: Tickets go on sale for Fyre Festival after fraudulent disaster
The second Fyre Festival has officially been announced, nearly 10 years since the first infamous event quickly turned into a disaster. The failed festival in 2017 hit headlines after charging guests up to $100,000 per head to travel to the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas, but failing to deliver the white sands, luxury accommodation and first-class food that was promised. It even led to co-organiser Billy McFarland serving nearly four years of a six-year prison sentence after he pleaded guilty to wire fraud charges relating to the festival and various fraud charges stemming from a separate ticket-selling scam. Plans for Fyre II have been on and off since 2023, but this is the furthest it has ever come, with the event set for 30 May to 2 June and 2,000 tickets officially having gone on sale earlier this week. Relaunching the festival, Mr McFarland told Sky News' US partner NBC News that Fyre II is "not about the past" but about "taking the vision, which is strong". Unlike the original festival, Fyre said in a statement that live event organiser Lostnights has signed up to handle the details, along with hotel, travel and ticketing companies also coming on board to help plan and organise the event. One thing that has not changed is ticket costs, with prices ranging from $1,400 (£1,100) to an eye watering $1.1m (£869,000). The website states that the top-tier ticket - named the Prometheus package - gets eight people into the festival as well as the option to stay on a yacht, have a 24/7 private chauffeur, access to one of the stages as well as exclusive "additional experiences". "You will be on a boat, have the luxury yachts that we partner with who will be docked and parked outside the island," Mr McFarland told NBC's Today show. "But once again, Fyre is not just about this, like, luxury experience," he added. "It's about the adventure. So you'll be scuba diving with me. You'll be bouncing around to other islands and other countries on small planes." Mr McFarland has also promised performances from a number of artists across the electronic, hip hop, pop and rock genres. But no artists are yet to be announced to be taking part. "It's not just music. We might have a professional skateboarder do a demonstration. We might have an MMA champion teach you techniques in the morning," he said. 'There is a risk component to it' The disaster of the first Fyre festival became the focus of the Netflix series FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened in 2019. It portrayed stranded guests who were faced to battle for a limited number of tents, had issues with access to water, and instead of gourmet meals, were served limp cheese sandwiches in Styrofoam boxes, a photo of which went viral on social media at the time. When asked if there was a risk to buying a ticket to the second attempt at the festival, Mr McFarland told Today: "Until it's experienced, there is a risk component to it." "You're taking a risk because I made a lot of bad decisions and messed up the first festival," he said. "Since 2016, Fyre has been the most talked about music festival in the world. Obviously, a lot of that has been negative, but I think that most people, once they kind of get under the hood and study the plans and see the team behind Fyre II, they see the upside." He said if the festival is a success, he thinks it has the chance to be an annual event.
