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Wanted: gluttons for punishment. Billy McFarland announces ticket prices for Fyre Festival II

Festival fraudster has provided little information about what the sequel to the failed festival will entail

Nicole Vassell
Tuesday 22 August 2023 16:00 BST
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Billy McFarland announces Fyre Festival 2 ticket price despite no location or lineup secured

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Convicted fraudster Billy McFarland has announced ticket prices for a sequel to the doomed Fyre Festival, without revealing any information a location for the event, or whether he’s booked any artists to perform.

The so-called entrepreneur co-founded the ill-fated luxury 2018 event that notoriously left attendees stranded in the Bahamas as artists cancelled their performances, left without essential facilities such as food, security and accommodation.

In 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison on two counts of wire fraud and ordered to pay £23m back to investors. He was given an early release last year.

After teasing “Fyre Festival 1.5” back in May, McFarland has now announced that tickets are on sale for Fyre Festival II, while claiming that he devised a 50-page plan for the event during a seven-month stint in solitary confinement.

“What's up guys, this is a big day because as of right now, Fyre Festival II tickets are officially on sale,” he began, in the video shared on Sunday 20 August.

“It has been the absolute wildest journey to get here, and it really all started during a seven-month stint in solitary confinement.

“I wrote out this 50-page plan of how I would take this overall interest and demand in Fyre and how I would take my ability to bring people from around the world together to make the impossible happen.”

The plan, McFarland stated, also detailed how he’d supposedly find “the best partners in the world to allow me to be me while executing Fyre’s vision to the highest level”.

Billy McFarland talks Fyre Festival 2
Billy McFarland talks Fyre Festival 2 (Billy McFarland)

He concluded the clip by stating that, after considering several other locations such as the Middle East and South America, the second attempt at the festival will take place at an undisclosed location in the Caribbean at the end of next year.

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Ticket prices for Fyre Festival II range from $499 (£390) to $7,999 (£6258). McFarland’s latest post has not shared any information about what guests can expect for their money, apart from the chance to “get in”.

“This is everything I’ve been working towards. Let’s f***ing go,” he added.

McFarland first shared that a second Fyre Festival was “finally happening” in April.

Artists such as Disclosure, Migos and Blink-182 were on the bill for the original event in 2017, but the entire festival fell apart when at least 18 acts pulled out, days before it was scheduled to start.

In 2018, two documentaries were released about the disastrous event: Hulu’s Fyre Fraud and Netflix’s Fyre.

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