Fyre Festival founder announces date for high-priced sequel (no word on cost of cheese sandwiches though)

Billy McFarland was jailed for fraud over the ill-fated 2017 edition of the festival

Billy McFarland, who was jailed for organizing the fraudulent 2017 Fyre Festival, has announced that a second edition of the event is being planned for next year.

The festival founder, 32, put presale tickets on sale last month but didn’t announce where or when the festival would take place.

Now, in a new interview with NBC News, he revealed that Fyre Festival II is scheduled to run from April 25 to April 28 next year, and will be located on a privately-owned island off the coast of Mexico.

McFarland’s previous attempt at running a festival was famously disastrous. The event in 2017 was billed as the ultimate beach party, promising attendees the chance to rub shoulders with celebrities while luxuriating on the white sandy shores of a Caribbean island.

Instead it failed to deliver, with announced acts such as Blink 182 and Migos not performing and guests left to languish in ratty tents while being served up sad cheese sandwiches in styrofoam containers.

The situation inspired a pair of dueling documentaries and landed McFarland in jail on a federal fraud conviction.

Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland appearing on Fox News in August 2023. He is now talking about his sequel to the disaster 2017 edition of the festival. (Getty Images)

He was ordered to pay back the $26 million he took from his investors and spent four years behind bars before he was released on probation in 2022.

Last week, McFarland told the Wall Street Journal that “Fyre II has to work.”

“It’s going to be very hard to get other opportunities, whether that’s a marketing job, a podcast appearance, a TV show or a relationship,” McFarland told the paper. “People are going to be hard-pressed to trust me if I put it all on the line and fail at it twice.”

When the Journal asked McFarland what he’s got cooking so far, he unfortunately didn’t make it too far into his spiel before saying something worthy of an eyebrow raise.

According to the story, McFarland revealed that a “production company he doesn’t want to name” has bought a 51 percent stake in the Fyre Festival’s parent company, Fyre Media. The mystery parent company will handle the finances and operations of the festival.

McFarland said the only thing he’ll personally have his hands on are the festival’s marketing and promotional events.

When asked who he’s working with and why he won’t name names, McFarland says he’s afraid his reputation might kill the project, and he wants to shield his partners from guilt by association.

Ticket prices for Fyre Festival II ranged from $499 (£390) to $7,999 (£6258) when McFarland announced them last year.