The disgraced mastermind behind the disastrous 2017 Fyre Festival says tickets to the sequel are now on sale and already selling out.
Con artist Billy McFarland, who served time in federal prison for his first scam, announced on Instagram earlier this week that tickets for Fyre Festival II are now on sale — despite not having a set date or location. Just one day later, he said the first batch was already gone.
"The first Fyre Festival II drop has sold out," McFarland said. "Since 2016 FYRE has been the most talked about festival in the world. We now saw this convert to one of the highest priced GA pre-sales in the industry."
He added that the ticket revenue will be held in escrow this time around until an official date has been announced and is asking those seeking tickets to join a waitlist in the meantime.
In the aftermath of his first Fyre Festival attempt, McFarland faced numerous lawsuits and was eventually sentenced to six years behind bars after being charged with multiple counts of wire fraud. He was released early in 2022 and was quick to announce a follow-up event.
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The original Fyre Festival was a highly anticipated music celebration that was set to take place on a private island in the Bahamas in 2017. The event was promoted by a slew of celebrities and social media influencers including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Hailey Bieber and Emily Ratajkowski as a luxury event featuring exquisite food, extravagant accommodations and top-tier performances from groups like Blink-182, Migos and Rae Sremmurd.
McFarland and his team, which included rapper Ja Rule, had promised a high-end, exclusive experience, but the reality was a far cry from what was advertised.
The festival was plagued with numerous problems from the very beginning, starting with the location itself. The private island in the Bahamas lacked infrastructure and wasn't properly equipped with basic necessities such as water and electricity. When festival-goers arrived, they quickly found themselves in a chaotic and hazardous situation.
The "luxury villas" that were advertised turned out to be half-built disaster relief tents leftover from Hurricane Matthew. The gourmet food that was promised turned out to be basic cheese sandwiches and salads, and the luxurious amenities, like jet skis and yachts, were nowhere to be found.
Stuck at #fyrefestival trying to leave for the last 8 hours. barley any food or water or security or electricity pic.twitter.com/jHPMnJw5gx
— Lamaan (@LamaanElGallal) April 28, 2017
As the festival descended into chaos, flights were canceled, leaving attendees stranded on the island with little food, water, and medical supplies. Some festival-goers also reported being robbed, and others couldn't charge their phones to contact anyone from the outside world.
The fiasco prompted an eye-opening Netflix documentary titled "Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened." It provided an in-depth look at the events leading up to the festival, including how McFarland and his team were able to use social media to manipulate and scam people out of millions of dollars.
Given the controversy surrounding the original event, it remains to be seen whether Fyre Festival II will actually come to fruition, but McFarland has certainly caught the attention of the public yet again, and it will be interesting to see how the story unfolds this time around.
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