Fyre Festival 2 Tickets Are Already Selling Out, Per Convicted Fraudster Billy McFarland McFarland served four years in prison on several counts of fraud for his involvement in the unlawful organization of the original Fyre Festival.
By Sam Silverman •
Key Takeaways
- Tickets to Fyre Festival 2 are supposedly selling fast despite Billy McFarland's first attempt at the event, which landed him in prison.
- McFarland has already back tracked an event for "Fyre VIPs," Entrepreneur has learned.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
The infamous failed Fyre Festival is giving it another go, and people are already lining up to see what's in store this time around, according to the festival's organizer, convicted fraudster Billy McFarland.
Tickets for Fyre Festival 2 went live on Sunday, nearly six years after the notoriously unorganized and unlawful 2017 music festival landed founder Billy McFarland in jail for several fraud charges.
"It has been the absolute wildest journey to get here, and it really all started during a seven-month stint in solitary confinement," he said in a video shared to Instagram on Sunday. "I wrote out this 50-page plan of how it would take this overall interest and demand in Fyre and how it would take my ability to bring people from around the world together to make the impossible happen."
On Tuesday, McFarland claimed in an Instagram post that the first drop of Fyre Festival 2 tickets sold out, promising that this time will be different with the "best logistical and infrastructure partners." Additionally, he said all ticket sale revenue will be held in escrow until a final concert date is announced.
Fyre Festival 2 is scheduled to take place in December 2024 in the Caribbean (although an official location has yet to be revealed), with ticket prices ranging from $799 to $7,999, according to the festival's website.
McFarland was released from prison in May 2022. In April 2023, he announced that a Fyre Festival II was happening on X (then Twitter) with a contest on TikTok. It was supposed to take place on Aug. 26 in the Hamptons. Rumors spread that he rented a "pirate ship" for the event.
But that event isn't exactly happening as planned, either.
Entrepreneur has viewed messages from McFarland sent last week to "FYRE VIPs" that the August Hamptons event is not taking place "due to [the] imminent announcement/plans for a much larger FYRE II." However, there will still be a "private event" in the Hamptons on Saturday, the message says. And those who were scheduled to attend will get comped tickets for the big event in December.
The original Fyre Festival was held on the island of Great Exuma in April 2017. It was promoted by models Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski, and the musician Ja Rule.
But what was supposed to be a luxury concert costing thousands of dollars with meals from celebrity chefs, fancy housing accommodations, and performances by Tyga, Blink-182, and Migos ended up being a nightmare — with poorly built tents, cheese sandwiches for food, and immediate (and viral) videos showing conditions that led many of the promised performers to back out.
Prosecutors found that McFarland defrauded Fyre Festival investors and ticket vendors of about $26 million. He also continued a "sham ticket scam" while out on bail, according to CNN. He was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to several charges of fraud but was released after serving four years of his sentence.
Following the Fyre Festival scandal, two documentaries were made about the ordeal, including Netflix's 2019 "FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened" and Hulu's 2019 "Fyre Fraud."
