Fyre Festival was the 2017 event that promised to end all the others – a promise made by Billy McFarland. Promoted by the extremely successful advertising campaign with some of the most famous supermodels at the time, everyone was hooked, money was flowing into the project and word was spreading like wildfire.

After researching him for quite a while, I’m not sure if it’s possible for McFarland to stop. It really doesn’t matter how desperate the situation may be, putting the foot even lightly on the breaks is clearly not an option. It was this trait that got McFarland locked up behind bars for the defraudment of Fyre Festival attendees, investors, and employees. 

It was this trait that got him locked up again after paying bail, because he was attempting to sell lousy high society event tickets to the already defrauded Fyre Festival attendees. It was this trait again that landed him in solitary confinement for several months for trying to record a podcast over a prison phone. 

It was this trait that led him to attempt it all over again. The truth was, McFarland actually had nowhere near the amount of money he claimed to have. This may have been the crux of the Fyre Festival disaster, money would constantly dry up during the production – forcing McFarland to beg investors for more money. When those bridges were burned, he started to exhort attendees for more money. Eventually, it got to the point where employees had to forgo pay. 

None of the setbacks were enough to cause McFarland to pull the plug on the event. When the attendees finally arrived they found their tents in ruin, their mattresses soaked all the way through, not a single performer, almost nothing in terms of food. Funnily, none of this was enough for him to call the event off. It took someone to tell McFarland that a few attendees had died. Fortunately this was a lie, but it shook Billy up enough to cancel the event.

After all the smoke settled, McFarland was sentenced to six years in federal prison. After serving around four years, he was released to a halfway house, and finally released to the public in September of that same year. Only a month later, McFarland was selling the idea of his next business venture on TikTok and YouTube. An idea that was “a little crazier, but a whole lot bigger than anything I’ve ever tried before.”

Soon after, Fyre Festival 2 was announced. Indeed, the promise is bigger and crazier than before, though the details were quite vague. The only things known about the event is that it’d supposedly be held on multiple different islands off the coast of Mexico from April 25 – April 28. According to McFarland it would be the greatest moments of your life. This would perhaps be true. If given, you buy one of the million dollar tickets to the festival – and the festival turns out to be a rushed mess like the last one.

It’s an almost inhuman ability to continually lie and keep pushing on through the terrible circumstances of the first Fyre Festival without ever letting cancellation be considered a viable option. (Maybe he knew he’d be jailed anyway as soon as people realized he didn’t have enough money to pay anyone back for canceling the event.) 

There’s something quite unreal about McFarland. He has boyish charm to him and his dreams, that when coupled with money, the drive, and the ability to (even poorly) somehow have the gall to pull off the first Fyre Festival without once backing down is almost inspirational. But to attempt it again?

We don’t even know who’s funding this thing. McFarland still owes a fluctuating amount between 25-28 million dollars to the original investors and attendees, though according to McFarland he was invited to their wedding. So why anyone would still partner him and trust him with their money to host the event for a second time is a mystery. 

It could be the glint in his eye when he grins, or his continued positivity no matter how dire the situation. But maybe it’s the way he talks to that child somewhere still inside of us, the child that still wants to believe Santa is real. It’s somewhere in this hope that I think people continue to ignore all the red flags.

“Fyre Survival Training” was a Fyre related event back in November of 2023. Not a cheap event to put on – to say the least. It was one of those zero gravity plane rides where they bring you and all your friends high up and then down followed by an after party dinner. A few rappers could be seen attending the day’s events including: Capella Grey, Sleepy Hallow, and most notably Bobby Shmurda.

In fact, McFarland’s relationship with rappers got him involved with the Donald Trump campaign last year. McFarland helped secure rappers Sheff G and Sleepy Hallow for the Trump campaign; both gave brief speeches at the May 23 Trump Rally in the Bronx. There’s something to say in all of this and the state of the country. 

There are felony convictions, extravagant claims without anything to back them up, and having the gall to do it again. Just a few similarities held between McFarland and another influential American, it says something about what it is to be an “American”. For how long these qualities will continue to be cherished and allowed to the highest levels of trust and power, only time can tell. 

Then, there was nothing for quite a while. The last thing that we heard from McFarland was from a post on X, formerly Twitter, announcing that he had sold his first million dollar pass to the festival and planned to donate a percent of the proceeds to families and friends of incarcerated inmates. At the newsroom we’d check every other week for updates, but heard nothing. This article has seen two presidents now, the latter, McFarland helped elect. And like wildfire, I saw the headlines erupt.

It was a scandalous scene. First, the government of Playa Del Carmen (the city of which FYRE 2 was supposed to be held) made a post on instagram reading: (Google translated to English from Spanish) “In light of rumors about an alleged event called ‘Fyre 2’, we inform that no event with that name will be held in Playa del Carmen. After a responsible review, there is no registration or planning in the municipality. This government acts with responsibility and commitment to safety, public order and social coexistence. All official information will be disseminated through our institutional channels.”

PYRT_Billy came in with damage control, his post on twitter reads: “FYRE has been working directly with the government of Playa del Carmen (PDC) and their officials since March 5, 2025 to ensure a safe and successful event. All media reports suggesting our team has not been working with the government of PDC are simply inaccurate and based on misinformation. FYRE has operated as a good partner with the PDC government and has followed the proper processes and procedures to lawfully host an event. We will be sharing all relevant permits, payments, and communications.”

This is where things start to get weird. You see, the Playa Del Carmen Instagram account DID acknowledge Fyre 2 and was signed off to be happening between May 30 and June 1, but here’s the thing; hosting the event in Playa Del Carmen was a very last minute decision. What’s more is that it wasn’t at all the Fyre Festival that was advertised. It was for three four hour blocks between midnight and 4 a.m., for pre-recorded music, with a maximum occupancy of 250 people.

I miss the days when pirates blew apart ships and made you walk the plank, because being robbed by this kind of pirate is just embarrassing.

Is this it for McFarland? Has he finally been stopped? Was he yanked into a black van? Only identified months later by a fragment of shattered jaw washed up on the banks of New Jersey… you’d be wrong – no, the people he still owes money to for the original FYRE festival aren’t THAT fed up with him yet. No, he’s playing it ‘good’ this time. The tickets were refunded, and he’s putting the brand up for sale, so if you were thinking he has a name, he has ideas, and there’s a heart in his chest that beats him forward further and further towards wherever he’s pointed.

Too many uppers? Who knows. Is he running in circles? Maybe. But, there has to be someone to plan the next big thing. Maybe it’s McFarland at the head of that train speeding down the track, and you? You just might buy it. It might even be good this time.