Billy McFarland: 'Fyre Festival II Is Finally Coming'

Remember Fyre Festival? The event where attendees paid up to $US12,000 for the Bahamas-based music festival and were promised a luxury weekend, but instead arrived at Exumas to find that the festival site still needed to be finished being built?

Music acts such as blink-182, and Major Lazer were confirmed on the Fyre Fest bill. However, the event was called off on the first day after its acts pulled out following the news.

The founder of the infamous 2017 would-be festival, Billy McFarland, went to prison in 2018 after pleading guilty to two counts of wire fraud and was released early last March.

McFarland was accused of presenting investors with fake documents that convinced some to contribute more than US$1 million.

McFarland also reportedly budgeted for a $US160,000 yacht for blink-182 (who eventually pulled out of the gig due to concerns about the festival) but did not budget for the festival punters. 

Last October, TMZ revealed that McFarland was planning another music festival. 

Well, it appears that Fyre Festival could return despite the controversies. McFarland posted on Twitter on Monday, “Fyre Festival II is finally happening. Tell me why you should be invited.” He hasn’t provided more information since the time of publishing this article.

🔥 Fyre Festival II is finally happening.

Tell me why you should be invited.

— Billy McFarland (@pyrtbilly) April 10, 2023

One Twitter user responded to the tweet and asked, “Tell me why you shouldn’t be in jail”. He replied, “It’s in the best interest of those I owe for me to be working. People aren’t getting paid back if I sit on the couch and watch TV. And because I served my time.”

it's in the best interest of those I owe for me to be working. people aren't getting paid back if i sit on the couch and watch tv.

and because i served my time.

— Billy McFarland (@pyrtbilly) April 11, 2023

Fyre Festival producer Andy King also responded to McFarland with enthusiasm. King gave a keynote at BIGSOUND 2019, discussing the failed event, becoming a meme overnight thanks to the Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened and more with The Music in the lead-up to the event. You can read the full interview here.