Tickets for Fyre Fest II officially went on sale Monday, even though no activities or musical acts have been announced yet, and its founder is barely three years out of prison for wire fraud.
“We’re going to have artists across electronic, hip hop, pop and rock,” founder Billy McFarland told “Today” in an interview that aired Monday. “However, it’s not just music. We might have a professional skateboarder do a demonstration. We might have an MMA champion teach you techniques in the morning.”
He said he has already sold 100 tickets at $500 each for the May 30-June 2 festival, to be held on Mexico’s Isla Mujeres off Cancun. The rest will go for $1,400 to $1.1 million. Tickets can be bought at the festival’s website. Festivalgoers are promised the luxury experience of a lifetime.
“You will be on a boat, have the luxury yachts that we partner with who will be docked and parked outside the island,” McFarland told “Today.” “But once again, Fyre is not just about this, like, luxury experience. It’s about the adventure. So you’ll be scuba diving with me. You’ll be bouncing around to other islands and other countries on small planes.”
He did not name the countries.
The festival’s website promises a range of “Fyre Experiences” with details to “be released in a number of experiential drops leading up to the festival,” according to its description.
Tickets are divided into four tiers, starting with the eight-person, $1.1 million “Prometheus” package, which includes accommodations, VIP access, transportation, chauffeur service, an onsite concierge, marina marina access and more. The $25,000 “Phoenix” tier includes similar access and experiences, while purchasers of the $5,000 “Fuego” and $1,400 “Ignite” packages can buy experiences separately, a la carte.
Fyre’s first iteration, in 2017, was widely seen as a massive failure. The luxe accommodations promised on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma turned out to be tents and instead of the promised gourmet fare, guests were served cold cheese sandwiches. After musical acts bailed at the last minute, attendees were left stranded as organizers canceled the festival entirely. The fiasco resulted in at least two documentaries.
McFarland later pleaded guilty to wire fraud to the tune of $26 million and served less than four years of a six-year sentence, emerging from jail in 2022. Prosecutors branded him a “consummate con artist” and “serial fraudster” who had hatched even more schemes in the wake of his Fyre arrest.
McFarland said this time he has hired a festival organizer as well as companies handling travel, ticketing and hotels.
“Fyre 2 really isn’t about the past, and it’s not really about me,” McFarland told “Today.” “It’s about taking the vision, which is strong.”
Reporting from the Associated Press was used in this story.
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