Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland has announced that the first round of tickets for Fyre Festival II has sold out.
Described by McFarland as the “adventure of a lifetime”, Fyre Festival II is an attempt to shift the narrative around McFarland and the original 2017 Fyre Festival that was riddled with scandals and resulted in McFarland spending four years in federal prison for wire fraud.
McFarland took to social media to talk about Fyre Festival II after it was announced the first round of tickets sold out:
“The first FYRE Festival II drop has sold out. 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. FYRE is about people from around the world coming together to pull off the impossible.
“This time we have incredible support. I’ll be doing what I love while working with the best logistical and infrastructure partners. In addition, all ticket sale revenue will be held in escrow until the final date is announced. We look forward to surprising the world alongside our partners as we build FYRE and FYRE Festival II into the island adventure of a lifetime,” he added.
The initial tickets for Fyre Festival II went on sale for $499 (£390), with later releases set to cost up to $7,999 (£6,250).
The original festival was promoted by multiple popular celebrities including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Hailey Bieber. Fyre Festival was promised to contain an array of musical performances, as well as other attractions. It was to be hosted on an island in the Bahamas that was claimed to have been previously owned by Pablo Escobar.
Despite the hype surrounding the festival, it ultimately resulted in a disaster. So much so that both Netflix and Hulu released shows documenting the festival and how it concluded with McFarland in jail.
In 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and admitted to lying to investors that funded the first Fyre Festival. He was released from prison early in March 2022, and required to return $26 million to investors of the event.
Speaking in a YouTube video uploaded on Monday, McFarland spoke about Fyre Festivall II:
“It has been the absolutely wildest journey to get here and it really all started during the seven-month stint in solitary confinement. I wrote out this 50-page plan of how it would take this overall interest and demand in Fyre and 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.”
He added: “we decided that Fyre Festival is coming back to the Caribbean. We are targeting Fyre Festival II for the end of next year.”
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