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Fyre Festival: it was the biggest catastrophe in the events industry of 2016 — arguably, of all time. And now, its founder is back again to give the failed festival another try. Yep, believe it or not, Fyre Festival is officially back.
The original Fyre Festival, which was spearheaded by Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule in 2016, promised to be the music event of the century. There would be dreamy beaches, gourmet food, epic musical performances and a lot of lounging on yachts — and people were hyped. After all, the likes of Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin and Emily Ratajkowski were even involved in the promotion. But then, disaster struck.
Instead of giving guests the luxurious festival they had promised, the founders failed to deliver on… well… pretty much everything. Guests, some of whom had paid $12,000 for tickets, arrived to find chaotic housing arrangements, minimal security and truly disgusting food (we all remember that infamous cheese sandwich).
Naturally, the disaster of a festival quickly went viral on social media — we all remember the Fyre Fest memes! The damp mattresses! The chaos! The cheese sandwich!!!
The whole thing was later turned into a hit Netflix documentary, that revealed the organisational failures that led to one of the biggest event debacles of all time.
It's safe to say that no one saw a sequel to Fyre Festival coming. After all, its founder, Billy McFarland, wound up in jail on charges of fraud. However, since his release last year, McFarland has evidently been busy doing what he seems to do best — scheming.
In a surprise video posted on Instagram, McFarland announced “Fyre Festival 2”.
“It has been the absolute wildest journey to get here and it really all started during the seven-month stint in solitary confinement,” said McFarland in his video, wearing, for some reason, what looked like a white satin dressing gown.
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"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, how I would find the best partners in the world to allow me to be me while executing Fyre's vision to the highest level," he went on.
"In the meantime, we'll be doing pop-ups and events across the world. Guys, this is your chance to get in. This is everything I've been working towards. Let's f***ing go," he concluded.
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Um, yeah, sounds really great…?
But while some may call this plan utterly unhinged, evidently all press really is good press — despite the dismal failure of his first attempt, the first 100 pre-sale tickets, priced at $499, have already sold out: “The first FYRE Festival II drop has sold out,” McFarland wrote in an Instagram announcement just one day after his initial announcement.
We cannot wait to see what becomes of Fyre Festival 2. If the first one is anything to go by, even if it doesn't go to plan, it's bound to be nothing short of fascinating. Come on… just think of the memes!
