Fyre Festival

Not to be confused with Frye Festival.

Fyre Festival
Logo
DatesApril 28–30, May 5–7, 2017 and 2025 (proposed)
Location(s)Exuma, The Bahamas

Utila, Honduras

Quinta Roo, Mexico
Years active2017, 2025
Founders
Attendance~5,000

Fyre Festival was a luxury music festival organized by Billy McFarland, an American businessman whose enterprises have been characterized by fraud, and the American rapper Ja Rule. It was originally created with the intent of promoting the company's Fyre app for booking music talent. The festival was scheduled to take place on April 28–30 and May 5–7, 2017, on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma. A rebooted Fyre Festival 2 is scheduled for April 25 to 28, 2025 with the main stage on one of the islands near Quinta Roo, with a 2nd VIP stage located 150 miles south on the Island of Utila, with plans to fly VIP guests between both stages via helicopter and private planes.[2][3]

The original FF1 event was promoted on Instagram by social media influencers, actors, reality TV stars and models including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin, and Emily Ratajkowski, many of whom did not initially disclose they had been paid to do so.[1] During the Fyre Festival's inaugural weekend, the event experienced problems related to security, food, accommodation, medical services, and artist relations, resulting in the festival being indefinitely postponed and eventually cancelled. Instead of the gourmet meals and luxury villas for which festival attendees had paid thousands of dollars, they allegedly received packaged sandwiches and were lodged in poorly furnished tents.[4]

In March 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud to defraud investors and ticket holders, and a second count to defraud a ticket vendor (while out on bail).[5] In October 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison and ordered to forfeit US$26 million.[5] At least eight lawsuits were initiated against the organizers for defrauding ticket buyers, several seeking class action status, and one seeking more than $100 million in damages. Two documentaries about the events of the festival were released in 2019: Hulu's Fyre Fraud,[6] and Netflix's Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened.[7][8]

On April 9, 2023, Billy McFarland tweeted that there was to be a Fyre Festival II.[9]

On September 4, 2024, The Wall Street Journal reported that Billy McFarland officially confirmed Fyre Festival II, set to take place in the Caribbean. The only location McFarland discussed was Utila, a small Honduran island.[3]

  1. ^ a b Bluestone, Gabrielle (April 29, 2017). "Fyre Festival's 25-year-old organizer: 'This is the worst day of my life'". Vice. Archived from the original on May 1, 2017.
  2. ^ Brooks, Dave (September 13, 2024). "Fyre Fest II is Scheduled for Next Spring, Says Convicted Fraudster Billy McFarland". Billboard. Retrieved September 16, 2024.
  3. ^ a b AuthorLastName, AuthorFirstName (September 4, 2024). "Fyre Festival 2: The Return of Billy McFarland". Wall Street Journal.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference nyt20170428 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b "Where are Fyre Festival's Billy McFarland and Ja Rule now?". Evening Standard. April 29, 2019. Archived from the original on June 5, 2019. Retrieved June 5, 2019.
  6. ^ "Hulu Debuts Fyre Festival Doc Days Before Rival Netflix Project". The Hollywood Reporter. January 14, 2019. Archived from the original on February 3, 2019. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
  7. ^ Locklear, Mallory (January 10, 2019). "Netflix's 'Fyre' shows how fraud built and doomed Fyre Festival". Engadget. Archived from the original on February 10, 2019.
  8. ^ Cohn, Warren H. (February 25, 2019). "How Social Media Led To The Rise And Fall Of The Fyre Festival". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 25, 2019. Retrieved February 25, 2019.
  9. ^ Singh, Surej (April 11, 2023). "Fyre Festival II "is finally happening", says Billy McFarland". NME. Retrieved May 7, 2024.