In a development that may land somewhere between Woodstock 1999 and “Staying Alive” on the list of all-time unnecessary sequels, Billy McFarland is promising that there will be a “Fyre Festival II,” even though there was never a Fyre Festival I.
“Fyre Festival II is finally happening,” the promoter posted on Twitter alongside a flame emoji. “Tell me why you should be invited.”
The immediate responses or quote-tweet comments includes such remarks as “Imagine having this level of audacity,” “I’ll just wait for the documentaries” and “Because I hate myself.”
McFarland was released from prison in 2022 after doing four years of a six-year sentence as a result of pleading guilty to charges involving defrauding investors and scamming ticket buyers. He was fined $26 million, as well, and has vowed to find a way to pay the investors he owes.
Earlier in April, he tweeted: “I was one of the most Googled people in the world. What’s next will be the biggest comeback of all time. My plan: get some wins under my belt; rebuild trust, and build an audience so I can build the next media empire.”
McFarlane added: “After 309 days locked in a 9 x 7 concrete box: books taken away; mail held; no phone calls, & 6 years on the sideline – there are few who understand the same level of consequence and failure, and absolutely no one who wants it badder.”
Prior to that, he included his phone number in tweets and asked for texts from interested parties, saying, “I owe people $26m. Here’s how I’m going to pay it back: I spend half my time filming TV shows. The other half, I focus on what I’m really, really good at. I’m the best at coming up with wild creative, getting talent together, and delivering the moment.”
In an interview last September with the New York Times, McFarland made it sound like he was looking beyond the world of entertainment events for his comeback. “I’d like to do something tech-based,” he said then. “The good thing with tech is that people are so forward-thinking, and they’re more apt at taking risk. If I worked in finance, I think it would be harder to get back. Tech is more open. And the way I failed is totally wrong, but in a certain sense, failure is OK in entrepreneurship.”
More recently, setting up the idea that he might be returning to the scene of his crime, as it were, McFarland tweeted, “People aren’t getting paid back if I sit on the couch and watch TV.”
The entrepreneur’s misadventures with the disastrous Fyre Festival were recounted in two documentaries,“Fyre Fraud” on Huluand “Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened” on Netflix. A third documentary is planned — this one about his putative comeback, post-prison — titled “After the Fyre.”
McFarlane may have one of his would-be headliners in mind, although he seems to lack a direct line of contact. “Hey 50 Cent, wanna chat?” he tweeted. Fitty did not jump onto his Twitter account to respond.
