Has Fyre really gone out?: Billy McFarland’s festival will be limited to just 250 guests and just 12 hours of music

Well, surprise surprise, it looks as though the Fyre II festival is already falling apart just weeks before it's set to return at the end of May.

As usual with Fyre, it’s chaos. In late February Billy McFarland said that he had secured a venue on the Islas Mujeres, off the Mexican coast. But just days later, the Mexican tourist board told the Guardian that they had no knowledge that the event.

Then, in a bid to show that everything was going according to plan, Fyre shared some official permits and communication with the Mexican authorities on Instagram.

However, it’s now been noted by many commenters that the documents permit a maximum of 250 guests with music limited to just 12 hours across the weekend. And there’s a noise limit of 100 decibels.

That’s not a festival. It’s a soiree.

One Instagram user wrote: “Those are permits from the club owners for regular beach clubs here that hold 250 people. Those are NOT festival events or venues, and the government has not approved any festival of any sort. We live here and the whole city is laughing about this.”

Meanwhile, one psychologist, interviewed by the US version of The Sun, has suggested that Billy McFarland – a convicted fraudster, lest us forget - may be suffering from an undiagnosed disorder.

“(He) describes significant problems frequently associated with aspects of a manic episode at a level of severity that is uncommon even in clinical samples,” a Dr Cheryl Paradis writes. “He is probably quite impulsive and unusually energetic, and most likely meets diagnostic criteria for a manic or hypomanic episode.”

She continued: “(His behaviours may be) marked by inflated self-esteem or grandiosity. That may range from beliefs of having exceptionally high levels of common skills, to delusional beliefs of having special and unique talents that will lead to fame and fortune.”

“His relationships with others are probably under stress due to his frustration with the inability or unwillingness of those around him to keep up with his plans and possibly unrealistic ideas.”

The original Fyre festival became notorious largely due to the 2019 Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened. Punters had been expecting a weekend of ‘luxury’ experiences but encountered a disaster zone with a lack of running water and cheese sandwiches instead of the ‘gourmet’ dining that had been promised. McFarland was found guilty of fraud and served four years in jail.

It looks now likely that Fyre II won't even get that far. Tickets had been on sale – prices ranged from $1,400 to an, ahem, ‘Prometheus’ package that was going for $1.1 million. Ominously, resale sites have stopped taking ticket sales and Instagram posts about festival plans have suddenly disappeared.

Oh and you will be unsurprised to hear that according to their terms and conditions, Fyre II appears to have a ‘no refunds’ policy.