It looks like the (possible) return of 2017’s ill-fated Fyre Festival is already off to a suitably shambolic start with evidence that throws the very existence of the event into doubt.
This despite tickets being on sale now.
Having served almost four years in prison for wire fraud and spending the last two licking his wounds, original Fyre Festival organiser Billy McFarland resurfaced just two weeks ago, promising the impossible.
Yes, the entrepreneur with perhaps more cojones than common sense was only going hard on Fyre Festival 2, his attempt to right his previous event’s wrongs in an announcement that caught everyone by surprise.
Not least of all the tourist board of Mexico it seems, who – in a move that will doubtless pour a little water on McFarland’s reignited fire – told The Guardian that Fyre Festival 2 does, in fact, “not exist”.
The bad news comes from Edgar Gasca, a representative for the Isla Mujeres tourism directorate who revealed that the necessary application for the permits to host such an event weren’t even received yet. "We have no knowledge of this event, nor contact with any person or company about it… For us, this is an event that does not exist.”
This despite McFarland promising in a televised interview with NBC’s Today program on 24 February that: “My dream is finally becoming a reality” with an announced location – Isla Mujeres, off the Caribbean coast of Mexico – and locked-in dates – 30 May 30 to 2 June (already hastily shifted from their originally intended 25 to 28 April slot)… And the small matter of tickets being on sale now for prices ranging from $1,400 for an Ignite ticket up to – gulp – $1,100,000 for the private jet ‘n’ yacht, eight-person Prometheus option…
Pouring further doubt upon the venture, Gasca went so far as to say that he’d personally conferred with the minister for tourism and ascertained that all of the hotels listed as providing accommodation for festival goers as part of currently on-sale ticket packages were unaware of the festival’s looming presence.
"I think they thought they would just announce it and see if it got traction, then ask for the permits halfway down the path. It's a bit of a naive way to think," he suggested before confirming that: "This festival is not going to happen. There are red flags all over the place."
No Fyre without smoke…
![FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix - YouTube](https://img.youtube.com/vi/uZ0KNVU2fV0/maxresdefault.jpg)
The original Fyre Festival came under global scrutiny in 2017 as McFarland alongside business partner Ja Rule succeeded in selling out a dream festival experience promising luxury accommodation, fine food, top music artists and next-level pampering, all powered through a ‘grab them while you can’ celeb social media ploy pushing ticket prices only the mega-rich could even consider.
Then, with all eyes on the event and the entertainment media wondering how on earth they’d pulled it off, it turned out that they hadn’t.
We’ll spare you the full horror, only to say that instead, the festival became the subject of a highly successful and critically acclaimed Netflix documentary – Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened – which went a considerable way to spelling out what went wrong, becoming an essential ‘how not to…’ lesson for the then-burgeoning pre-Covid festival start-up avalanche that – it’s safe to say – has since entirely evaporated.
At the time of writing McFarland and team are yet to comment but that site is still live and its socials are still promising that ‘FYRE FESTIVAL 2 IS REAL.”
With $26 million of costs still seeing reimbursement from the first time around (and an unknown amount taken for Fyre 2 ticket sales already) it’ll be interesting to see how this one pans out.
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