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If you’re standing up while reading this, you may want to take a seat now. If you’re in a public place, you may want to find a quiet spot to absorb this shocking, shocking news: Fyre Festival 2 has been postponed. On Wednesday, would-be concertgoers who had already bought their $1,400 to $1.1 million tickets were contacted by the festival saying that a refund had been issued, and that they could repurchase tickets when the new date and location are announced. It’s just so out of left field. Who could have possibly seen this coming, after the original 2017 festival became a music-less disaster and organizer Billy McFarland spent four years in prison for wire fraud yet still marched right back out into freedom and announced Fyre 2 for summer 2025 in Mexico even though not one but two Mexican cities denied that any planning, permits, or contact whatsoever had been made to mount the festival in either location? It’s a mystery…
Fyre Festival 2 tickets went on sale in February, with general tickets starting at $1,400. The festival was supposed to take place in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, from Friday, May 30, to Monday, June 2.
But on Wednesday, April 16, ticketholders received a message that the event was postponed. “The event has been postponed and a new date will be announced. We have issued you a refund. Once the new date is announced, at that time, you can repurchase if it works for your schedule,” the message, obtained by PEOPLE, said.
“FYRE Festival 2 is still on,” the statement continued. “We are vetting new locations and will announce our host destination soon. Our priorities remain unchanged: delivering an unforgettable, safe, and transparent experience.”
Billy McFarland, the organizer of the initial Fyre Festival in 2017 and the 2025 festival, announced in August 2023 that the festival would be returning.
“I’m sure many people think I’m crazy for doing this again. But I feel I’d be crazy not to do it again,” McFarland, 33, previously said, per NBC News. “After years of reflection and now thoughtful planning, the new team and I have amazing plans for FYRE 2.”
The festival was originally slated to take place in Isla Mujeres, but in early March, the government of Isla Mujeres denied that the event was taking place there.
Weeks later, McFarland said at a late March press conference that the new event would occur in Playa del Carmen. On Thursday, April 3, the city denied that the music festival is happening there, according to a press release translated by Rolling Stone.
However, in a Friday, April 4 Instagram statement, McFarland said the event organizers have been working with the city of Playa del Carmen since March to secure permits for the music festival. He also included various photos of alleged documents — such as tourism permits, environmental permits and receipts of payments made to the Playa del Carmen government — all filed or submitted over the past month.
The Fyre Festival Instagram account did not mention the postponement on Wednesday, but it did promote a sweatshirt in its Stories with the logo “Fyre 2 is Real.”
Yeah, when your merch has to insist that the event is actually real, I think that’s a clue. Likewise when the organizers make a point of declaring their commitment to safety and transparency — while issuing refunds and postponing an event that the local government said all along “does not exist.” When McFarland announced Fyre 2 back in August 2023, he made a big deal over a supposed 50-page plan he’d worked on to make the second festival better (aka actually happen) — a plan he wrote during a seven-month stint in solitary while he was serving time for his fraud in the first festival. I want to see this fabled document, the one he said put to paper “how it would take my ability to bring people from around the world together to make the impossible happen.” At this point, I’m imagining it’s just doodles of stick figure people and ocean waves and music notes. Oh, and speaking of transparency, as of this writing neither the official Fyre website nor Instagram have any mention of the postponement. None, nada. You can, however, still buy clothing that says “Fyre 2 is Real.”
So the scam has been cancelled till another time when the scam will begin again.
Anybody who bought tickets for this event are fools.
$1.1 million 🤣🤣🤣
McFarland said the government interfered in the first fyre fest and I believed him. He said local officials wanted kickbacks or upped the fees at the last minutes.
Was that true? It’s very plausible. Seems to me Billy is trying put on a show but has no capital. He wants to pay as he goes. It didn’t work the firs5 time and it looks like it’s not working now.
If he is serious he should do a fest in Hawaii or Florida.
Florida and pack the lineup with MAGAs finest musical talents. You want people who are easily manipulated? We got ya!
Not Hawaii. We have a 10PM ‘shut it down’ rule.
Not…everyone who wants to put on a music festival gets to put on a music festival. This felonious fraudster in particular, it seems, should stay away from them. I mean, sic him on Florida if you want, but why would you wish him on poor Hawaii?
He’s sort of like the people who compulsively buy old cars to work on or take in cat after cat even though their house, yard are overflowing with uncared for cars, pets or buy shit on QVC, even though their living space is filled with unopened boxes of stuff they don’t remember ordering.
Only he’s scamming other people’s money and trying to hijack whole unwilling communities with his nonsense.
Dude, just stop.
And other people, stop giving this man your money.
Lol, if the merch wasn’t so expensive and if I thought it actually existed, I’d be tempted to own a “Fyre 2 is Real” hoodie.
Same! 😹
LOL! Same.
I’m actually shocked by this. I thought he’d continue the fraud right up until the end, like he did for Fyre Festival 1.0!
Who the heck was buying tickets!?? UGH
Do you think he’s just delusional? I can’t tell if he’s just a scammer or he really believes.
Assuming people did buy tickets I’m guessing they stashed the money somewhere it could earn interest and those refunds will be slow coming.
Is ‘Fyre Fest is Real’ copyrighted? If not, someone run to Etsy and start selling their own merch with that.
He could probably do these events/one off experiences on a smaller scale. But for men like him bigger is better.
I assume, there is no ROI for these events otherwise larger more established event companies would have put them on already.
What’s sad is he acutally had a good location for the first Fyre Festival. That could have had the infrastructure to do it. The only caveat by the owner was. As long as he didn’t promote that it was previously owned by Pablo Escobar.
So what did Billy do, splash it across all social media the Island was previously owned by Pablo Escobar to create some sizzle and know the media will jump on it and be free PR for him. So the owner canceled the contract.
Billy could have had the potential to be a great event producer. But delusions of grandeur and his lack of ability to execute anything on this scale. Will always have the same result, failure and cancelation.
He will just be lucky this time he won’t go to jail for it. Since he refunded the money. But he will keep trying and keep failing. I think he is a mix ego, conman and mental illness undiagnosed or otherwise IMHO.
Won’t be long before the “I never got my refund” stories come out.
If all these people actually get refunds – then I might die of shock.
Why doesn’t he just plan it somewhere in the US? Planning any large scale music festival is going to be challenging, let alone trying to plan it in a foreign country and have to deal with foreign bureaucracy. Maybe try something at home first before exporting it to some international destination. Though I wouldn’t purchase anything from this guy or believe anything he says.
Lol remember when he said he would be “the White P. Diddy?”
That aged well…