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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Josh Salisbury

Fyre Festival fraudster announces second festival after spending time in prison

The convicted fraudster behind the botched Fyre Festival has announced a sequel - Fyre Festival 2 - with tickets now on sale.

The festival’s promoter, Billy McFarland, who was sentenced in October 2018 to six years for fraud over the original festival said the sequel would be coming soon.

Fyre Festival, billed as a luxury festival for two weekends on a private beach in the Bahamas became infamous after it was revealed to be fraudulent, with unsuitable conditions and a lack of food and water.

The ordeal of festival-goers was captured in a Netflix documentary, FYRE.

Announcing the sequel, despite there being no line up, McFarland said in a TikTok video: “This is a big day because, as of right now, Fyre Festival 2 tickets are officially on sale.

“It has been the absolute wildest journey to get here, and it really all started during the seven-month stint in solitary confinement.”

The grounds of the original Fyre Festival (Tyler Watson)

The 31-year-old was placed in solitary confinement during his prison sentence for taking part in a podcast, according to US media reports.

He was released early from prison in May last year and was held under house arrest until last September.

The apparent festival currently has no lineup, no venue or dates confirmed, but McFarland claimed it would be taking place in the Caribbean and that organisers were “targeting Fyre Festival 2 for the end of next year.”

He added: “In the meantime, we’ll be doing pop-ups and events across the world. Guys, this is your chance to get in. This is everything I’ve been working towards.”

McFarland admitted to defrauding investors of $26 million in the 2017 music festival. Guests at the festival who had been promised a luxury musical extravaganza with gourmet dining were instead met with tents and cheese sandwiches.

Customers paid up to more than $100,000 hoping to see Blink-182 and the hip-hop act Migos, only to learn the musical acts were “cancelled”. It led to many voicing their anger online with the hashtag “FyreFraud.”

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