A controversial festival is back. Or is it?
Convicted American scam artist Billy McFarland is out of prison and trying to resurrect Fyre Festival, the infamously disastrous 2017 “luxury music festival.” Although scheduled to take place next month, there’s some confusion over the reboot’s exact location: two Mexican cities have denied that they are hosting the controversial event, but McFarland insists that it’s happening this summer. But the lack of a specific location isn’t deterring McFarland from hawking tickets.
The four-day festival, scheduled for May 30 to June 2, 2025, offers four options. The basic Ignite package costs $1,400 for one person without accommodation; the Fuego package costs $5,000 for one person without accommodation; the Phoenix package costs $25,000 for two people and includes accommodation in the artist area along with concierge service and transportation; and the mega Prometheus package will cost a whopping $1.1 million for eight people and comes with a private charter service, yacht, chauffeur, and other expensive-sounding words.
There are no artist lineup details yet, and the website has not listed any experiences that may be included in the price, stating, “The FYRE Experiences will be released in a number of experiential drops leading up to the festival.”
All sales are final, and the festival does not offer refunds. The terms of service declare, “We may cancel any event at any time in [sic] our sole discretion. Further, event date, time, location, and talent are subject to change, and any such change will not be considered a cancellation of the event. No refunds will be given for event date, time, location, or lineup changes or cancellations by artists.”
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Tickets went live in February, and the first location was announced to be the Mexican island of Isla Mujeres off Cancun. However, the island’s tourism director, Edgar Gasca, told The Guardian at the end of February that the event does not exist. “We have no knowledge of this event, nor contact with any person or company about it.” He pointed to the red flags of the festival, including the coordinates themselves. “If you go on their website and take the coordinates they provide, then put them in Google Maps, it takes you to the ocean between Cancún and Isla Mujeres.”
After this refusal, the festival’s location officially changed to Playa del Carmen. However, City Hall stated on X that no event called “Fyre 2” will be held in Playa del Carmen.
#ComunicadoOficial || En Playa del Carmen no se realizará ningún evento llamado “Fyre 2”.
No existe registro ni planificación.
Este gobierno prioriza el orden, la seguridad y la verdad.
Sigue nuestros canales oficiales.#PlayaDelCarmen #GobiernoConResponsabilidad pic.twitter.com/JN2AUnI64x— Ayuntamiento de Playa del Carmen (@GobPDC) April 3, 2025
Billy McFarland insisted that this is not true and that media reports are inaccurate. He also shared a timeline on Instagram detailing how they have worked directly with the officials of Playa del Carmen, along with emails and permits.
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#DumpsterFyre
In 2017, Bella Hadid, Hailey Baldwin, Kendall Jenner, and many other A-list celebrities and influencers posted about the original Fyre Festival, giving it legitimacy. A promotional video featuring models swimming and sunning in the Bahamas was released to represent the kind of fun festival-goers could expect.
Tickets started at $1,595 and went up to $399,995, selling a fantastical luxury event that was supposedly all-inclusive with food, music, and adventure—a chance to party like an Instagram influencer. The reality, as seen in social media posts from that week, was a tent city with wet mattresses, no electricity or security, sad sandwiches in Styrofoam packaging, and no way to leave when the event was canceled after guests arrived. Ultimately, the government of the Bahamas had to step in to handle the chaos.
The organizers failed to build the villas on the island or pay the artists who were supposed to perform. Unfortunately, the impact wasn’t limited to guests; locals who worked for the festival were never paid. The debacle became so notorious that Netflix made a documentary about it, and Vanity Fair dubbed McFarland the poster boy for millennial scamming.
Calling him a “serial fraudster,” a judge sentenced McFarland to six years in prison and imposed a penalty of over $26 million for a litany of charges, including the infamous Fyre Festival of 2017 and the sham company NYC VIP Access, which he started while awaiting trial. The court also awarded $7,220 to attendees. McFarland was released early from federal prison in March 2022, and in September 2024, he announced the second attempt at the Fyre Festival—because why not? According to McFarland, people are willing to take a chance on him even after he left hundreds bamboozled.
