We all remember Fyre Fest right? The absolute worst music festival ever organised?
The photo that defined a festival
Like, Woodstock was badly organised, but at least people still had a great time and it’s remembered as a culture-defining event of the 1960s.
Fyre Fest on the other hand is remembered purely for how badly it was organised.
It went so badly in fact that the organiser, Billy McFarland went to prison because of it!
Remember that festival? Well… it’s back!
Fyre Fest 1: Recap
Okay, let’s first quickly refresh ourselves on just how much of a Sh*tshow the original Fire Fest was, and then we can discuss the absolutely nonsense idea of bringing it back!
Fyre Festival was the brainchild of Billy McFarland.
A man who’s Wikipedia page mostly covers his fraud conviction and incarceration.
Tells you a lot about him.
What experience did he have before starting a music festival? Well, he founded Magnises, which was a card that you paid an annual subscription for, and it then gave you discounts and other perks.
It is now seen as a bad idea at best, and a scam at worst.
Billy then started an app called Fyre, which was a way to book musicians, and Fyre Fest was created as a way to promote the new app.
What a logical reason to start an entire music festival…
Rather than rehash Fyre Fest again (let’s face it, we all watched both the documentaries about it.)
Instead, let’s just cover some of the major points of what made the festival such a Dumpster Fyre.
The Island
Fyre Festival managed to book a private island to take place on: Norman’s Cay.
It happens to have a rather sinister past, that it was once used as part of a drug-smuggling operation by Carlos Lehder.
One of the rules for Fyre Festival to hire the island was that they were not allowed to mention this part of the islands’ history in their advertising.
Instead, they immediately posted that Fyre Festival was taking place on an island once owned by Pablo Escobar (it wasn’t).
The owners immediately cancelled the agreement with Fyre Fest.
Glamping
Fyre Festival promoted luxury Glamping accommodation for all guests.
Disaster relief tents were erected instead.
And they had far fewer tents than there were people, leading to scenes of stealing mattresses and raiding tents, more like something from Lord of the Flies than Glastonbury…
Artists
Fyre Festival was to have some huge name artists play, like Blink 182 and Major Lazer
What happened was that Blink182 pulled out as soon as they realised what a mess the festival was turning out to be, and then the other acts quickly followed suit.
Nothing was put on as the festival was cancelled before it had even begun.
Really, the one and only good thing that came from Fyre Festival was the worldwide phenomenon of dunking on it and collectively being happy we weren’t dumb enough to spend thousands of dollars on a ticket!
Billy McFarland was sentenced to 6 years in prion (of which he served 4) and was told to make restitutions of $26 million.
So obviously, as soon as he was released from prison he thought: “Let’s do that again!”
And so we now have…
Fyre Festival 2: Electric Boogaloo
Yes that’s right, McFarland has announced his plans to relaunch the festival: Fyre 2!
At the time of writing, the website loads up with a very slow animation of numbers going up to 100.
I guess it’s the website loading bar?
It’s atrocious and shows off the bat that even the website isn’t made very well
So let’s take in some of the details about the event and see how Fyre 2 is going to bigger and better than Fyre Festival 1!
To be fair, just actually having the festival take place would make it about a thousand times better than Fyre Fest…
Fyre 2 – Dates
Billy McFarland has announced that Fyre 2 is going to take place May 30th and June 2nd, 2025.
Yes, you read that right, Fyre 2 is happening THIS YEAR!
It is absolutely incredible to think that Billy wants this festival to take place within WEEKS of it being announced!
Chris Smith, who directed the Netflix documentary, FYRE, summarised the issues of the original Fyre Festival very well:
“The organisers had six to eight weeks to pull off something that should have taken close to a year” – Chris Smith
It’s great to know that Billy has learned absolutely nothing from his previous mistakes…
Fyre 2 – Location
The location of Fyre 2 is an island in Mexico: Isla Mujeres
Look, the actual coordinates for it are right there on the website! (We’ll talk more about the rest of the website later…)
Well, the coordinates actually point to an area just off the coast of the island.
I don’t understand coordinates though, so maybe thats the best they could do…?
Regardless of if the festival is going to take place on the island or in the ocean is a bit of a moot point though, as the Mexican government has said they had no idea about the festival at all.
Edgar Gasca, from the tourism directorate of the island told The Guardian:
“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.” – Edgar Gasca
Mr. Gasca also had something to say about the coordinates:
“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” Gasca added, laughing incredulously.
So maybe I was right to think that was a bit odd.
After this all came out, Billy McFarland took to Instagram to explain what was going on and allay any fears about Fyre 2.
In the video, Billy McFarland goes through a list of things that he wants to clear up and/or moan about.
He talks about accommodation, his court-mandated repayments and the partners he’s working with to organise the festival (Which sound suspiciously to me like he’s preparing to throw them under the bus, but that’s just my own opinion!)
On the topic of permits, Billy had this to say:
“My partners and I have remained in contact with local and state government to ensure full compliance and a succesful event…” – Billy McFarland
He offered no proof of this claim.
Meaning that this comes down to who you happen to trust more: the Mexican government, or a man who went to prison for fraud the last time he tried to organise this exact event.
Billy ends his Instagram video by saying that updates will come directly from him in the future, which as we all know, is absolutely the way that world-class festivals are run…
Now let’s go back to the Fyre 2 website and see what more details we can gather about this event!
The Fyre 2 Website
I looked at the website on the 10th March 2025. Just over 2 months before the festival is supposed to take place.
It is objectively funny just how sparse the website is on details.
At least it has a good description of what the festival INTENDS to be.
Okay, I’ll admit it: that’s a good elevator pitch.
Tell me more about this music, comedy, gaming, sports and treasure hunting…
Not much in the burger menu. Which one do we think would explain about all the events happening at the festival?
Well, obviously in the ‘Fyre Experience’ section!
Okay, let’s click and read all about the fantastic experiences the festival is offering!
I’ve not cut anythng off, by the way. That is the entire section about the Fyre Experiences.
Basically it says a lot more buzzwords, but nothing concrete…
Artists – Artist
The only artist confirmed at the time of writing is the rapper, AB.
AB is more well known as former NFL player, Antonio Brown.
Like, much more well known. I searched ‘Rapper AB’ and two wikipedia pages for other rappers known as AB showed up before him.
But okay, AB does seem to have a succesful rap career. Just because I’ve never heard of him doesn’t really account for much.
But for no-one else to yet be announced for Fyre 2 is weird.
And actually, even AB hasn’t actually been announced yet!
HE said he was performing, but that hasn’t even been confirmed by the festival!
You would think that announcing artists would be a top priority this close to the event, but what do I know?
The website says “Embrace the unknown” – I couldn’t have put it better myself.
So what is Billy McFarland charging for this… thing?
I really don’t want to call it a festival, since nothing on the website leads me to think of it like that!
Fyre 2 – Pricing
When you’re on the website, the only really thing you see is signs pointing to buying tickets.
They’re clearly trying some subliminal messaging here…
Now, I get it: buying tickets is the call-to-action for the website, it’s what they want users to do.
But why anyone would buy a ticket to Fyre 2 is beyond me, since the website doesn’t really explain what you would be buying a ticket to!
However, the actual pricing is the funniest thing about this entire thing.
The tickets are on a tiered system, with 4 offerings: Prometheus, Phoenix, Fuego & Ignite.
The first one, the one the website pushes most, is the ‘Prometheus’ ticket.
The Prometheus package includes:
- Access to the festival for all four days
- Tickets for 8 people
- On-stage access to the Water Stage (It isn’t explained what the Water Stage is)
- Fight team access at the fight Pit (None of that is explained)
- 24/7 private chauffeur (Who needs a chauffeur at a festival??)
- Fyre Experiences (which haven’t been announced)
- Flights
- Accommodation
Not a bad deal, right?
Especially if those Fyre Experiences turn out to be decent.
So what are they charging for this ticket?
Yes, more than a MILLION DOLLARS for that ticket!
Even if you split it eight ways between friends, thats $137,000 each!
Now I know that Fyre Festival was the exclusive realm of rich idiots, and I’m guessing that Fyre 2 is targeting richer and dumber people, but that is legitimately a terrible deal!
But hey, thats the most expensive ticket, it’s going to be doolally pricey.
What’s the cheap ticket situation?
Fyre Festival – Cheapest ticket
That would be the Ignite ticket, and it goes for the cheap-as-chips price of $1,400.
Did I say cheap as chips? I meant expensive as Wagyu beef!
So what does the Ignite ticket include?
- Access to the festival for all four days
That’s it.
The Ignite ticket does not include flights, accommodation, or any Fyre Experiences.
So that $1,400 dollars is going to inflate dramatically when you factor in getting there, staying there and actually doing anything at the festival.
Not sure I can say that it seems like the deal of a lifetime right now…
Wrap up
Billy McFarland is trying his luck again with a new music festival.
He’s clearly cashing in on the idea that people will want to see just what a shitshow it will be, and so will still buy tickets despite all the red flags.
I think that’s why he’s not even changed the name of it: Billy WANTS people to remember the 2017 Fyre Festival and what a phenomenon it became, but for all the wrong reasons.
I think that he wants to try and turn that infamy around and make Fyre 2 into a phenomenon for the RIGHT reasons.
Well, that’s an optimistic, charitable opinion.
The festival is happening very soon, very little has been announced and ticket prices are obscene.
So a negative, pessimistic opinion is that Billy is using his infamy to take a little more money from anyone who still has any faith in him (or more money than sense).
Only time will tell which one it is, but thankfully it’s not that much time! At the time of publishing, the festival tales place in only 44 days!
Let’s wrap up with a summary:
Do I see Fyre 2 actually happening? No.
Do I feel bad for anyone who buys tickets and may lose out? Also no.
We all know what Billy’s track record is, and if you still trust him, then more fool you.
Read the first update here.
Find out what happened (It was cancelled, obviously) here.