Billy McFarland has a lot of work to do to earn back the trust of any future festivalgoer. After a failed attempt at the most talked-about music festival in the world, McFarland plans to bring back the event for a second try next year — and is already planning a “lead-up” trip.
McFarland sent out an newsletter to those interested in Fyre Fest II on Monday, announcing “Fyre Crew Trip I.”
“When I was in jail I wanted to write a book,” McFarland said in the email. “I was asked why anyone would care about my story. To answer the question, I wrote a memoir introduction that tried to captured the magic – and sheer ridiculousness – of what was happening on the weekend trips that ultimately lead to the festival. A few months after I wrote my intro, the documentaries came out.”
McFarland noted that these trips were “unquestionably the most memorable 3 days of our lives,” and now, he plans to bring them back for “the first FF II lead-up trip.”
The event is slated to go-down President’s Day Weekend from February 16 to 19, 2024. He said a group of 30 people will meet up in either New York City or Miami and then fly together in a group of twin-engine propeller planes, arriving in the Caribbean Friday afternoon.
“This trip isn’t for people who want to just sit by the pool,” the Fyre website reads, noting that on this trip, attendees will be island-hopping by boat, plane, jet ski, and kayaks. He promises the group will be “free-diving for lobster” and “lighting up the island at night,” with housing in a cluster of beach-side villas and a house chef for major meals.
The “lead-up” trip goes for $3,500 per person or $5,500 for a group of two, which includes flights, housing, major meals, daily expeditions, and activities. Those who purchased a Fyre Fest II ticket will receive $500 off their total.
While this seems like a grand trip of a lifetime, let’s not forget the last time that McFarland promised something this amazing; during the first edition of Fyre Fest, he told attendees they would be staying in luxury villas with chef cuisine and promised performances from big name-acts like blink-182 and Disclosure. As most will know, that plan did not come to fruition; instead, festivalgoers were met with no performers, wet tents, and a boxed dinner.
McFarland, who faced prison time for defrauding ticket buyers, told MarketingBrew that “rebuilding trust is a theme that is super important to me” and he hopes to “rebuild my track record.” This time around, he wants to create controversy around the new festival, noting that “we don’t want things to look too good, but we don’t want things to look too bad either.”
“We want 60% of people wanting to come to Fyre to essentially see me get knocked out and to see Fyre fail, then 40% wanting to be there when it’s really, really good,” McFarland said. “I think my job is to create controversy, where we have some good things come through, a lot of negative things come through, and no one really knows what’s going on inside the storm.”
Already, the first 100 presale tickets to Fyre Fest II for $499 were scooped-up during the first day they went on sale. The next 100 tickets were available for $2,500, followed by VIP tickets for $5,000. McFarland said that Fyre received applications for $3,395,000 worth of tickets, writing, “everyone wants to be Jack Sparrow for a weekend.”
Currently, there are no more presale tickets available on the site, but there is a “waitlist” that people can join. The only tickets for sale are listed for a whopping $1,022,057, dubbed the “KLYMENE Pass.” The site does not exactly list what this exorbitantly-priced ticket includes, only noting that the pass “opens, and literally builds, doors to an island escape that transcends the confines and dates of FYRE II” that “immerses you in the elements of Fire, Earth, Sky, and Sea.”
In a video on Instagram, McFarland said that 50% of the funds from the first four KLYMENE Passes will go directly towards those who are owed money from the first Fyre Fest. He said that he will be vlogging over the next several weeks as his team works to pay back everyone in the Bahamas.
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So far, the details surrounding Fyre Fest II are limited, though it is slated to take place in the Caribbean sometime in the end of 2024. No lineup or further information has been released at this time. McFarland claims, however, that the festival will be “three days that you’ll talk about for the rest of your life.”
