Entertainment
Fyre Festival 2 in Trouble as Venue Disputes Controversial Organizer Billy McFarland’s Claims
Controversial event-organizer Billy McFarland is offering ticket packages as high as $1 million for Fyre Festival 2 after the original version of the highly touted music extravaganza fizzled in 2017 and landed McFarland in jail for fraud.
Fyre Festival 2 doesn’t look any more promising than the first flameout, as the Mexican venue for the event was suddenly changed just weeks before it’s supposed to start.
The glam music fest was slated to take place in Isla Mujeres between May 30 and June 2, but now McFarland says it’s been moved to Playa del Carmen.
In a March 28 press conference in Playa del Carmen, McFarland, 33, announced the new site and boasted that local dignitaries such as the Secretary of Tourism, Secretary of Economy and the Secretary of Security and Civil Protection were in attendance.
“In response to rumors about a supposed event called ‘Fyre 2,’ we inform you that no event of that name will be held in Playa del Carmen,” officials from the resort city on the Yucatan Peninsula fired back. “After a thorough review, there is no record or planning of any such event in the municipality.”
The first Fyre Festival was slated to take place on Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas and feature popular groups including Blink-182, Migos an some 30 others, who all pulled out. The concerts never took place and attendees who paid big bucks for posh glamping accommodations and gourmet food were largely stranded without either.
McFarland wound up serving about four years of a six-year sentence before being released in 2022 — and now he’s back in action.
But PR specialist Thomas Mustac declares, “The second edition of Fyre Festival possesses all the characteristics of a new disaster.”
