Billy McFarland — the founding father of 2017’s disgraced Fyre Fest — claims he has secured ample funds to repay his money owed, launch a brand new model of the pageant, and develop a Broadway musical concerning the authentic occasion.
First developed by McFarland six years in the past, the botched pageant Fyre Fest was initially set to run over two weekends on a personal seaside within the Bahamas, however was revealed to be fraudulent as soon as punters arrived on the scene, with inadequate situations and a scarcity of meals and water.
The debacle was then captured in the now iconic Netflix documentary FYRE.
Following the failure of the pageant, McFarland pleaded responsible to a number of counts of fraud and was sentenced to 6 years in jail. He was launched early from his sentence in 2022, after serving 4 years.
In March this 12 months, McFarland laid out his plans to repay the $26million (£20.9million) he owes to traders. “Here’s how I’m going to pay it back: I spend half my time filming TV shows. The other half, I focus on what I’m really, really good at,” he stated on Twitter.
“I’m the best at coming up with wild creative, getting talent together, and delivering the moment,” he added, concluding his tweet with a quantity at which individuals might contact him with enterprise alternatives.
@pyrtbilly Two 🔥 updates: FYRE Festival is occurring!!
Now, the Fyre Fest founder has acknowledged that he has secured sufficient funding to not solely clear the debt he gathered in 2017, however sufficient to launch a “2.0” model of the pageant and an accompanying Broadway musical too.
He made the announcement on TikTok and in an interview with journalist Adam Glyn. “Instead of like traditional Broadway actors, it’s going to be current music artists, combined with the Broadway format of the play — making fun of me, but also I think sharing some of the good sides as well,” he stated of the deliberate musical, which he has dubbed Fyre Fest 1.5.
As for these owed cash within the Bahamas, he added: “They’re getting paid back and getting paid back, like right now.”
McFarland declined to enter particular element concerning his plans for the second version of the pageant, though did affirm that it’ll as soon as once more happen on an island — simply not within the Bahamas.
He additionally claimed that quite a few artists have been desirous to be a part of the upcoming line-up. “The reaction for getting artists has been so extreme,” he stated. “Half of them are like, ‘Fuck off, how dare you call us’. And there’s half [who have been] been texting, emailing, saying, ‘Hey, like what can we do to come?’”
Last 12 months, following his launch from jail, McFarland additionally launched a Bahamas treasure hunt enterprise, referred to as ‘PYRT’. The occasion was anticipated to be the topic of a not-yet-released documentary titled ‘After The Fyre’.