The Fyre Festival fraudster is launching his latest thing, and it looks like a party on an island
Fresh off four years in prison, barred from ever serving as director of a public company, and buried beneath $26 million in victim paybacks, Billy McFarland, founder of the fraudulent Fyre Festival, wants to make a comeback.
Fresh off four years in prison, barred from ever serving as director of a public company, and buried beneath $26 million in victim paybacks, Billy McFarland, founder of the fraudulent Fyre Festival, wants to make a comeback.
“I was talking to somebody yesterday and they’re like, ‘You can crawl in a hole and die, or you can go and try to do something and just like not promise any results,’’’ McFarland said in a recent interview with NBC News.
It was, basically, the promises that got him last time. McFarland went from obscure New York City entrepreneur to world-renowned fraudster after the collapse of his festival became a cultural moment: an event promoted on social media by high-profile models and celebrities overpromising a Coachella for the Bahamas with luxury villas and decadent dishes. The festival instead imploded, leaving many attendees in FEMA tents and eating packaged sandwiches — and none of the promised entertainment. Attendees’ desperate posts went viral, and the disaster spawned two documentaries and dozens of podcasts.
In October 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison for fraud.
Why Fyre Fest was the greatest party that never happenedJan. 18, 201902:51His new venture, PYRT (pronounced “Pirate”), launched on social media in October and is supposed to kick things off by hosting, yes, a remote island extravaganza — one that McFarland insists is not a festival. Featuring a slew of influencers and creators, the purported tropical experience will include virtual reality technology that the company says will allow users to participate and control what happens on the island in real time from home.
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