Fyre Festival 2: The postponement explained
Very few were surprised when news of the indefinite postponement of Fyre Festival 2 was announced earlier on April 16th. The festival first made headlines in 2017 for the shambolic attempt at a luxury festival; the second attempt has been similarly challenging.
The festival’s founder, Billy McFarland, was previously convicted of fraud and sentenced to six years in prison. A New York court also awarded $7,220 each to 277 attendees. McFarland was released after less than four years.
McFarland nodded to his incarceration in a statement announcing Fyre Festival 2. “After years of reflection and now thoughtful planning, the new team and I have amazing plans for Fyre 2. The adventure seekers who trust the vision and take the leap will help make history.”
The organiser reaffirmed his commitment to his vision: “This has to work.” However, there were various key obstacles in the road that have led to Fyre Festival 2 being postponed and McFarland falling short to deliver on his promises.
Location
McFarland could never pin down exactly where the second festival was to take place. In February, it was announced to be Isla Mujeres, an island off Cancún. However, a revealing Facebook post stated that “no person or company has requested permits from this office or any other Municipal Government department for said event”.
The event was re-announced with a new location in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. This time, local officials used X to reveal that “no event with this name has reached our city”.
The promoters insisted they had meticulously followed this step. “You can’t make this stuff up,” they said. “When a government takes your money, issues permits, promotes the event, and then pretends it’s never heard of you, that’s not just dishonest – it’s theft. Due to this, we have decided to move FYRE Festival 2 elsewhere.”
McFarland had, in fact, secured a permit, but it allowed less than 300 people to attend a 12-hour listening party with live music prohibited. This is much less than the 1,800-person, three-day extravaganza the festival organisers promised, and also wouldn’t have allowed musical acts to perform.
The non-existent musical line-up
Less than two months out from the official date of the festival, the organisers had yet to announce any musical acts. For the first iteration of the festival, acts like Major Lazer, Pusha T, Blink-182 and Desiigner were announced as “just a piece of” the line-up. This never came to fruition.
With other large festivals securing the biggest names in music many months ago, it’s no small feat to pull together a bill fit for this expensive endeavour. The viral Netflix documentary on the chaos of the first festival may have likely warned artists from committing time to a festival which has, thus far, never activated an amp.
Last week, Francesca Keller, better known as DJ Donna Francesca, revealed to Good Morning America why she refused to play Fyre Festival 2, stating, “Fyre Festival, the account, DM’d me and asked me if I wanted to play their festival. He basically framed it as a bunch of beach clubs that they’re taking over, so I asked a bunch of questions.”
Keller continued: “My theory is that if the festival even happens, if they can get this amount of money, it’s going to be just a really chill, boring little beach club moment to some people. I don’t think it’s going to be anything interesting and that would be a waste of my time.”
Confusion over tickets
The official Fyre Festival website was only updated with the postponment announcement on April 16th, but over a week ago, tickets were unavailable to purchase. This time, the organisers have at least issued a refund to all would-be concert goers. Fyre encouraged ticket holders to re-invest in the event: “Once the new date is announced, at that time, you can repurchase if it works for your schedule.”
From the get-go, the pricing structure appeared shoddy. McFarland had reportedly already sold 100 tickets at the early-bird price of $499. Despite this cheaper fee, the pricing structure stretched up to $1.1m, a price that included access to a boat.
The Guardian reported that “a minimum of $500,000 will go towards the money still owed by McFarland, estimated to be close to $26m.” This might explain the hike between tiered pricing, which confused the value of the notorious festival and promised entirely different experiences.
As it stands, McFarland still plans to proceed with Fyre Festival 2, but there is currently no information on when and where it will take place.
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