In 2017, the disastrous Fyre Festival left thousands of attendees without adequate food, water and accommodations on a Bahamian island. The incident went so viral that it spawned two documentaries, one for Netflix and another for Hulu.
As a result, founder and orchestrator Billy McFarland wound up pleading guilty to wire fraud charges and was sentenced to six years in prison, of which he served less than four before being released in 2022.
McFarland has now announced his plans for Fyre Festival II, set to take place on a private Caribbean Island in April 2025. In an interview with TODAY, he detailed his plans for the event.
“Fyre Festival II is happening April 25, 2025, so we’re seven and a half months away,” McFarland said. “We have a private island off the coast of Mexico in the Caribbean, and we have an incredible production company who’s handling everything from soup to nuts.”
This time around, the festival would reportedly rely on already-existing infrastructure for accommodations, bathrooms and restaurants, rather than seeking to build its own. McFarland said that he would still be working on developing the island ahead of the fest.
While the original Fyre Festival never actually saw any live performances, the second would aim to deliver on more than just music. McFarland told TODAY that although he hasn’t booked any acts just yet, “it’s not going to be just music — for example, karate combat. We’re in talks with them to set up a pit to have, like, live fights at Fyre Festival II.”
