Getty ImagesAn investor in the disastrous Fyre Festival has a warning for anyone interested in attending the rebooted festival: “Proceed with caution.”
Andy King’s comments come after Billy McFarland announced Fyre II, following his recent release from prison for a multimillion-dollar fraud from the original.
Mr King, who lost $1m in the initial disaster, told the BBC that McFarland “has a reputation as the biggest loser in popular culture and wants to turn things around. But I’m not sure he’s going about it the right way”.
McFarland, 32, served four years in prison over the 2017 event in the Bahamas, which failed to deliver any of the “luxury” promised for tickets costing up to $250,000. Tickets for Fyre II in April next year will cost up to $1.1m (£840,000), he said.
McFarland told US media last week that “Fyre II has to work”. He claimed to have spent a year planning and had already sold 100 tickets at the ‘early bird’ price of $499.
Mr King, 63, said he met McFarland a few months ago to discuss Fyre II but he was concerned his former business partner “hasn’t learned much in prison… he’s just going to continue to act recklessly”.
“Billy has a gift. He has great charisma. He knows how to draw people in,” the South Carolina-based event planner told BBC News.
“Think about this: when he was 24, he went to investment banking firms in New York and convinced them to invest $29 million.”
He said Fyre II could be a “huge success” – but if McFarland “ran the show again, it wouldn’t work”.
Andy KingMr King, who said his $1 million investment in the original festival had not been repaid, was contacted by McFarland to meet with investors in the new project.
“I just see a lot of red flags and a lot of red lights,” he said. “And I feel bad. It makes me sad.
“We’re going to rent one of the biggest estates in the Hamptons and throw a lavish party,” said Mr. King, referring to a popular playground for America’s rich and famous.
“We ended up with 30 people at a pizza place along the Montauk Highway.”
He said subsequent calls were dropped and he did not hear from McFarland for seven or eight months.
Getty ImagesFyre was originally promoted by supermodels and celebrities as an exclusive retreat for the super-rich, and the location was hyped as a private island once owned by drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Festivalgoers arrived to find all the talent shows canceled, empty mattresses to sleep in storm-damaged tents and cheese sandwiches in takeout containers to eat.
McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018 for wire fraud and was also ordered to repay $29 million to investors.
He was released in 2022 under an early release program but remains on probation until August next year.
Ticket prices for next year will start at $1,400 but could go as high as $1.1 million, according to McFarland.
The most expensive package will include scuba diving, island hopping and luxury yachting.
He said the event “won’t just be about music” and could include sideshows such as live karate matches.
However, he admitted that he has yet to recruit any talent.
‘They are all watching’
Mr King said he still wanted to talk to his former business partner about his new project, despite still facing backlash over his involvement in the original festival – everywhere he went, he said, people still treated him like a “fraud”.
He became a sympathetic figure in the 2019 Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened for his efforts to reverse the disaster.
IN arguably the most viral moment in the entire storyHe described how McFarland urged him to provide sexual favors to Bahamian customs officials to ensure there was enough bottled water for the event.
However, that “comedic fame” came at a high price for Mr. King.
He added that he had remained in contact with McFarland throughout his time in prison and had briefly counseled him on reputation management last year.
At the very least, he said, “the Fyre brand is so well known around the world that there will be a lot of curiosity.”
“And they’re all watching.”
