Billy McFarland is promoting Fyre Competition’s model : NPR

The organizer of the failed Fyre Fest and its long-awaited sequel — which was purported to happen subsequent month — has put the model up on the market.

Founder Billy McFarland introduced Wednesday that the model had grown “greater than anyone particular person and larger than what I will lead alone,” and that it wants a staff with “scale, expertise and infrastructure” to achieve its full potential. He mentioned on social media that “it is time to move the torch.”

“‍We’ve got determined one of the best ways to perform our objectives is to promote the FYRE Competition model, together with its emblems, IP, digital property, media attain, and cultural capital — to an operator that may totally understand its imaginative and prescient,” he wrote.

patrons can present their private info and make an open-ended supply by a web-based kind. A disclaimer says individuals who submit gives will get an electronic mail with a request for follow-up info, and their “bid can be thought of forfeit” if they do not reply inside 24 hours.

McFarland mentioned his staff will decide the brand new proprietor based mostly on “their potential to execute the imaginative and prescient of FYRE in a clear, grand and expeditious method.”

“The subsequent chapter of FYRE can be greater, higher, and constructed to final with out me on the helm,” he added.

The property on the market embrace not solely Fyre’s title, mental property and emblems, however an unspecified “Caribbean Competition Location” that McFarland says is able to host Fyre Competition 2.

McFarland’s announcement confirms that the much-anticipated, repeatedly postponed sequel is not going to happen on Might 30 in Mexico as deliberate.

Doubts about the place — and whether or not — the pageant would occur arose in latest weeks, after native governments of two completely different islands, one after one other, publicly denied that they’d be internet hosting it.

Media shops together with ABC and NBC reported final Wednesday that organizers notified ticket-holders that the occasion was postponed, solely to say a couple of hours later that the present would go on and it could announce a brand new host vacation spot quickly.

McFarland mentioned he has engaged with leaders from a number of Caribbean locations which have already approached him about internet hosting the pageant. However plainly work will proceed with out him.

“Giving management of the model to a brand new group is probably the most accountable option to observe by on what we got down to do: construct a world leisure model, host a protected and legendary occasion, and proceed to pay restitution to those that are owed from the primary pageant,” McFarland wrote.

How did we get right here? 

Wednesday’s abrupt announcement is the most recent flip in a saga that started in earnest in April 2017, when the authentic Fyre Competition imploded.

The occasion was marketed — by a forged of big-name influencers and celebrities — as a glamorous music pageant on a secluded Bahamian island with luxurious lodging. However when attendees arrived on Nice Exuma for the inaugural weekend, they had been met with a scene of complete chaos.

Their luxurious lodging turned out to be unfinished FEMA tents, and gourmand meals was truly boxed cheese sandwiches.

Lots of the scheduled artists — a lineup together with Blink-182, Migos, and Main Lazer — had already canceled their performances. Attendees discovered themselves stranded on a distant — and, by design, “cashless” — island, with out insufficient safety, medical care, meals, lodging, loos or transportation.

Organizers shortly supplied refunds and an apology, with McFarland telling Rolling Stone that “we had been a little bit naïve in considering for the primary time we may do that ourselves.” However that did not stem the fallout, which included a number of lawsuits, dueling documentaries and prison fees.

A whole lot of ticket-holders filed a category motion lawsuit towards occasion organizers, which they settled for $2 million in 2021. McFarland was sentenced to 6 years in jail after pleading responsible to 2 counts of wire fraud associated to the pageant.

He was launched two years early in 2022 however nonetheless owes $26 million in restitution. McFarland shortly turned his consideration to rebooting the pageant. He mentioned on Wednesday that Fyre Competition 2 was “about two issues: ending what I began and making issues proper.”

What’s taking place with the pageant? 

The trail to Fyre Competition 2 has been bumpy for years.

McFarland first unveiled his plans in 2023, for a pageant slated to happen in December 2024. He then introduced in September 2024 that the pageant would happen over three days in April 2025 on an unnamed “personal island off the coast of Mexico.”

McFarland instructed the TODAY Present that he would not be dealing with logistics this time round, saying he had “an unimaginable manufacturing firm who’s dealing with the whole lot from soup to nuts.”

Whereas particulars on expertise and placement had been scarce, McFarland mentioned the pageant would have extra than simply music (“for instance, karate fight”). He talked of excursions like scuba diving and “tremendous costly” cheese sandwiches, paying homage to the 2017 version.

Tickets went on sale in February 2025, even earlier than a lineup was introduced.

Ticket costs began at $1,400, based on Selection, however excessive rollers may pay $5,000 for VIP entry, $25,000 for artist entry and $1.1 million for the “Prometheus God of Fyre” bundle (which included a four-stateroom yacht and personal chauffeur service).

The web site mentioned on the time that the pageant can be held on Isla Mujeres, a tropical island off Cancún, Mexico. However inside days, the native authorities was disputing that.

“We’ve got no data of this occasion, nor contact with any particular person or firm about it,” Edgar Gasca, from the tourism directorate of Isla Mujeres, instructed the Guardian when requested about it in late February. “For us, that is an occasion that doesn’t exist.”

Organizers modified course, saying on Instagram — after which at a press convention — in late March that the pageant can be held within the coastal resort city of Playa Del Carmen. However they had been foiled as soon as once more in early April when Playa del Carmen Metropolis Corridor posted on social media: “There can be no occasion referred to as ‘Fyre 2’ in Playa del Carmen.”

The put up mentioned there have been no information or plans to point such an occasion was being held throughout the municipality. McFarland shortly fired again on social media, saying Fyre had been working immediately with the native authorities since early March and sharing varied screenshots of what he referred to as “permits, funds and communications.”

Two weeks later, attendees received messages about postponement and refunds. Competition spokesperson Nick Lawson mentioned in an announcement reported by the Washington Submit that the occasion wouldn’t begin in Playa del Carmen on Might 30 in any case, however insisted that “FYRE Competition 2 remains to be on.”

“We’re vetting new places and can announce our host vacation spot quickly,” the assertion mentioned. “Our priorities stay unchanged: delivering an unforgettable, protected, and clear expertise.”

McFarland mentioned Wednesday that “following the challenges we confronted in Mexico,” his staff dove into the method of discovering a brand new venue, conducting web site visits and assembly with officers. He mentioned they’re assured they’ve “discovered the best location for the pageant” — below new management.

“Whereas I am extremely excited, I can not threat a repeat of what occurred in Playa Del Carmen, the place assist shortly became public distancing as soon as media consideration intensified,” McFarland mentioned. “For FYRE Competition 2 to succeed, it is clear that I must step again and permit a brand new staff to maneuver ahead independently, bringing the imaginative and prescient to life on this unimaginable island.”