It’s been eight years since tech bro Billy McFarland’s Fyre Fest stranded guests in the Bahamas with nothing but limp sandwiches and FEMA tents. McFarland, now a convicted fraudster, has spent nearly four years in prison for my favorite scam of the 2010s. And still, that man is holding onto the idea of launching another music festival: In February, McFarland told Today that the second iteration of his festival was headed to Isla Mujeres, Mexico, from May 30 to June 2. “Fyre 2 is real,” he said at the time. “My dream is finally becoming a reality.” The only problem is that McFarland’s concept of reality isn’t quite lining up with, well, reality. And, once again, it’s looking increasingly unlikely that Fyre Fest 2.0 will come to fruition, considering not one but two separate Mexican cities continue to deny its existence.
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In February, tickets went on sale for “Fyre MX” via a glitchy website, with vague offerings like the $1,400 Ignite package or the $5,000 Fuego Experience, which includes its own “exclusive gateway” (?). A few days later, Isla Mujeres’ tourism director told the Guardian that it had “no knowledge of this event, nor contact with any person or company about it,” calling the festival “an event that does not exist.” Then, last month, McFarland clarified in a press conference that, actually, the festival would take place in Playa del Carmen, noting that “our relationships with Playa may be new, but I know I speak for the rest of the team when I say we couldn’t ask for a better group of people.”
But according to Rolling Stone, Playa del Carmen also has no record of the event. “Neither this event nor any event with its name will occur in our city,” the government of Quintana Roo, the state in which Playa del Carmen is located, told the outlet in a statement Thursday. “After looking over the information around the situation, we can confirm that there have been no registrations, planning, or conditions to indicate that this will happen in our municipality.”
The statement comes just days after McFarland posted a video to Fyre Festival’s Instagram claiming that the fest hosted its press conference at Playa del Carmen’s Martina Beach Club, “one of the official venues for Fyre 2.” He said that its production and hospitality partners were on hand, as well as “members of the government,” before hyping up Fyre 2’s alleged lineup of “DJs, rappers, reggae artists … and pop stars.” At the very least, I’m glad to see that McFarland remains his own No. 1 cheerleader. No one believes in the success of Billy McFarland more than Billy McFarland!
