Mexican government officials and luxury hotel venues are casting doubt on the return of infamous Fyre Festival – this time branded as Fyre Festival 2.
The event is set to take place on Isla Mujeres from May 30 to June 2 and festival founder Billy McFarland insists that everything is on track.
But key stakeholders on the island are telling a very different story.
Isla Mujeres’ city hall has released a damning statement, pouring cold water on McFarland’s claims revealing how the festival’s organizers have not yet even applied for the necessary permits to hold the event.
‘The General Directorate for Tourism of Isla Mujeres informs that no person or company has requested permits from this office or any other municipal government department for said event,’ the statement read.
The revelation raises serious concerns about whether Fyre Festival 2 can legally proceed, despite convicted con artist McFarland’s confident assertions that the event is still on and will go ahead as planned.
Just like its predecessor, Fyre Festival 2 has been aggressively marketing a high-end experience, with ticket packages costing as much as $25,000.
The Phoenix package, as listed on the festival’s website, includes four-day festival access for two, private transportation, and a lavish three-night stay at either Impression Isla Mujeres by Secrets or Almare All-Inclusive Resort.
Billy McFarland insists that everything is on track despite Mexican resorts saying no permits have been secured
McFarland wrote a lengthy statement insisting how the festival was definitely going ahead
McFarland was jailed for four years after guests paid up to $13,000 for a trashy unfinished site and canceled performances at the original festival
Yet in another embarrassing twist, Mourad Essafi, the general manager of the Secrets resort publicly denied any affiliation with the festival.
‘We are not sponsoring Fyre Festival 2 or affiliated with it in any way. Reports to the contrary are false,’ Essafi declared on February 28.
Despite this the hotel is still listed on the festival’s website as a premium accommodation option, raising even more questions about the legitimacy of McFarland’s claims.
McFarland attempted to reassure ticket holders and festival-goers in a social media video on Tuesday.
He insisted that Fyre Festival 2 had secured contracts with ‘a number of villas, yachts, and hotels,’ though he conspicuously avoided naming specific locations.
After some hotels publicly disassociated themselves from the festival, McFarland took an aggressive stance stating how his team had ‘terminated those contracts’ after two hotels allegedly gave ‘misleading statements, saying they never heard of Fyre.’
While McFarland did not specify which hotels he was referring to, it remains unclear how many actual agreements are in place.
‘We’re going to have artists across electronic, hip hop, pop and rock. However, it’s not just music,’ McFarland said to Today.
‘We might have a professional skateboarder do a demonstration. We might have an MMA champion teach you techniques in the morning.’
The infamous cheese sandwich went viral on social media during the original doomed festival
Mexican government officials and luxury hotel venues are casting doubt on the return of infamous Fyre Festival – this time branded as Fyre Festival 2
In another embarrassing twis the general manager of the Secrets resort, pictured, has publicly denied any affiliation with the festival
Tickets to Fyre 2 don’t come cheap with one package selling for $25,000 for two
The models who had promoted the festival for months leading up to its failure to launch each said they had no understanding of exactly how much of a fraud McFarland was
Celebrity faces of Fyre Festival included Kendall Jenner, Emily Ratajkowski, Bella Hadid and Hailey Bieber – several of whom were subpoenaed for their role in the scam
McFarland said attendees who cough up the million-dollar price tag will get a glamorous experience.
‘You will be on a boat, have the luxury yachts that we partner with who will be docked and parked outside the island,’ he said.
‘But once again, Fyre is not just about this, like, luxury experience. It’s about the adventure. So you’ll be scuba diving with me. You’ll be bouncing around to other islands and other countries on small planes.’
Given the catastrophic failure of the original Fyre Festival in 2017, many are now questioning why McFarland is even bothering to stage a second attempt.
McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018 for defrauding investors out of $26 million along with over $100,000 in additional fraudulent ticket-selling schemes.
McFarland agreed to pay back his victims. Along with jail time he was ordered to forfeit the cash.
After serving under four years of his six-year sentence, he was released to a halfway house, and was under house arrest until September 2022.
He told USA Today last week that $500,000 of the festival’s proceeds and an additional 10 percent of all profits would be allocated toward restitution.
The first Fyre Festival, held in the Bahamas in 2017, was infamously marketed the ‘cultural experience of the decade’, featuring influencer endorsements from the likes of Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, and Hailey Bieber.
The promised luxury lodgings were actually Red Cross disaster-relief tent
Festivalgoers at the first Fyre Festival had shelled out thousands of dollars to attend, with one package costing a whopping $250,000
Guests at the original festival were forced to wait for hours on end in the heat before being herded into makeshift tents on an island with no running water or electricity
After paying up to $12,000 for tickets, Fyre Festival’s guests were greeted with substandard accommodation, soggy food and poor security – before the entire event was cancelled before it even began
Portable toilets are pictured strewn by the side of the road at the ill-fated Fyre Festival
Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland ended up serving four years in prison for wire fraud
Luxury accommodations turned out to be tents usually used as disaster relief shelters and barely kept out the bad weather that plagued guests
Attendees were promised performances from major artists like Blink-182 and Migos, along with five-star accommodations and gourmet food.
Instead, when festival-goers arrived on the Bahamian island Exuma, it was a scene of chaos.
Artists had canceled, the promised luxury lodgings were actually Red Cross disaster-relief tents, and the now-iconic ‘gourmet meal’ turned out to be little more than a sad cheese sandwich in a Styrofoam box.
Numerous festival-goers posted pictures on social media of the shambolic scenes, leading to online mockery of the high prices many had paid.
Attendees were effectively stranded and had to be evacuated after just one night, cementing Fyre Festival’s place as one of the greatest scams in modern history.