Billy McFarland. Photo by Ian Moran/Creative Commons
Convicted fraudster Billy McFarland took to social media on Monday (May 15) with two announcements: a Broadway musical and the second coming of the disastrous 2017 FYRE Festival, which he co-created Ja Rule. “FYRE Festival 1.5 is going to be a broadway musical,” he tweeted. “We’re also in talks with partners to pay back my restitution and execute FYRE Festival II as the original vision: a destination festival in a wild and beautiful location 🏝️.”
FYRE Festival 1.5 is going to be a Broadway Musical.
— Billy McFarland (@pyrtbilly) May 15, 2023
We’re also in talks with partners to pay back my restitution and execute FYRE Festival II as the original vision: a destination festival in a wild and beautiful location 🏝️
@pyrtbilly Two 🔥 updates: FYRE Festival is happening!!
♬ original sound - Billy McFarland
He explained this “vision” further in an interview with YouTuber Adam Glyn, uploaded on Tuesday. “First thing is, everybody in the Bahamas who’s owed money for their work, they’re getting paid back, and getting paid back right now,” he said, referring to the local vendors who have been waiting for more than six years for payment that never came. “Next is I’m getting help with the logistics. I’m getting the best music partners to do the toilets and the bathrooms and the food, and I’m just gonna help make this thing a fucking adventure.”
2017’s FYRE Fest was its own kind of adventure, a “luxury music festival” that devolved into chaos as delayed flights, lost luggage, a lack of food, and sub-standard living conditions evoked comparisons to Lord of the Flies. The following year, McFarland pleaded guilty to defrauding his investors of $27.4 million. He was released from federal prison in 2022, after serving four years of a six-year sentence.
There’s already been extensive documentation of FYRE Fest 2017. Netflix and Hulu each released docs on the fraudulent festival, and McFarland announced in 2019 that he was writing a book about the fiasco from prison (that book has yet to be released). In the interview with Adam Glyn, he says that he’s signed on to narrate the allegedly forthcoming musical, with another actor playing him and “current music artists combined with the Broadway format of the play, making fun of me but also sharing some of the good side as well.”