It was supposed to be the party to end all parties. Instead, Fyre Festival was such a disaster it landed organizer Billy McFarland in prison.
Six years later, McFarland is back with . The 31-year-old announced the first batch of ticket sales on August 21, in a where he appears to be wearing a bathrobe. He said the festival would take place at an unspecified Caribbean location towards the end of 2024.
Although the 2017 festival’s failings have been highly publicised—not least in the documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened—the first presale tickets for the follow-up . Proving that exclusivity sells, just 100 tickets were released at posh.vip, for $499 each. But why would anyone sign up, knowing what happened?
Dr. Nathan Carroll, chief resident psychiatrist at Jersey Shore University Medical Center, told Regalrumination.com the demand for tickets was “not surprising.”
“Events don’t have to have positive outcomes to be popular—or rather, I should say notorious,” he added.
“Sometimes, an experience is unique, memorable and exclusive because of its terribleness.”
Fyre Festival: What Went Wrong?
In 2017 guests paid thousands of dollars to attend Fyre Festival, which was billed as an exclusive weekend getaway for elite youngsters. The venue was a private island in the Bahamas and the event was co-founded by rapper Ja Rule. Models and influencers including Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski promoted the party.
Ticket prices started at $400, rising to $12,750 for VIPs, and guests were promised high-class accommodation, sandy beaches and gourmet meals. Instead, they got soggy cheese sandwiches served in lunchboxes and waterlogged mattresses on the floor.
There were a limited number of tents available for the 5,000 ticketholders, as well as water-access issues and a shortage of medical personnel and other staff. The portable toilets didn’t work properly and, as the event was meant to be “cashless,” many guests were trapped without money.
Blink-182 were set to play, but dropped out. Tyga, Skepta and Disclosure were also rumored to be performing, but didn’t.
The event was canceled after the first day, but many guests were left stranded as the island was “over-capacity,” with the Bahamian government barring flights to and from the location.
In 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison for defrauding festival investors and running a “sham ticket scheme,” among . He was released in early March 2022, but still owes $26 million in restitution payments.
![Fyre Festival creator Billy McFarland in July](https://i0.wp.com/regalrumination.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/fyre-festival-creator-billy-mcfarland-july.png?resize=1200%2C800)
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‘Few People Can Claim the Social Cred of Living Through That Disaster’
Carroll says the presale popularity of Fyre Festival 2 isn’t as bizarre as it may sound. It’s down to the way our brains work.
“Biologically, we’re hardwired to remember negative events more than positive ones,” he said.
“For survival, you want to remember that the stove is hot, the two-week-old leftover pizza makes you sick, your great-aunt drives like a bat out of hell—or that one time you were abandoned on a tropical island with little food or water.”
Those who didn’t attend the first Fyre Festival may not have experienced the downsides first hand, but they would have witnessed the disaster unfold through news coverage and social media.
“This distance from the event made it memorable without invoking the strong negative reaction that a lived experience may bring,” Carroll said.
Only a small number of people had that lived experience, which makes it “exclusive.” As a result, some people may be experiencing what Carroll describes as “groupthink-inspired FOMO.”
“While everyone can agree it was a disaster, very few people can claim the social cred of living through that disaster,” he said.
Gambler’s fallacy may also play a part, Carroll added. This is the belief that an occurrence is less likely, based on the events that precede it.
“Their thought may be, ‘Since the last festival was a disaster that resulted in the organizer going to jail, this one must be successful, or they wouldn’t be doing it,'” he said.
In 2021, a group of 277 people who attended the first Fyre Festival were awarded settlement payouts of $7,220 each. McFarland’s lawyer Jason Russo has previously said the entrepreneur’s future projects will focus on repaying investors the money that he owes.
Regalrumination.com has contacted McFarland for comment via Instagram.