How did Billy McFarland get his start?
William “Billy” McFarland was born in New York in 1991 and began his first online business in high school, selling webspace to adult websites. He later dropped out of Bucknell University to raise money for a social media site he was developing, per Moneyweek.
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One of McFarland’s most significant claims to fame is his Magnises privilege card business, founded in 2013. The exclusive members-only card promised discounts and entry into high-end events, restaurants and bars. After signing up more than 40,000 members, McFarland was arrested in 2017, in the wake of the Fyre controversy, on corruption charges for defrauding investors.
What is the Fyre Festival scandal?
What was meant to be a Caribbean celebration of luxury, music, food and the arts made international headlines after festival attendees were left stranded. Through influencer campaigns, the event recruited big-name celebrities as ambassadors, including supermodels Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner.
McFarland’s business partnership with US rapper Ja Rule solidified the event’s legitimacy, and the festival was also meant to launch the Fyre app, a booking portal for other music festivals and private events.
Some 8,000 tickets were sold, with VIP packages selling for US$12,000 a pop. Yet the lack of organisation between planners and suppliers was evident as soon as festival goers descended on the island and were met with shoddy accommodation, food shortages, little-to-no essential water or sanitation facilities, and cancelled performances. McFarland’s name became synonymous with the scam.
Two documentaries, released five days apart in January 2019, retold the story – Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened on Netflix and Hulu’s Fyre Fraud – interviewing concert goers, organisers and members of McFarland’s team to unravel how the event also impacted locals.
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Where is Billy McFarland now?
In relation to the scandal, in 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to fraud charges and was sentenced to six years in prison. He was released in March 2022 after serving only four years.
Instead of cowering from the limelight, he emerged back into public life, asking his publicist to arrange an interview and photo shoot after release. Shortly after his release, McFarland told The New York Times that “friends and family” were paying for his Brooklyn flat.
During the interview, the Fyre Festival fraudster revealed he had taken part in a podcast, “Dumpster Fyre”, using the prison phone, which had contravened prison rules.
Shortly after McFarland’s release, reports revealed that he threw a party at a Manhattan cocktail bar to celebrate with some of his Fyre Festival business colleagues in attendance.
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Will the Fyre Festival part two actually happen?
Despite jail time, reputational damage and mounting debt, McFarland is still not giving up on his Fyre Festival dream and has announced a second instalment of the now-infamous event.
“I’ve got to complete the narrative,” McFarland told Daniel Tosh during a recent appearance on the comedian’s podcast, Tosh Show. “We need to execute the dream of Fyre.”
The entrepreneur also took to X to announce Fyre Festival 2. Per several US media outlets, he claimed that tickets had been sold out for the first phase at US$500 per person, despite neither the line-up nor the precise location being revealed.
The festival’s website shows little specific information on the location or ticket prices of the coming festival, although the Caribbean is mentioned and the current date of the event is noted as December 6 this year.
One of the convicted con’s tweets in 2023, per Variety, said: “I was one of the most Googled people in the world. What’s next will be the biggest comeback of all time. My plan: get some wins under my belt, rebuild trust, and build an audience so I can build the next media empire.”
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