What has Billy McFarland been up to since the Fyre Festival flop, made famous by Netflix and promoted by Bella Hadid and Ja Rule? A sequel has just been announced, but will it even happen?
- Despite serving 4 years in prison for fraud, Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland recently announced a second instalment of the now-infamous event on the Tosh Show podcast – but could it be legit this time?
- The New Yorker dropped out of university, founded the Magnises privilege card alongside celebrity pal Ja Rule, and is now planning the ‘biggest comeback of all time’
The Fyre Festival and its organiser Billy McFarland were once, for a hot minute, the embodiments of the “cool millennial business”. The entrepreneur personally enticed the support of celebrities Ja Rule and Bella Hadid, all in support of his vision of an “immersive music festival”, to be hosted over three days on an island in The Bahamas.
But the entrepreneur’s ambitions were never realised, and in the end the entire enterprise was exposed as a sham. So what next for the infamous anti-promoter? Well, another festival it seems. Here is what you need to know.
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.
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.