Billy McFarland promised the greatest party the world had ever seen.
He delivered cheese sandwiches.
In 2018, a federal judge sentenced him to six years in prison for the fraud behind the spectacularly botched Fyre Festival.
“Billy McFarland has shown a disturbing pattern of deception, which resulted in investors and customers losing over $26 million,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman following McFarland’s sentence. “Empty promises don’t lead to jet-setting, champagne, and extravagant parties – they lead to federal prison.”
But you can’t stop Billy from being Billy.
While out on pretrial release, McFarland enthusiastically started another business called NYC VIP Access.
It supposedly offered hard-to-get tickets to the Met Gala, Burning Man, Coachella, the Grammys, the Super Bowl and even dinner with LeBron James. Prosecutors said he tried to conceal his role by using employees’ names and bank accounts, and that he collected about $150,000 from at least 30 customers.
No surprise McFarland didn’t actually have the tickets. He was simply applying his sales-over-substance skillset, selling things he could not possibly deliver.
Fyre in the hole
Why let a few legal setbacks obstruct the road to success?
After serving four years in the pen, McFarland tried to resurrect Fyre Festival. He sold the Fyre name on eBay, staged new events on Caribbean islands, jumped into real estate development and recently promised another project with “a budget bigger than Fyre 1.”
On Sept. 28, 2026, McFarland walked onto the stage at Joe Rogan’s Comedy Mothership in Austin for his first stand-up comedy appearance. It was recorded for the Kill Tony podcast.
The audience initially booed him. Someone shouted an obscenity. But McFarland pushed forward and reportedly won over some of the crowd.
“My name is Billy McFarland, and yes, I am the creator of Fyre Festival. Relax, guys. If I organize this, you’d still be stuck at the fucking airport.”
He was already a hit as the subject of dueling documentaries: Netflix, “FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened,” and Hulu, “Fyre Fraud.” But his entertainment career has a long way to go before he’ll be able to repay the $26 million he owes investors and customers.
The documentaries showed Fyre Festival guests riding in school buses, sleeping on bare mattresses in storm-damaged tents, and eating cheese sandwiches from foam containers.
They had paid small fortunes for a luxury music event on a Bahamian island. They got a couple slices of white bread with cheese in between them.
Somehow after this five-star debacle, there were no sentencing requirements that would have prevented McFarland from selling tickets to another dubious event.
In early 2025, he began selling tickets for Fyre 2. He billed it as a three-day event at Isla Mujeres off the coast of Cancun, Mexico, from May 30 through June 2, 2025.
Read More: All Fyred Up Again (Business Blunders)
Here’s how he explained his do-over in a press release:
“I’m sure many people think I’m crazy for doing this again. But I feel I’d be crazy not to do it again. After years of reflection and now thoughtful planning, the new team and I have amazing plans for Fyre 2. The adventure seekers who trust the vision and take the leap will make history. Thank you to my partners for the second chance.”
Mexican tourism officials said they knew nothing about it. Local authorities questioned whether the necessary permits existed.
So surprise, surprise – Fyre 2 never happened.
Fyre sale
After the Fyre 2 flop, McFarland announced that Fyre itself was for sale. Here’s what he wrote the festival’s Instagram page:
“After two years of rebuilding FYRE with honesty, creativity, and relentless effort, it’s time to pass the torch. We’re officially putting the FYRE brand up for sale. To the right buyer: the platform is yours. Execute the vision. Make history.”
McFarland likes to tell customers they can “make history” by buying into his big ideas. So far, he’s the one making history … as a shameless huckster.
LimeWire bought Fyre’s trademarks, intellectual property and social-media assets in July 2025 for $245,300 after an auction attracted 175 bids from 42 bidders. It was a fraction of the $1.1 million price McFarland had once offered for a single Fyre 2 ticket package.
After the sale, McFarland had no name for his next festival and a bad name for himself, but why should the party end there?
In December 2025, he somehow pulled off a music festival in Honduras, dubbed PHNX. This time he indeed had artists, fans, bathrooms and at least something that resembled food.
McFarland said about 420 people attended. Other accounts described smaller crowds, with locals reportedly admitted free.
It wasn’t exactly a phoenix rising from the ashes. But the fact that the festival actually happened seemed to have constituted progress.
On to the next thing
Now McFarland heads BZM, a company that carries his initials and says it operates where “culture, media, and real assets meet.”
In June 2026, BZM staged a three-day event in Turks and Caicos featuring Skillibeng, Bobby Shmurda and Destra Garcia. The following month, the company says it provided the headline talent for Utila Carnival, which it says drew more than 10,000 people.
He described his experience on the comedy stage:
“Recently, I went back to this little island called Utila Honduras to do another fucking festival. Everybody told me I didn’t learn any lessons, and I’m here to say, that’s bullshit. First, I learned how to apologize in Spanish.”
Asked how much tickets to the Utila event cost, he replied: “I still owe 26 million. So not enough, right?”
BZM is also promoting real-estate development in Utila. “We find the places nobody has discovered yet, buy land, bring culture in, and watch the world follow,” goes the pitch.
Cheese sandwich, anyone?
Some people learn from blunders. McFarland pads the budget for them. And now he’s got a product he may actually be able to deliver: Punchlines about himself.
“I see all these great comedians. They bust their ass for 20 years to beg for a Netflix special. I only had to serve four, so I guess I’m doing something, right?”
I'm reminded of that popular song by Jerry Reed and Ray Stevens: "When you're hot, you're hot, And when you're not, you're not"!