Fyre Festival founder’s new project revealed

Notorious Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland is to star in new documentary After the Fyre following his early release from prison.

The 30-year-old was jailed in 2018 and fined US$26 million for his role in the disastrous festival, pleading guilty to defrauding investors and running a fraudulent ticketing scam.

Fans paid between $1,500 and $50,000 to attend the 2017 festival on the island of Grand Exuma in the Bahamas, with the promise of luxury accommodation, gourmet food and music. However, the event spectacularly collapsed on its first day, as ticket-holders arrived to find half-built tents, insufficient food and a dearth of performers upon arrival.

A partnership between content creator Fremantle and production house AMPLE Entertainment, After the Fyre will accompany McFarland as he re-emerges in the outside world and returns to the Bahamas to launch his new business venture, a treasure hunt called PYRT, after serving four years of his six-year prison sentence.

“Billy McFarland has re-emerged, energised and with an even more audacious plan than the last as he looks to clear his name and repay his debtors”

Principal photography has already started on the documentary, which will pick up where Hulu’s Fyre Fraud and Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened left off in early 2019 and follow McFarland’s attempts to pay back the $26m he still owes.

“After a considerable amount of time in solitary, millennial’s favourite conman Billy McFarland has re-emerged, energised and with an even more audacious plan than the last as he looks to clear his name and repay his debtors,” says Harry Gamsu, Fremantle’s VP acquisitions. “This is the doc-sequel audiences have been crying out for and we’re delighted to have partnered with Ample to make it happen.”

McFarland teased PYRT last month in a since-deleted TikTok video, where he admitted to the shortcomings of the 2017 event.

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