The founder of the shambolic Fyre Festival has announced he will be doing another festival - except this one will be virtual and cost £200 a ticket. Billy McFarland was jailed for multiple counts of fraud following the disastrous event which was the subject of a hit Netflix documentary.
McFarland, 31, organised the 2017 festival alongside Ja Rule, on an island in the Bahamas, and prior to the event it was advertised as "the best in food, art, music and adventure". It was plugged by A-listers including Hailey Bieber, Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid, but it didn't exactly go as planned and many customers were outraged when there was a lack of food, water, or accommodation on the island from which there was no escape.
But now McFarland has been released, and earlier this year he teased a new project on TikTok where he said that 'everybody's invited'.
Now, he's described his new venture and it's confusing to say the least, because it sounds a lot like a festival but he insists it isn't one, but a technology.
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In a recent post on TikTok, McFarland described his new business, PYRT - which is pronounced 'pirate' - as a 'virtual immersive decentralised reality'.
In the short clip, he tried to explain what the PYRT is and said: "PYRT is not a festival. It is not an event. And it's definitely not a metaverse."
He goes on to say the main event will be held on a "small, remote island" with a "handful of artists, content creators, entrepreneurs, and any of you guys who end up joining the PYRT crew".
McFarland added that others could join in the fun remotely, to "not only watch what's happening live, but they can actually come together with their friends to effect and even own their real-world adventures".
It's been reported online that tickets for PYRT will cost around £200 ($250), and that $50 from each ticket sale will go towards paying back the debts left behind by Fyre Festival.
Initially, McFarland posted a teaser video to TikTok, which had a telephone number hidden in the background, and in the short clip he briefly touched on his past.
He said: "As you might know, I f***ed around, and because of that, I definitely found out.
"Obviously, I've had a little too much time to think about this, but I do feel that the moment's right to start making this up to everybody.
"You might have guessed, but I'm working on something new. This time it's a little crazier, but a whole lot bigger than anything I've ever tried before.
"I promise I'm going to tell you everything in November, but before we get there, there's one thing you need to know now. This time, everybody's invited."
When the number in the background is called, the caller receives two text messages and a link to the "first clue", which is a link to a YouTube video showing a woman in a bikini swimming with sharks in tropical blue water.
Fyre Festival was supposed to be the most glamorous music festival ever organised and tickets went for as much as £75,000.
Festival goers were promised luxury accommodation, gourmet food and the ultime music line-up including Blink 182, Migos and Major Lazer - but the reality was very different.
Instead of luxury, guests were forced to sleep on rain-soaked mattresses, the gourmet food was in fact sandwiches made from cheese slices and luggage was hurled into an unlit car park.
Since the debacle in 2017, organiser Billy McFarland has been sentenced to six years in prison for multiple counts of fraud and the Netflix documentary, Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened lifted the lid on what really happened.
Billed as the ultimate millennial experience, people battling for tickets were promised they would be rubbing shoulders with the rich and famous.
But in reality, those who managed to bag a ticket for the hottest party in town said most people were as ordinary as they were.
And it wasn't just festival goers who lost out - people on the island had pulled out all the stops to make sure it was a success.
With the whole thing being put together in just six to eight weeks, the signs it wasn't going to be the success it promised were there from the start.
And when party goers started to descend on the island, the whole thing fell into chaos.
After being promised a private jet and luxury limos to take them to the venue, people were in fact transported to the island on a charter flight and picked up at the airport by bus.
And when they arrived it was described as "like something out of The Hunger Games".
One attendee wrote on Twitter : "Fyre Fest is a complete disaster. No organisation. No one knows where to go.
"There are no villas, just a disaster tent city."
Furniture bought to transform the tents into a luxury experience turned out to be flatpack that was still lying around the site, waiting to be built.
Luggage dumped in the car park couldn't be reunited with owners and even the bars and the food stalls hadn't been set up.
It has been reported people started looting the boxes of food and drink - and then even the piles of luggage.
But then things got even worse.
Organisers sent an email saying the festival was cancelled and everyone would have to be flown off the island.
Seth told the BBC : "There's so much more to the story than rich kids of Instagram meets Lord of the Flies."
Workers on the island also weren't paid for the time, and the island locals also massively lost out with one restaurant owner stumping up £38,500 of her life savings to cater for the festival.
Chris Smith, who directed the Netflix documentary, told the BBC: "She put up her savings to try and live up to the obligations she had made to them.
"In the end, when things fell apart and everyone just left, she was left having to deal with this."
Prosecutors called McFarland "the consummate con artist" in a sentencing memorandum according to the NYC Times.
"He betrayed and deceived his investors, customers, and employees while he was living the high life at his luxury apartment, traveling to exclusive locales, staying at luxury hotels, being chauffeured in his Maserati, and entertaining himself and his friends at restaurants, bars, and casinos," they added.
McFarland begged U.S. District Court Judge Naomi Buchwald for leniency and said "I'm sorry" several times during his sentencing hearing.
He claimed he had faced violence in prison and said: "The best way to be sorry is through my future actions."
Victims of McFarland’s multiple scams gave their stories including Joe Nemeth who invested in McFarland’s schemes including Fyre Festival, a luxury benefits club called Magnises, and ticket scheme NYC VIP Access.
Nemeth said McFarland had "financially ruined my and my wife's life" and the couple, both in their late 50s, will now be unable to retire.
He continued: "It took me 20 years of saving my lunch money to save $180,000.
"I hope the justice system has the last laugh at Mr McFarland."
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