Fyre Festival promoter Billy McFarland (middle)
(Picture: AP)A fraudster behind a "disastrous" failed music festival celebrated his release from prison by throwing a lavish cocktail party in Manhattan, according to reports.
Music fans paid up to $12,000 (£10,200) to go to the Fyre Festival, which was billed as a "life-changing" experience bringing celebrities and models including Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid together to see some of the best-known artists in the world.
But when they arrived in the Bahamas in April 2017 they had to use half-built disaster relief tents for shelter and make do with short supplies of food, water and electricity while staying among mountains of rubbish. The event was cancelled after headliners including Blink-182 pulled out.
Promoter William "Billy" McFarland was later jailed for defrauding investors over $26m to help him stage the Fyre Festival in the Exumas islands.
McFarland celebrated his release from prison by throwing himself a party at a Manhattan cocktail lounge, according to the MailOnline.
In a recent interview with the New York Times, he also opened up about his plans to make a comeback in tech.
“If I worked in finance, I think it would be harder to get back,” he said. “Tech is more open. And the way I failed is totally wrong, but in a certain sense, failure is OK in entrepreneurship.”
“At the end of the day, I think I could probably create the most value by building some sort of tech product,” he said. “Whether that’s within a company or by starting my own company, I’m open to both. I’ll probably decide in the next couple of weeks which path to go do.”
McFarland apologised for the failed festival and his actions. “I deserved my sentence,” he said. “I let a lot of people down.”
He put his choices down to “immaturity” and hubris.
“I didn’t know what I didn’t know,” he said.
“I lied,” he said. “I think I was scared. And the fear was letting down people who believed in me — showing them they weren’t right.”
McFarland received a six-year prison sentence in 2018 after he admitted defrauding investors of $26m over the 2017 music festival and over $100,000 in a fraudulent ticket-selling scheme after his arrest in the festival scam.
The festival was promoted as an ultra-luxurious event on the Bahamian island of Exuma over two weekends in April and May of 2017.
It was promoted on social media by Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Emily Ratajkowski and other models and celebrities coaxing people into buying ticket packages ranging from $1,200 to over $100,000.
