Fire Festival

An investor in the disastrous Fire Festival has issued a warning to anyone interested in participating in its planned reboot: “Proceed with caution.”

Andy King’s comments came after Billy McFarland announced Fire II, despite having recently been released from prison for defrauding the original of millions.

Mr King, who lost $1 million in the initial disaster, told the BBC that McFarland was “known for the biggest failures in pop culture” and wanted to change the script. But I’m not sure he’s going about it the right way.”

McFarland, 32, received a four-year jail term for organizing the 2017 event in the Bahamas, which failed to deliver promised “luxuries” for tickets worth up to $250,000. Tickets for Fire II next April will cost $1.1 million (£840,000), he claims.

Last week, McFarland told US reporters that “Fire II has to work”. He claims to have spent a year organizing it and has already sold 100 tickets at an ‘early bird’ price of $499.

Mr King, 63, said he met McFarland a few months ago to discuss Fire II, but he felt his former business partner “didn’t learn a lot in prison … he’s shooting from the hip again”.

“Billy has a gift. He has a lot of charisma. He knows how to draw people in,” the South Carolina-based event coordinator told newsshort news.

“Think about it: When he was 24 years old, he went to investment banking firms in New York and got them to invest $29 million.”

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He said Fire II could be a “huge success” but if McFarland “ran the show again, it wouldn’t work.”

Mr. King, who claimed that none of his $1 million investment in the original festival was returned, was called by McFarland to meet with investors in the new effort.

“I just see a lot of red flags and a lot of red lights”, he commented. “I feel terrible. It makes me sad. We were going to rent one of the largest properties in the Hamptons and throw a huge, glamorous party,” Mr. King recalled, referring to America’s famous playground for the rich and famous.

“We had 30 people at a pizza place off Montauk Highway.”

He said further conversations were canceled, and he didn’t hear from McFarland in seven or eight months.

Supermodels and celebrities marketed the original Fire as an exclusive escape for the very wealthy, with the location billed as a private island once owned by drug lord Pablo Escobar.

Festival-goers arrived to discover all performances cancelled, empty mattresses to sleep on under storm-damaged tents and cheese sandwiches in takeaway containers to eat.

In 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison for wire fraud and ordered to repay $29 million to investors.

He was released in 2022 as part of an early release program, although he is still on probation until August next year.

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According to McFarland, next year’s tickets will start at $1,400 and go up to $1.1 million.

The most expensive options include scuba diving, island hopping and luxury cruises.

He said the event will not be limited to music and may feature sideshows such as a live karate fighting pit.

But he admitted that he hasn’t booked any talent yet.

‘They’re all watching’

Mr King said he still wanted to talk to his old business partner about his new venture, despite the continued criticism he faced for his involvement in the initial festival – he claims that wherever he goes, people peg him as a “scandal man”. ”

He was sympathetically portrayed for his efforts to deal with the disaster in the 2019 Netflix documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened.

In perhaps the most famous moment of the entire incident, he explained how McFarland pressured him to provide sexual favors to Bahamian customs officers in order to obtain enough bottled water for the event.

That “funny reputation,” however, came at a high price for Mr. King.

He also said he kept in touch with McFarland during his incarceration and briefly advised him on reputation management last year.