Mexican tourism officials say Billy McFarland's Fyre Festival 2 "does not exist" despite tickets going on sale starting from $1400

33-year-old American businessman Billy McFarland has come under scrutiny after Mexican tourism officials confirmed that there was no information on Fyre Festival 2. According to AllHipHop, McFarland promised that the exclusive festival would be held in Mexico’s Isla Mujeres.

Edgar Gasca, representing Isla Mujeres’ tourism directorate, told The Guardian that there was no such event organized by Billy McFarland, as per their knowledge. Gasca stated:

"We have no knowledge of this event, nor contact with any person or company about it. For us, this is an event that does not exist."

As per AllHipHop, Billy had previously announced that the infamous Fyre Festival would take place during the period from May 30 to June 2, 2025, on the Isla Mujeres near Cancún.

The official website of the festival revealed the sale of variety ticket packages, ranging from the relatively basic ones called "Fyre Ignite" at $1,400 to more luxurious ones called "Prometheus God of Fyre" priced at $1.1 million.

On February 24, McFarland told Today:

"Fyre 2 is real. My dream is finally becoming a reality. We’re going to have artists across electronic, hip hop, pop and rock... We might have a professional skateboarder do a demonstration. We might have an MMA champion teach you techniques in the morning."

Despite these claims, no lineup of performers has been announced yet. Events such as "world-class accommodations", beach-side music concerts, interesting adventure activites, skateboarding sessions, and more were advertised during the marketing of this apparent Fyre Festival 2.

The official website of the Fyre Festival 2 has described the event as "an electrifying celebration of music, arts, cuisine, comedy, fashion, gaming, sports, and treasure hunting."

In the conversation with Today, Billy McFarland even claimed that he made arrangements to handle logistics, an aspect which apparently went haywire the last time.

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What happened to the Fyre Festival which was organized back in 2017?

This wasn't the first time that Billy McFarland has been talking about the luxurious music festival. Back in 2017, the event kickstarted on April 28 and continued till April 30. It resumed again on May 5 and ended on May 7.

According to a CNBC article dated August 2019, about 5,000 people spent money in buying tickets for the festival, set to be held on a private island in the Bahamas. The attendees were promised luxury, starting from gourmet food, fancy accomodations, as well as a chance to party with celebrities like Ja Rule and Kendall Jenner.

According to the outlet, the festival goers had a different experience when they arrived at the venue as many reportedly had to fight for limited accommodation which basically were tents and not luxury villas as promised. A lot of the attendees took to social media and shared photos of what the festival apparently looked like in reality and highlighted the mismanagement.

Eventually, lawsuits were filed against Ja Rule and Billy McFarland as well. The latter even landed in jail for wire fraud. He was also sentenced to six years behind bars but was released early in March 2022 after spending four years there.

Recalling the first Fyre Festival, Billy told Today that the supposed upcoming festival would be different. He said:

"I think it’s always a risk. You’re taking a risk because I made a lot of bad decisions and messed up the first festival. Until it’s experienced, there is a risk component to it."

While Billy repeatedly stated that the festival was genuine this time, Edgar Gasca claimed that there were bad signs all around and questioned the legitimacy of the Fyre Festival 2.