The first batch of tickets for Fyre Festival II have sold out. On one hand, that’s not particularly impressive, as only 100 tickets were released. On the other hand, how the hell did they convince 100 people to fork out $499 a piece for Fyre Festival tickets?
“The first Fyre Festival II drop has sold out”, announced founder Billy McFarland on Twitter earlier this week, not long after confirming that the initial batch of tickets were on sale.
“Since 2016 Fyre has been the most talked about festival in the world”, his tweet added. “We now saw this convert to one of the highest-priced [general admission] pre-sales in the industry”.
Let’s not forget that the original Fyre Festival has been one of the “most talked about festivals in the world” because of how dramatically the event collapsed before it had even started.
Billed as a luxury event in the Bahamas, ticket holders arrived to find that not even basic facilities were in place and, as a result, the festival never actually got underway. McFarland then ended up in prison for fraud related to his financing of the event.
“Fyre is about people from around the world coming together to pull off the impossible”, he continued. “This time we have incredible support. I’ll be doing what I love while working with the best logistical and infrastructure partners. In addition, all ticket sale revenue will be held in escrow until the final date is announced”.
Yes, well, I suppose that’s something. Although quite a lot went wrong with the last festival between the dates being announced and those dates actually arriving.
Still, McFarland goes on: “We look forward to surprising the world alongside our partners as we build Fyre and Fyre Festival II into the island adventure of a lifetime”.
Yup, yup, yup. Of course, the first Fyre Festival could be described as a once in a lifetime island adventure. So that’s not necessarily a good thing.
In a video update yesterday McFarland said that “the past 72 hours has completely changed my life”, telling his Twitter followers that after those first 100 tickets sold out, 6900 people added themselves to the waiting list for more.
“Thank you guys for all the love, thank you guys for all the hate”, he concluded. “Together you are creating absolutely the perfect storm and I can’t wait to give the rest of you a front row seat as I fly right through it”.
What could possibly go wrong?
