Fyre Festival 2 is back up in the air, after the organizers of the event said on Wednesday they would be sending a message to ticket holders announcing that the festival would no longer take place in Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
In the update, which was shared with The New York Times, the organizers assured would-be festivalgoers that it was looking into new locations and that the event was “still on”: “We are vetting new locations and will announce our host destination soon. Our priorities remain unchanged: delivering an unforgettable, safe, and transparent experience,” the message read.
But it was already the second time in three months that the festival, a sequel to the ill-fated concert event in 2017, had changed locations. And uncertainty surrounding performers, ticket availability and accommodations in the last few weeks has led many to wonder if the event would happen at all, or if it was another epic disaster waiting to happen, much like the one that had sent its organizer, Billy McFarland, to prison after he entered a guilty plea to charges that included wire fraud.
On Wednesday, the event’s organizers blamed the local authorities in Playa del Carmen for the latest hitch in their plans, accusing the government of robbing Fyre Fest without offering any evidence. (Calls to city officials from Playa del Carmen seeking comment went to voice mail.)
Fyre Fest 2, which had been slated to take place next month, might have served as a redemption tour for Mr. McFarland, who was released in 2022 after close to four years in prison and another six months of confinement.
In February, Mr. McFarland, 33, announced that the sequel event would be held at the end of May on Isla Mujeres, a Mexican island and vacation hot spot off the coast of Cancun.
There would be just 2,000 tickets for sale available, ranging in price from $1,400 to $1.1 million, Mr. McFarland said in an interview with NBC’s “Today.” No musical acts were announced at the time. Mr. McFarland said he was not in charge of booking talent.
Since then, the event’s legitimacy has repeatedly been called into question. On Reddit, social media users have parsed social media posts from the event’s account and wondered if a sequel of an event that had stranded attendees and inspired multiple documentaries was just a cash grab.
Shortly after Mr. McFarland’s announcement, the local government in Isla Mujeres denied in a Facebook post knowing anything about the event. “For us, this is an event that does not exist,” Edgar Gasca of the tourism directorate of Isla Mujeres, told The Guardian.
The event was then re-announced with a new location, this time in Playa del Carmen, another popular tourist destination in Mexico along the Caribbean shoreline, and organizers shared information about venues and accommodations for high-rolling ticket buyers.
At the end of March, the organizers hosted a livestreamed news conference at Martina Beach Club in Playa del Carmen, one of the event’s would-be venues.
Mr. McFarland was not physically present for the conference but appeared on a television screen at the end of the lineup of speakers. “I’ve been stuck in New York a few years now, and you have no idea how badly I want to be there,” Mr. McFarland said.
When asked by The Times if the event had acquired the necessary legal permits for the event, a man who had identified himself only as Fernando and appeared to be affiliated with the beach club answered.
“We have the local permits and the event is going to be successful,” he said. “We have the authorities here. We will have the security and everything is going to be perfect,” he added.
Mr. McFarland said that there were 1,800 tickets for sale and that there would be about 40 performing artists.
But the Fyre Fest 2 organizers did not announce any musical acts, and days later, in a post on social media, the local government in Playa del Carmen denied that the event would be held in the area. On Instagram, Fyre posted documents and social media posts claiming that it had gone through the proper channels and had obtained permits for the event.
During the March news conference, Mr. McFarland, who as of 2022 lived in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn and wore an electric ankle monitor, had a plea for journalists who had tuned in to learn of his plans.
“Please stop reporting that Fyre 2 isn’t happening so I can try to ask for travel permission,” Mr. McFarland said.
Madison Malone Kircher is a Times reporter covering internet culture.
The post Stoking Uncertainty, Fyre Fest Organizers Again Scrap Location appeared first on New York Times.
