Over the past few months, Billy McFarland has been making grand promises for Fyre Fest 2. The festival founder has been making bold claim of villas, yachts and a packed 40-artist line-up – but it turns out the festival only has a permit for 250 attendees and a noise ordinance of 100 decibels max.
Earlier this month, the Mexican tourism board told The Guardian that it had “no knowledge” of the festival taking place, despite the event being set to run from 30 May to 2 June in Isla Mujeres, a tropical island off Cancún, Mexico. In a bid to prove they had ticked all the legal boxes, the festival shared some official permits. However, eagle-eyed Instagram users have noticed the terms would limit the festival drastically.
The Spanish document permits 250 attendees max – way below McFarland’s initial number of 1,800 guests. The festival is limited to 12 hours of music across the weekend, with a noise limit of 100 decibels. Again, it’s going to be tricky to cram a supposed line-up of 40 artists into 12 hours.
While the documents fall short of McFarland’s promises, they suggest the Mexican tourism board were aware of the event. However, as one user points out, the documents do not necessarily confirm a festival. In fact, the terms seem to confirm permission for a club night at most.
“Those are permits from the club owners for regular beach clubs here that hold 250 people,” the user writes. “Those are NOT festival events or venues, and the government has not approved any festival of any sort. We live here and the whole city is laughing about this.”
Considering McFarland has already served three years in prison for fraud, many may be questioning his attempts to re-ignite the Fyre Festival flame. However, it has recently come to light that the festival founder may be experiencing a neurotic episode.
According to The Sun US, psychologist Dr. Cheryl Paradis has noted that McFarland “strongly indicated” signs of an unspecified bipolar related disorder. These signs may have been further fuelled by “a substantial pattern of severe alcohol abuse”.
“[He] describes significant problems frequently associated with aspects of a manic episode at a level of severity that is uncommon even in clinical samples,” Paradis writes. “He is probably quite impulsive and unusually energetic, and most likely meets diagnostic criteria for a manic or hypomanic episode.”
Her conclusion seems to suggest that the commitment to the festival is a kind of outlet. “He is probably involved in these activities in an overcommitted and disorganised manner,” she notes.
“[His behaviours may be] marked by inflated self-esteem or grandiosity. That may range from beliefs of having exceptionally high levels of common skills, to delusional beliefs of having special and unique talents that will lead to fame and fortune.”
“His relationships with others are probably under stress due to his frustration with the inability or unwillingness of those around him to keep up with his plans and possibly unrealistic ideas,” she concluded.
Tickets for Fyre Fest 2 have previously been on sale, with prices ranging from $1,400 to $25,000. Premium packages were also being sold for as high as $1.1 million. However, following on from the news, the website has stopped ticket sales. Plenty of Instagram videos talking about festival plans have also been taken down.
Unfortunately, the festival has a pretty firm refund policy; the official terms and conditions has a strict “no refunds” clause. Even if the event is cancelled, the festival “may, at [its] sole discretion, offer to refund the base ticket price.”
