‘What could possibly go wrong?’: Fyre Festival 2 is happening, so grab the popcorn

Fyre Festival 2 looks to be a real thing after Billy McFarland announced new details in spite of the results of his last attempt. The original managed to land McFarland in prison for over three years on wire fraud charges, but he seems determined to give the festival another shot. This one promises to take place in Mexico, with ticket prices as high as $1.1 million.

Social media users are reacting with healthy skepticism in response to McFarland’s latest announcement, remembering what was happening in 2017 and the memes the festival inspired.

“What’s more wild, that national TV networks are talking about and promoting Fyre Fest 2, or that people are actually buying tickets before,” asked X user @ArmenSaryan. “Imagine trusting Billy McFarland at this point lol.”

What’s new with Fyre Festival 2?

If there’s any detail that might reassure interested parties, it’s that McFarland himself will not be as involved in the organizing of Fyre Festival 2 as he was with the original. According to his announcement on X, live events producer Longnights will handle “crafting extraordinary, one-of-a-kind experiences” and multiple ticketing companies will create the “hospitality packages.”

McFarland plans to hold the festival on Isla Mujeres in the Gulf of Mexico and it will allegedly run from May 30 to June 2, 2025. He says it will be more than just a concert, painting a picture of a mass luxury vacation with celebrities and “experiences.”

“It’s about the adventure,” he told TODAY. “So you’ll be scuba diving with me. You’ll be bouncing around to other islands and other countries on small planes.”

‘Fyre Festival 2: Scammed Harder’

In spite of McFarland’s projected confidence that it will totally work out this time, social media users are largely unconvinced. At best, they’re eagerly awaiting the view, expecting that the event will end in disaster. Some are already predicting the documentaries that will come out investigating how everything went so wrong, just like last time.

“Fyre Festival 2025 is on,” says @ciurana. “Billy McFarland is out of jail and organizing. Again. What could possibly go wrong? Isla Mujeres near #Cancun to host. Ready the popcorn and watch.”

“I can already picture the attendees: influencers in bikinis, sipping rainwater from FEMA tents, while their friends whisper, ‘I told you so’ from the shadows,” imagined @MalteseBitcoinr. “Save your money, folks.”

As for those who have purchased tickets, and they do appear to be selling, there will be no sympathy from the folks who stayed home this time around. After the world witnessed and mocked the results of the last festival attempt, which ended with no concert and people stranded on the island, this will be a “fool me twice” situation.

“Anyone who goes to the Fyre Festival II, gets everything they deserve,” writes @Kam_Court1. “They don’t even have any performers booked yet and they’re starting to sell tickets. It seems perfect to be doing this while Donald Trump and Elon Musk are in power. It’s all smoke & mirrors.”

“Fyre Festival 2: Scammed Harder,” joked @BenBRockN, while @CroissantTweets opined that “if anyone goes to this you have nobody to blame but yourself.”

‘I don’t want to believe’

One of the most common reactions out there is pure shock that this is really happening a second time. Average people who screwed something up so bad and also illegally enough to land in prison would maybe change their names and careers to bury their shame, but millions of dollars must be some sort of shame repellent.

Things went so wrong at the first Fyre Festival that over the past eight years, people have been using it as a go-to disaster metaphor—from politicians trashing the Green New Deal to anyone who saw the food at Ye’s $55 brunch.

“Will there be fine dining like the last one,” asked @PlatnumSparkles with that photo we’ve all seen of the Fyre Festival lunches.

“I don’t want to believe Fyre Fest 2 is real,” said CBS reporter @OfficerStephNY.

In addition to bafflement over the ticket sales, regular people can’t seem to understand why anyone would invest in the sequel to what may have been the biggest boondoggle of the 2010s.

“Who the f*ck keeps giving these people money?” pondered @RazCunningham. “So many independent artists with proven records can’t raise a dime, and people like this can always raise money despite their failures.”

A few users out there are actually not surprised, however. With everything that’s happened since 2017, some of us are immune to surprises.

On Bluesky, user @danielbraaten.bsky.social‬ remarked, “we have Trump round 2 so why not Fyre Festival round 2.”

“Well the current iteration of our simulation is coded for maximum chaos so yeah, this tracks,” said @jenhamilton.bsky.social‬.

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