The Tribune

By Leandra Rolle

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AS the Fyre Festival makes international headlines over a potential reboot, Tourism Minister Chester Cooper gave an assurance yesterday that the event would never be approved again in The Bahamas.

Billy McFarland, the infamous organiser of the doomed festival, announced in a YouTube video that Fyre Festival II would be relaunched at a Caribbean destination next year, with events planned worldwide.

According to the event’s website, tickets range from $799-$7,999.

“This is a big day because as of right now, Fyre Festival II tickets are officially on sale,” he said. “It has been the absolute wildest journey to get here, and it really all started during the seventh-month stint solitary confinement.”

He did not reveal the location or other details about the event.

Mr Cooper said he is unaware of any application to host the event in The Bahamas for a second time.

The festival’s collapse in 2017 was featured in Netflix and Hulu documentaries.

 Mr McFarland was dubbed a “serial fraudster” and sentenced to six years in a US prison.

 He admitted to defrauding investors of $26m and more than $100,000 in a fraudulent ticket-selling scheme.

 He only served four years and was released last May.

  Maryann Rolle, a restauranteur in Exuma who lost thousands when the festival collapsed, said she would not oppose the festival’s return so long as McFarland pays vendors what they are owed.

 “I feel he just needs to pay the vendors, and we move forward and take all this pain and ill feeling away from us about the Fyre Festival, and the only way he can do that is if he creates something new,” she said.

 “I know how hard I worked during that festival and I just feel like they need to pay and the only way they can pay is if he redeems himself and starts a new approach to it; get some monies to pay us.”

 She added: “The only way the vendors and people who took in those bills will be paid is if the government becomes involved, put his foot to the fire and stand in the gap for us as a people here. Us trying our own is not going to work.

 “I would tell the government they need to bring this man in, let him continue his festival that he had the vision to do and let him pay the vendors. That’s the only way we would ever get paid.”