The co-founder of the catastrophic “luxury” Fyre Festival, Billy McFarland, has revealed he is “too scared” to watch the documentaries exploring the event’s downfall.
The ill-fated festival, which took place in 2017, was quickly aborted after attendees arrived to find substantial issues with accommodation, food, security, understaffing and more. According to one festival-goer, “It looked like The Hunger Games. People were running around everywhere screaming.” Guests were promised free-flowing alcohol, yachts, luxury accommodation, and food provided by a celebrity chef. Instead, guests were placed in FEMA tents, and packaged sandwiches were handed out.
McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison, charged with wire fraud for his role in the festival’s organisation. After serving four years, he was released earlier this year. Meanwhile, the festival was the subject of two documentaries: Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened and Hulu’s Fyre Fraud.
However, the co-founder recently appeared on Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO series, discussing his reaction to the documentaries. He claims that copies of the documentaries made their way into prison on USB sticks, and other inmates would use the TV room to watch them.
The idea of watching them was too much for McFarland. “I literally went outside, I think I was one of two people who wasn’t in the TV room watching the documentary, but I couldn’t do it.”
He continued, “I think I was still in the combative phase where I just hadn’t come to reality with everything that had happened, and I was too scared to hear allegations or comments by the people and not be able to respond.”
“I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it, so I feel like I wasn’t stable enough or mature enough at that time to watch it, and probably still am not.”
Recently, McFarland has started a new business venture called PYRT, an event where participants partake in a treasure hunt to find a bottle with a message inside.
