The convicted felon behind Fyre Festival says people are already buying tickets to his next event—despite the festival not yet having a venue or set dates. “I shouldn’t talk in absolutes, but I will here,” Billy McFarland told WSJ Magazine. “Fyre II has to work.” He announced his redemption project, including tickets costing up to $8,000, in Aug. 2023—the details of which he thought up while he was serving four years for a federal fraud conviction that also required him to repay the original Fyre investors $26 million. In 2017, the supermodel-filled Bahamian luxury concert experience McFarland promised turned disastrous with performers backing out at the last minute and attendees forced to sleep in damaged tents, without access to electricity or their luggage. “People are going to be hard-pressed to trust me if I put it all on the line and fail at it twice,” said McFarland. But, according to him, an unnamed production company already purchased a majority stake in the festival’s parent company and will be responsible for the new event’s finances and operations.