Transcript

Fyre Festival 2 is in Trouble

From TRUE CRIME Loser · Episode page · Watch on YouTube

· 32 min · 4,881 words · 28 timestamped sections

This is the full, timestamped transcript of "Fyre Festival 2 is in Trouble", an episode of TRUE CRIME Loser published March 14, 2025 (32 min, about 4,881 words). It mentions 20 people, works and ideas, including Fire Festival 2, Billy McFarland, Fire Festival 1, restitution, Luxury Festival.

What this episode is about

Fyre Festival 2 appears to be facing major logistical and legitimacy issues, with delays, unconfirmed permits, and disavowed hotel partnerships raising questions about the event’s viability and parallels to the original Fyre Festival fiasco. The discussion covers mounting red flags, past failures of the project, and comparisons to the original organizer.

Key takeaways

  • Fire Festival 2 hype mirrors a scam echo chamber: glossy promo, hollow permits, zero credibility.
  • Three months is nothing in festival land; Billy's timeline juggling screams unprepared chaos, not resilience.
  • Authorities and partners already disown it; the 'official' signals are basically a smoke-filled fire drill.
  • Rich-ticket fantasy collapses where reality-checks matter: luxury adds risk, not inevitability, in mismanaged events.
  • Historical pattern repeats: PR blitz masks core flaws—audiences should value due diligence over nostalgia.

Who speaks in this episode?

What is discussed, and when

  1. – 5:00: Fire Festival 2, Billy McFarland, restitution, Fire Festival 1
  2. – 10:00: Instagram, Mexico, Vlad TV, Bahamas
  3. – 15:00: Billy McFarland, Fire Festival 2, Antonio Brown, Instagram
  4. – 20:00: Experiential Drops, Fire Festival 2, restitution, Instagram
  5. – 25:00: Fight Pit, Experiential Drops, Antonio Brown
  6. – 30:00: Antonio Brown, Fight Pit, Mexico, Fire Festival 2
  7. – 32:08: TL in the Sand

Notable quotes from "Fyre Festival 2 is in Trouble"

  • Hey folks welcome back so you're not going to believe this fire Festival 2 is supposed to be less than three months away and when you're talking music festival type event three months is nothing they've already had to bump it.
    about Fire Festival 2 · at
  • Website together they're making all of the exact same mistakes as fire fesal one which landed Billy McFarland the Visionary behind the whole thing in prison for four years he…
    about Billy McFarland · at
  • Here 2017 fire Festival 1 is a colossal disaster he gets six years in prison ends up doing four he has to pay restitution for close to $30 million and it sounds like there's…
    about restitution · at
  • Their fans lawsuits were talked about criminal charges were talked about it was the whole changing of how you have you could post on Instagram after that you had to say this is…
    about Instagram · at
  • Festival they're in charge of all the logistics Productions and operations this includes an incredible production team in Mexico who does not F around there is no way they would ever take on a fake Festival three we have a.
    about Mexico · at
  • Celebrate there is no other event like this these options are all a car and must be purchased as add-ons the fire experiences will be released in a number of experiential drops leading up to the festival so first let's let's break this down.
    about Experiential Drops · at
  • On Islam Maharis front row viewing of the water stage and close viewing to the fight pit all right can't wait to be close to the fight pit and then Transportation all right so that's for 5,000 you get to be.
    about Fight Pit · at
  • Antonio Brown and they're billing it as a luxury with these prices it's a luxury Festival which how do you build infrastructure that meets the standard of luxury and some of these prices I don't know.
    about Luxury Festival · at

Who and what is mentioned in this episode?

People

  • Billy McFarland — Person · Core topic · 3 mentions · first at
    He is presented as the promoter behind Fyre Festival 1 and the driving force attempting to launch Fyre Festival 2, with the episode focusing on repeated patterns of deceptive marketing, operational failures, and legal consequences.
  • Antonio Brown — Person · Referenced performer · 4 mentions · first at
    He is cited as the only person publicly claiming to perform at Fyre Festival 2, used as evidence that credible talent is not lining up.
    $25,000 let's see what comes with that artist access to the festival ground so at this point the only artist is Antonio Brown so you just get to be like hey up Antonio and he's…
  • Chad Holmes — Person · Referenced comparison · 1 mention · first at
    McFarland is compared to Elizabeth Holmes to emphasize a narrative of charismatic promotion, fraud, and criminal consequences.
    Prison for four years he got six years in prison ended up doing four if you don't know who it is he's essentially the music Festival version of Elizabeth Holmes the Theos at…

Companies & orgs

  • New York City VIP Access — Company · Referenced scam venture · 1 mention · first at
    Cited as a 'full-blown scam' McFarland ran after Fyre Festival 1, used to argue intent/pattern and to explain why authorities viewed him harshly.
    That he probably got more time for the last company did before he went to prison was New York City VIP access and it was just a straight full-blown scam where he emailed…
  • Magnesis — Company · Referenced prior venture · 1 mention · first at
    Presented as McFarland's earlier company, used to illustrate a pattern: slick positioning with questionable underlying value and accusations of being scam-adjacent.
    Up kind of being lame and borderline a full-blown scam and they've gotten worse like his first company was magnesis where you could copy your credit card onto this metal it…

Concepts & topics

  • restitution — Concept · Legal/financial core topic · 3 mentions · first at
    Restitution is used to quantify the ongoing financial consequences of Fyre Festival 1 and is invoked by McFarland as a credibility claim ('restitution is being paid').
  • Luxury Festival — Concept · Core framing concept · 2 mentions · first at
    The speaker argues McFarland is trying to sell Fyre Festival 2 as a luxury experience with very high ticket tiers, while questioning how luxury infrastructure can be delivered on an island.
  • Fight Pit — Concept · Referenced feature / skepticism target · 6 mentions · first at
    The 'fight pit' is mocked as one of the few concrete features listed on the Fyre Festival 2 website, used to illustrate vagueness and questionable value of premium packages.
  • Experiential Drops — Concept · Criticized marketing tactic · 4 mentions · first at
    The episode highlights 'experiential drops' as vague, delayed disclosures of what attendees are buying, used to argue the offering lacks concrete substance.
  • Clinical Sociopath — Concept · Characterization / critique · 1 mention · first at
    Used to describe how others allegedly characterize McFarland in documentaries/interviews, reinforcing the speaker's warning that McFarland's claims are unreliable.
    Story he's a confirmed liar everybody that he or many people that he worked with like if you watch the fire documentary say he's a he's a full-blown clinical sociopath someone…
  • sociopath — Concept · Characterization / critique · 1 mention · first at
    The speaker references others describing McFarland as a sociopath to frame his credibility problems and to caution viewers about trusting his narrative.
    With like if you watch the fire documentary say he's a he's a full-blown clinical sociopath someone called him an operational sociopath and so again this is his story and he…

Places & events

  • Fire Festival 2 — Event · Core topic · 6 mentions · first at
    The episode investigates the claimed upcoming festival, highlighting permit issues, hotel denials, lack of announced talent, expensive ticket tiers, and similarities to the original fiasco.
  • Fire Festival 1 — Event · Core topic · 2 mentions · first at
    Used as the cautionary baseline: the 2017 disaster is repeatedly referenced to argue that Fyre Festival 2 is repeating the same marketing-first, operations-last mistakes.
    This I think the same thing is happening before we're going to take a look at the website together they're making all of the exact same mistakes as fire fesal one which landed…
  • Mexico — Place · Referenced location · 4 mentions · first at
    Mexico is described as the intended country for Fyre Festival 2, with local government statements cited as evidence that permits and official coordination may be missing.
  • TL in the Sand — Event · Referenced comparison event · 2 mentions · first at
    Used as an example that even well-resourced festivals with established infrastructure can trigger lawsuits if expectations are not met, reinforcing skepticism about Fyre Festival 2.
    The next night it was like pretty much the same a whole bunch of repeats and now apparently there's a class action lawsuit that someone starting a tool fan saying the selling…
  • Bahamas — Place · Referenced location (Fyre 1 marketing) · 1 mention · first at
    The Bahamas is described as the setting for the original promotional imagery with models that helped sell Fyre Festival 1 tickets, contrasted with the inability to recreate that moment.
    Seem so cool so everybody bought tickets and they were able to book Blink 182 is he paid all of those models brought them down to the Bahamas shot a slick cool promo video that…

Media & podcasts

  • Instagram — Media · Referenced distribution channel · 3 mentions · first at
    Instagram is discussed as the key channel used in Fyre Festival 1 influencer marketing and as McFarland's current channel for reassurance videos about Fyre Festival 2.
  • Vlad TV — Media · Referenced interview platform · 2 mentions · first at
    The episode relies on a prior VladTV interview for details about McFarland's claimed restitution exposure and early ticket 'pre-drop' sales.
    Goes yeah we did a pre-drop tickets they sold out pretty much instantly and then Vlad goes well how many tickets did you sell in the pre-drop thing and Billy kind of quietly…
  • Documentary — Media · Referenced media format · 1 mention · first at
    Documentaries about Fyre Festival are cited as driving public attention and McFarland's mistaken belief that 'name recognition' translates into demand for Fyre Festival 2.
    Second time gets out roughly two years ago immediately starts doing all of the media interviews because those two huge firefest documentaries came out while he was in prison…
  • Joe Rogan — Media · Referenced platform (uncertain) · 1 mention · first at
    Mentioned as a possible place where Antonio Brown discussed performing; the speaker is unsure ('or something'), so it functions as a tentative reference.
    The only artist that's come out right now and said they're performing is Antonio Brown the X NFL wide receiver I think he said it on Joe Rogan or something and so less 3 months…

Full transcript with timestamps

hey folks welcome back so you're not going to believe this fire Festival 2 is supposed to be less than three months away and when you're talking music festival type event three months is nothing they've already had to bump it back one month the whole year they were promoting fire Festival 2 going to be the coolest at the end of April and then recently quietly all of a sudden actually it's going to be at the end of May everything's going great real smooth no complaints on our and just it's going so well the planning and the booking and the ticket sales and everything it's going so well we just figured pushing it back an extra month would be uh necessary and then last week which now it makes it worth doing an episode about the local Islam Maharis Mexican government where they're trying to do it came out made a statement and said as far as we're concerned this Festival isn't happening nobody has reached out

or even attempted to get the necessary permits to do this thing as far as we're concerned this Festival does not exist and then same week last week two local hotels that I apparently were listed as the official partnering hotels for firest 2 they came out and said no we're not not affiliated with this thing at all people I can't believe I'm saying this I think the same thing is happening before we're going to take a look at the website together they're making all of the exact same mistakes as fire fesal one which landed Billy McFarland the Visionary behind the whole thing in prison for four years he got six years in prison ended up doing four if you don't know who it is he's essentially the music Festival version of Elizabeth Holmes the Theos at first they call you crazy and then they fight you and then you miss your daughter's entire childhood cuz you're in prison so let me set up how we got to this moment and

then we'll look at the website together and then I want to make my channel the official fire Festival 2 watch follow party because I can't like I said I I really can't believe leave he's making the exact same mistakes again all right so how did we get here 2017 fire Festival 1 is a colossal disaster he gets six years in prison ends up doing four he has to pay restitution for close to $30 million and it sounds like there's between 10 and 20 lawsuits still happening trickling in Billy McFarland did a Vlad TV interview like seven months ago or something and Vlad asked him so how much money do you have to pay back in all and Billy was like I don't know I don't think anyone really knows it's still but I would guess just myself he's probably on the hook to pay back between 4 and $50 million and how the restitution Works a percentage comes out of whatever he makes each month so the more he makes

the more that comes out the story he tells is he's in prison and he signs with a talent agency while in prison they're going to do a podcast with him over the prison phone please insert one more quarter to keep the podcast going and for promotional material for the podcast according to Billy they used a stock picture of someone that kind of was the same look as Billy same shape looking down like out of a prison cell but Billy said it wasn't me the prison that he was in thought that was him and said how'd you get a picture how'd they get a picture of you for the promotional material that's not allowed and so they put him in solitary confinement for seven months again this is just Billy's story he's a confirmed liar everybody that he or many people that he worked with like if you watch the fire documentary say he's a he's a full-blown clinical sociopath someone called him an operational sociopath and so again this

is his story and he said while he's in solitary confinement he writes a 50 page proposal pitch I don't know for fire Festival 2 which he said because the vision the idea is strong the problem is it's not a luxury Festival because he wants to sell crazy high ticket packages he doesn't want to sell hey 500 bucks it's a pirate theme Festival you know it's kind of cool but kind of crappy but decent music you know hey come out let's have a good time he wants to sell the $5,000 ticket package the 25,000 it's got to have luxury but how do you do that to do some Island in Mexico to get like sushi and Indian food and a spa treatment an a-level ax it's it's not a good it doesn't the idea isn't good and it proved that the first time went so bad he it ruined his life and so anyway he writes a 50-page proposal while in solitary confinement yeah this is so good we're going to pull it off the second time gets out roughly two years

ago immediately starts doing all of the media interviews because those two huge firefest documentaries came out while he was in prison and he mistakes that for this is the biggest Festival around this has name recognition in one of the like a year ago he did a uh interview on TMZ where he goes fire Festival has gotten 36 million impressions on the internet were the most talked about Festival around but the problem is Billy everybody's just on it saying this thing sucked and I can't believe everybody got tricked and the thing he can't the how he got the last one to seem so cool so everybody bought tickets and they were able to book Blink 182 is he paid all of those models brought them down to the Bahamas shot a slick cool promo video that had nothing to do with the actual Festival put that out everybody was like Wow models I want to hang out with models in the Bahamas that looks really nice that looks fun that's

what that's what I want to do the problem is you can't recreate it that's the initial glaring huge issue with trying to do this fire Festival idea that he has is to recreate it and not spend a hundred billion dollars but he can't do it this time all the models had to apologize to their fans lawsuits were talked about criminal charges were talked about it was the whole changing of how you have you could post on Instagram after that you had to say this is an advertisement because people felt tricked where where all of those top models were posting pictures like firefest meet me in firefest it looked all organic and then everyone you win and it you got like a cheese sandwich on dry toast it was like well what where's the model this is a gross cheese sandwich okay so here's what I think is happening if you go and watch interviews from starting a year ago until recently everyone basically that Billy does he

goes tickets are on sale tomorrow so a year ago tickets were on sale tomorrow seven months ago tickets were on sale tomorrow during the Vlad TV interview he goes yeah we did a pre-drop tickets they sold out pretty much instantly and then Vlad goes well how many tickets did you sell in the pre-drop thing and Billy kind of quietly was like a 100 and Vlad you could tell Vlad was like oh yeah hey cool 100 tickets and then I don't know how many they thought at the beginning two years ago when this thing was looking good but all of a sudden now they're only saying we're selling 2,000 tickets which that's a small festival and so a year ago tickets are on sale tomorrow seven months ago tickets are on sale tomorrow a couple months ago and then he did a damage control Billy went on the Today Show or Good Morning America or something something roughly two weeks ago and again they were saying and officially tickets go on sale tomorrow

well I've been on the website almost every day for the past two weeks you can still buy tickets so here's what I think is happening Billy thought that we're the most talked about Festival we're a meme everybody's been talking about us everybody's going to want to go to this thing but all of Billy's Endeavors we've seen enough kind of have the same look the same which is really slick cool promotion he's a good promoter and he's a good marketer but the actual idea ends up kind of being lame and borderline a full-blown scam and they've gotten worse like his first company was magnesis where you could copy your credit card onto this metal it looks like you're rich you throw it on the table it clangs and so that was for like 20s people in New York City that want to seem like they're rich and they want to throw down a credit card that clangs so you buy you get the credit card and then everything else about the company it had

its moments but slowly but surely everyone was like nah this is pretty lame and borderline of scam so then he goes on to the next thing which is fire Festival same thing incredibly slick marketing tricked everybody made it look like the coolest thing and then everybody got got there and it was far from that and then right after that which he he said in the Vlad interview that he probably got more time for the last company did before he went to prison was New York City VIP access and it was just a straight full-blown scam where he emailed everybody that was on the fire Festival email list and said do you want to go to the Met Gala I can get tickets well you can't buy tickets to the Met Gala you want to meet Taylor Swift I can set up a meeting Taylor Swift's like I don't do meet and greets and so that was a full-blown scam and so he was being charged for fire festival and that added more time made him look

really bad because they were like no you are as bad as it looks because look at this you start you even started the full you can't explain away New York City VIP access and so here we are again where Billy McFarland is trying to do one of the things that he does and in the interviews he's trying to spin it where he goes we're going to be the first Festival that sells out without any axe being booked it's like people aren't going to Shell out that much cash if there's no no there isn't listed anything on like what is happening with this festival and so here's what I think is happening it's obvious that tickets aren't selling he thought well everybody's talking about it there was two documentaries people are going to fall over themselves to buy tickets I'm a little bit surprised even they can't even sell 2,000 I figured there'd be at least 2,000 people that just wanted to go and see what firefest 2 they don't

even care like I don't care how crappy it is I'm going to go and Vlog it for my little Channel or I'll go cover it for this and the fact that it's been a year of them saying tickets are on sale tomorrow and still nothing and since no one's doesn't seem like anyone's buying tickets money's not rolling in and so how do you book how do you book an act a really a music festival is only as cool is the music that that they're playing right and to the only artist that's come out right now and said they're performing is Antonio Brown the X NFL wide receiver I think he said it on Joe Rogan or something and so less 3 months out doesn't seem like tickets are selling the local Mexican government is saying as far as we're concerned this isn't happening no one's reached out to the necessary permits and and Billy hasn't solved the problem which is how do you make a cool Festival you can promote a festival you can have a

cool website for a festival but he's never figured out how to make an actual Good Festival where people could go and after the I think it was good morning America interview where she's going are is there going to be a list Talent booked and he's going well I'm not part of the booking my partners are doing the booking but I sure hope so and he's starting to look very desperate and then I think after that he did a and I I'll I can show a clip of it he did an Instagram video where he just filming his face and a year ago he was looking all confident and excited and he's starting to get that same look like this isn't going good at all and he's making an Instagram video trying to calm people down going no no fire Festival 2 is real I did an interview in the Today Show and since then the story has been shared retold twisted and covered by journalists from all over the world I figured it would be best to hear

directly from me what's actually happening first Fire 2 is real second we have incredible Partners leading the festival they're in charge of all the logistics Productions and operations this includes an incredible production team in Mexico who does not F around there is no way they would ever take on a fake Festival three we have a competitions naturally this is a huge point of emphasis given the issues surrounding fired one our accommodations include contracts the number of Villas yachts and hotels this also includes two hotels who are contacted by the media and in response to gave misleading statements saying they never heard of fire and they aren't working with us after hearing this I asked my team to terminate those contracts and to focus on the hotels and other partners who are eager to work with and support fire four we have talent artists athletes and other performers are on board and

scheduled for Fire 2 five restitution is being paid since being it is happening it's going to be good even though we haven't announced anything yet and it's three months away it's going to be so good and I just can't believe how surreal it really is that he he tried to do this exact same thing already it went terribly wrong and now a few short years after he gets out of prison he's making desperate frantic Instagram film yourf face videos going I promise this thing is real and good I cannot wait to see what happens with this thing please follow along let's check out the website all right so it starts by counting to a 100 I guess that's something and then you got some moving water kind of cool and an island with which I would guess has nothing to do with the actual location and then I don't know if they were going for to make it look like you're in a cave staring out at the water or if they're

tearing off a piece to reveal a small glimpse of the paradise that awaits if you buy tickets to fire Festival 2 it's actually a pretty slick looking website but that's kind of Billy's thing super cool promotional material and a slick website but the problem is the super cool promotional material whatever it's promoting with the slick website ends up being kind of lame or a shocking disaster all right let's click on tickets so you have the ignite General access the miserable pathetic General access for $1,400 and the fuo VIP M package for $5,000 and the Phoenix package artist access oh my God for $225,000 there's actually also a Prometheus package for $1.1 million but let's start with the miserable pathetic ignite General access loser package all right you got a scroll up it's actually kind of annoying all right so here we are it's a lot of the same name on all these but I'll read it for the first one there are

accommodations there are dozens of hotels and many rental Villas available on Islam madis fire has partnered with a number of these hotels in the area yeah well last week a number of them came out and said we're not Partners we're not affiliated with this thing where accommodations are available to ignite attendees at preferred rates there will be transportation between our partner hotels and our Festival sites on Islam Maharis throughout the weekend attendees may also book their own private accommodations hey cool all right so this is where it gets funny fire experiences explore embrace the unknown and defy The Impossible alongside some of the most fascinating people in the world then come together at night to celebrate there is no other event like this these options are all a car and must be purchased as add-ons the fire experiences will be released in a number of experiential drops leading up to the

festival so first let's let's break this down explore all right that makes sense you can wander around embrace the unknown does that just mean you don't even know what this thing is the whole ex embrace the unknown people are going to want to know in the next month what is this thing what am I paying for if it's so great wouldn't you be proud and happy to put up what it is on the website and show pictures of it this whole and defy The Impossible alongside some of the most fascinating people in the world I don't know it's not really selling me okay so for that one oh yeah and also down here the fire experiences will be released in a number of experiential drops leading up to the festival imagine paying $25,000 for the Phoenix package and being like yeah I don't I don't know what I'm spending my money on I'm waiting around for the experiential drops that are going to happen leading up to the festival so that should be

good and so this the miserable pathetic ignite General access package this one access to the festival grounds on Islam ah haris and the water stage Transportation will be blah blah blah all right so you get with that package you get access to the grounds and to the water stage all right not the worst let's move on okay now we have the Fuego viip access wow right let's see what we get with this one VIP access to the festival grounds on Islam Maharis front row viewing of the the water stage and close viewing to the fight pit all right can't wait to be close to the fight pit and then Transportation all right so that's for 5,000 you get to be front row at the water stage and close viewing to the fight pit all right now let's go up to the Phoenix package for $25,000 let's see what what comes with that artist access to the festival ground so at this point the only artist is Antonio Brown so you just get to be

like hey up Antonio and he's like hey like all right well that was worth about 40 bucks artist access to the festival grounds on Islam Maharis backstage access to the water stage oh my God pits Side Access to the fight pit are you kidding me and curated itenerary of fire experiences which remember will be uh released in a number of experiential drops Phoenix transportation throughout the weekend and a fire coner all right 25 Grand that'll set you back but remember you get backstage to the water stage and pit side access to the fight pit all right that's not nothing all right now we're going to go to the Prometheus which you have these spinning rings and looks like a couple models running into the beach wearing like Tut twos I don't know do you get a ring with the Prometheus get some cheap ring hey I paid $1.1 million and got this ring so that's cool all right so for 1.1 million let's see what you

get Prometheus access to the festival grounds on Islam Mah Harris onstage access to the water stage what fight team access at the fight pit you get to talk to some karate Sensei what I only had to pay $1.1 million and I got fight team access at the fight pit I'll take two please and a curated itinerary of fire experiences that are going to come out as experiential drops 247 private chauffeur chauffeur service and dedicated onsite coner let's look at these pictures I mean this just feels like firefest one all over again let's go to the first one okay so you have two women jumping off a diving board all right can't argue with that then you have this woman hugging her knees she actually kind of looks miserable but if you want to go and wear a bathing suit and hug your knees or see a beautiful woman hugging her knees only $1.1 million stands in your way all right then you have some people sitting on a boat you want to sit

on a boat this is the festival for you then you have a yacht with a helicopter this is right up Billy's alley too just big Yachts expensive helicopter you're a celebrity you're an oligarch on your yacht all right then you have a woman's butt hopefully that sells some tickets because we don't have much else we don't other than uh what was it fight team access to the fight pit hopefully this woman I think these are probably all just stock photos that have nothing to do with it and you got some boats look at that and you have three women sitting at a villa that's probably nowhere near the actual Festival trying to look cute and sexy you got a dude doing a backflip young and free got a woman on a floaty with the hand in the air and some jet skis so people are going to want to see real pictures of this thing what is what are we doing what do the grounds look like the stock I mean it seems to me like

they're making all the exact same fraudulent mistakes that they made on fire Festival 1 what is the identity of this Festival it doesn't sound like they even know so there's a water stage and a fight pit the one artist so far is Antonio Brown and they're billing it as a luxury with these prices it's a luxury Festival which how do you build infrastructure that meets the standard of luxury and and some of these prices I don't know but there you go that's the website last thing I want to talk about is I think they thought all right we're going to sell a bunch of tickets cuz we're the most talked about Festival in the world and then once the money starts going in we'll book all of these great acts everybody will be like oh my gosh this festival's awesome and then it'll go great well no respectable artist is it has a stink of failure and scam from fire Festival one and so how are you going to

charge the amount of money for fire Festival 2 that they're charging and put out a list of Acts that no one's ever heard wait who's DJ who gives a why am I paying all this money to see how you know Antonio Brown he's an ex NFL player and he does have some rap songs he's kind of like one part comedian one part rapper one part fashion guy and so if that's the level of you could see why they don't want to list who they're booking yet because they got a hope it's like it's it's mysterious just buy tickets do it it's fine and the reason the first time they were able to get acts like Blink 182 is because they put out that promo and then apparently they were paying like double what most bands would want for a festival like this so say an agent calls a band and goes yeah there's this new Festival they want you to play I don't know it seems pretty cool there's a bunch of models in the promo video and

they're paying double for for what we would all right sign me up and but all the models had to apologize that we're a part of it nobody wants to put their reputation or take a chance and be like all right I'll play fire festival 2o and then end up you have to apologize to your fans I'd like to make a statement I'm so sorry to my fans and so and also Billy there are places in Mexico that are for concerts my friends in col Colorado I guess fish does a Mexico thing every year where everybody stays in a nice resort and then at night there's a stage on the beach but it's all built Billy doesn't want to do that because he doesn't think it's cool enough and you can't charge 25,000 a ticket but how do you go down to a an island in Mexico and build brand new infrastructure that meets the standards for luxury inclusivity cool you're the coolest and I guess Dominican Republic has a resort that's built for concerts and just

looking into this this is unrelated but kind of interesting looking into it apparently the band TL just did a festival down in the Dominican Republic called TL in the sand I think and get this so T advertises it two unique sets from t plus all these other bands I saw Umphrey McGee was on there and Primus was on there and kind of that style of music and apparently I didn't even know this tulle has been playing the same set list it's like pretty short too like nine songs or something the same nine song set list for years live there fans are getting a little tired of it little starved for something new and so a big selling point of this new Festival was too unique two unique sets from t one on Friday night one on Saturday night with a whole bunch of other bands Primus and you name it in between it's going to be the coolest thing ever and so a bunch of tool fans were like I'm in that is what

that's interesting and they go down there and I guess apparently it was also advertised the sets are going to be an hour and a half long it's going to be unique come and check it out well the first night they played the same old set list and everyone's like all right well that we you seen that a bunch not any surprises no risks were taken once again well it must be tomorrow nights the night with the bust outs the songs they haven't played forever it's going to be and then the next s or then the next night it was like pretty much the same a whole bunch of repeats and now apparently there's a class action lawsuit that someone starting a tool fan saying the selling point of the festival was two unique sets oh yeah also the second night apparently instead of an hour and a half it was only 75 minutes but the class action lawsuit is saying you said two unique sets of tool they weren't unique that was the selling

point this was a scam and the reason I even bring this up in this episode it's extremely hard to put on a good Festival where people feel like they got their money's worth and even even that one is ending up in a class action lawsuit and they had top tier bands an amazing infrastructure that was already built a hotel that's built for that with the stage you don't have to start from scratch and make everything look good and if not if T in the sand with all of those acts disappointed everybody and ended up in a class action lawsuit I I really think the same thing is happening with firefest 2 I can't can't believe I'm saying it let's follow along I love you all I'm going to cut it off there why Sten why sh

Questions about this episode

Who speaks in "Fyre Festival 2 is in Trouble"?

Billy McFarland (Host), Vlad (Guest).

What is "Fyre Festival 2 is in Trouble" about?

Fyre Festival 2 appears to be facing major logistical and legitimacy issues, with delays, unconfirmed permits, and disavowed hotel partnerships raising questions about the event’s viability and parallels to the original Fyre Festival fiasco. The discussion covers mounting red flags, past failures of the project, and comparisons to the original organizer.

What is mentioned in this TRUE CRIME Loser episode?

20 people, works and ideas are mentioned, including Fire Festival 2, Billy McFarland, Fire Festival 1, restitution, Luxury Festival, Fight Pit. Each one on this page links to its own page with every episode that mentions it.

How long is "Fyre Festival 2 is in Trouble"?

The episode runs 32 min; the transcript is about 4,881 words in 28 timestamped sections.

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About this transcript: the episode's spoken words as captioned on YouTube, split into timestamped sections. Reclip.Me locates every person, work and idea in the text, keeps the time it is first named, and quotes the words around it verbatim. Last updated October 29, 2026.