• Billy McFarland founded the infamous Fyre Festival, which stranded attendees in the Bahamas in 2017.
• In 2018, he pleaded guilty to fraud charges, one of which was connected to the festival.
• McFarland was released from prison in 2022 and is now planning for Fyre Festival 2.

It's been eight years since the original Fyre Festival left attendees stranded in the Bahamas in far-from luxurious accommodations, but founder Billy McFarland is ready to try again.

"My dream is finally becoming a reality," McFarland told TODAY on February 24. Fyre Festival 2 is planned for May 30 to June 2 in Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

It remains to be seen whether this version goes more smoothly than the last.

During the 2017 event, people who'd paid thousands of dollars for tickets, expecting a luxury experience, received cheese sandwiches and disaster relief tents instead.

After pleading guilty to wire fraud charges, one of which was related to the festival, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison and served four. Here's how McFarland got started and what he's up to now.

McFarland started his first business at age 13

McFarland grew up in New Jersey, the son of two real estate developers, according to The New York Times. Though some may see a resemblance, there's no evidence he's related to "Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane.

From a young age, McFarland was interested in becoming an entrepreneur.

"I started my first business in seventh grade and had three full time employees," he said in an interview on the "Just B with Bethenny Frankel" podcast in 2024. One of his employees invited the middle schooler to his wedding.

McFarland was more interested in business than school

After dropping out of Bucknell University during his first year, he started an online ad platform called Spling.

Then, in 2013, at age 22, McFarland started a now-defunct company, Magnises.

The social club's members paid $250 for Magnises' black card — modeled on the exclusive American Express Black Card — to gain access to cocktail parties, art shows, and other events. The card also gave members discounts at restaurants and clubs.

"One thing that everyone carries with them at all times is their debit or credit card," McFarland told Business Insider in 2015. "So we tied it to that."

Then members started complaining about canceled trips, missing tickets, and lengthy wait times for refunds, Business Insider reported in 2017.

McFarland used his connections with Ja Rule to build hype around the first Fyre Festival in 2017

Another perk Magnises promoted was private concerts by rapper Ja Rule. By 2017, Rule was involved in another venture with McFarland, the Fyre Festival.

Scheduled to take place over two weekends in April and May 2017, the festival was located on the island of Great Exuma in the Bahamas.

Ticket prices ranged from $450 to $75,000, BBC News reported in 2019.

The food was supposed to be gourmet and the accommodations were described as luxurious villas. Celebrities including Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid promoted the event. Blink-182 was set to play.

The pop-punk band and other acts pulled out before the event began, and the organizers canceled the festival shortly after people arrived. Stranded attendees were served box lunches and some stayed in disaster relief tents from FEMA.

Two documentaries, Netflix's "FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened" and Hulu's "Fyre Fraud," chronicled the disastrous festival. Bahamian locals who worked for the event said they were never paid for their services.

In May 2017, attendees sued McFarland and Ja Rule in a $100 million class-action lawsuit, which was later dismissed against the musician, The Guardian reported in 2019. Some of the concert-goers involved in the lawsuit received around $7,000, NPR reported in 2021.

In 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison

In June 2017, federal agents arrested McFarland on a charge of wire fraud related to the festival. A year later, he was arrested again in a separate fraud case.

At the time of his first arrest, he was living in a Manhattan penthouse that cost $21,000 a month, The New York Times reported.

A 2018 SEC filing stated that McFarland had inflated his net worth to secure bank loans, claiming on his loan applications that he owned $2.56 million worth of Facebook stock when he actually owned $1,499 in shares.

McFarland pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to six years in prison in October 2018.

He was also ordered to forfeit $26 million to help pay back investors, attendees, and vendors. Before McFarland's sentencing, his attorney requested a lighter sentence, saying a psychiatrist had diagnosed him with a bipolar-related disorder.

As part of his plea deal, he agreed not to serve as the director of a public company again.

In March 2022, McFarland was released from federal prison.

Billy McFarland's girlfriend, Anastasia Eremenko, appeared in the Hulu Fyre Festival documentary

Anastasia Eremenko is a Russian model, according to Los Angeles Magazine. The couple met after the festival but before he went to prison.

"We broke up for a little bit" but got back together, McFarland said during the 2024 interview with Bethenny Frankel.

"When Billy and I met, it was destiny. It was love. I don't know how to explain it," she said in Hulu's "Fyre Fraud" documentary. It's unclear if they're still dating.

Where is Billy McFarland now?

After his prison sentence, McFarland told The New York Times he was hoping to get a job in the tech industry because people there are "more apt at taking risk."

He announced his next startup, PYRT, in 2022. The company, pronounced "pirate," would host events like "treasure hunts" at a hotel in The Bahamas, McFarlands said on the "Full Send" podcast that year.

"PYRT is all about taking people to places that they think are impossible," he said. He also planned on hosting a "PYRT fest."

Since McFarland still has about $26 million to pay in restitution, part of the money from the PYRT merch sold went to reimbursing unpaid workers in the Bahamas and to others who invested in or attended the Fyre Festival.

Now he's hoping to launch a second Fyre Festival.

"I'm sure many people think I'm crazy for doing this again. But I feel I'd be crazy not to do it again," McFarland said in a statement posted on Instagram.

Details about who will be performing at the festival have not been announced yet.