For Billy McFarland, it seems the third time actually was the allure. After the colossal failure of Fyre Fest 1.0 and the next botched attempt at Fyre Fest 2.0, McFarland truly managed to stage an actual, bodily music competition referred to as PHNX in Honduras on Saturday evening. Artists confirmed up. Folks confirmed up. There have been bogs. And (somewhat) edible food.
After all, the definition of “success” in all probability varies relying in your interpretation of the phrase. However for McFarland, who spent four years in prison on fraud fees within the rapid aftermath of Fyre Fest 1.0, he can now say he placed on a music competition, headlined by actual artists (French Montana, Bobby Shmurda, and Slim Jxmmi all took the stage at varied factors on Saturday evening).
The occasion was livestreamed on-line, and due to that, we all know just a few issues: PHNX was sparsely attended, with only some hundred individuals on website by our tough rely. (A social media submit shared forward of Saturday’s festivities additionally suggested locals have been inspired to attend free of charge to juice the numbers.) The livestream itself was a POV feed priced at $6.99, however at its peak we noticed solely round 100 lively viewers. All of which is to say: McFarland — or whoever underwrote the occasion — possible took a large loss to fly out Montana and the opposite artists and construct the infrastructure for the one-off.
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Some performances additionally bumped into technical points, together with a minimum of two momentary energy outages. French Montana, in the meantime, tried to get the group singing alongside at varied factors, solely to be met with a fairly lukewarm response. At one other level, a one-legged man crashed the stage.
However once more, in comparison with McFarland’s earlier two makes an attempt at placing on a competition, these really feel like minor hiccups — and, on the very least, shouldn’t land him in jail this time round. So, congrats, Billy!
@machetephil PHNX Competition with DOZENS in attendance! #PHNX #fyrefestival #billymcfarland
@davesmashville Replying to @iAmAdan wtf am I watching
@maddsofficial Confirmed ! French confirmed up each artist did! Love this island a lot ! #fyrefestival #PHNX
@phnxfestupdatez favorite efficiency of the evening #phnxfestival #fyrefestival #phnx2025 #billymcfarland #phnx
