For Billy McFarland, it appears the third time really was the charm. After the colossal failure of Fyre Fest 1.0 and the subsequent botched attempt at Fyre Fest 2.0, McFarland actually managed to stage a real, physical music festival called PHNX in Honduras on Saturday night. Artists showed up. People showed up. There were bathrooms. And (somewhat) edible food.
Of course, the definition of “success” probably varies depending on your interpretation of the word. But for McFarland, who spent four years in prison on fraud charges in the immediate aftermath of Fyre Fest 1.0, he can now say he put on a music festival, headlined by real artists (French Montana, Bobby Shmurda, and Slim Jxmmi all took the stage at various points on Saturday night).
The event was livestreamed online, and because of that, we know a few things: PHNX was sparsely attended, with only a few hundred people on site by our rough count. (A social media post shared ahead of Saturday’s festivities also suggested locals were encouraged to attend for free to juice the numbers.) The livestream itself was a POV feed priced at $6.99, but at its peak we observed only around 100 active viewers. All of which is to say: McFarland — or whoever underwrote the event — likely took a sizable loss to fly out Montana and the other artists and build the infrastructure for the one-off.
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Some performances also ran into technical issues, including at least two temporary power outages. French Montana, meanwhile, tried to get the crowd singing along at various points, only to be met with a pretty lukewarm response. At another point, a one-legged guy crashed the stage.
But again, compared to McFarland’s previous two attempts at putting on a festival, these feel like minor hiccups — and, at the very least, shouldn’t land him in prison this time around. So, congrats, Billy!
@machetephil PHNX Festival with DOZENS in attendance! #PHNX #fyrefestival #billymcfarland
@davesmashville Replying to @iAmAdan wtf am I watching
@maddsofficial Confirmed ! French showed up every artist did! Love this island so much ! #fyrefestival #PHNX
@phnxfestupdatez favourite performance of the night #phnxfestival #fyrefestival #phnx2025 #billymcfarland #phnx
