Billy McFarland wants to share his story with the world, that is unless two Fyre Festival documentaries already gave you all the information you need to know. A New York Magazinechronicles how McFarland got to self-publish a memoir.
Josh Raab is a freelance editor who worked with McFarland on his book, Promythus: The God of Fyre. Raab was initially contacted by McFarland's girlfriend Anastasia Eremenko, who told him that Netflix and Hulu "misrepresented the real events" leading up to the disastrous Fyre Festival. "Billy would like to share his story" Ana told the editor.
"In my experience, if you write back fast as possible, you get the job," Raab recalls. "I saw it right when I woke up and I responded right away."
Since McFarland and Ja Rule scammed the masses into thinking they could realistically attend Coachella 2.0, Anastasia has been of the few allies who still advocates on McFarland's behalf. The Russian model began dating the fraudster shortly after Fyre proved to be a fraud. According to communications that have taken place between Raab and Eremenko, Billy is delivering his 800 handwritten book pages in the form of notes from prison. His girlfriend then typed up the letters she received and delivered them to Raab to edit.
According to the article, the book “chronicles his career from the first investment in a now-shuttered start-up back in 2011 to the FBI paying him a visit days after the festival imploded.” McFarland has repeatedly said that the upcoming memoir will contain the "real story" for viewers who were misdirected by the two Fyre Festival documentaries. He also noted that he intends to try and bring the music festival to fruition once again.
McFarland told Raab that he intended to self-publish the book on Amazon by the end of April, and gave away various clues as to why he was expediting the project.
"Putting in terms of Wolf of Wall Street, the Festival will not be a one and done event — it’s happening again, so the original story will lose the potential to be told and set the stage if it’s not done before the next events take place," Billy told Raab over email. Shortly thereafter, Raab declined to work on the project further. “I told myself I’d work on this book if Billy was actually having this weird, monkish experience," he said. He later determined that this book was not "[a] worthwhile addition to the general discussion."
The Fyre mastermind is currently serving a six-year prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Facility in Otisville, New York after he pleaded guilty to fraud charges in March of last year. McFarland is also expected to pay back $26 million to the scammed ticket victims and defrauded investors.
