In a new, unsanctioned interview from prison, Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland admitted he “knowingly lied” to investors.
Per the New York Post, McFarland admitted that he conned millions of dollars from investors to fund his disastrous music festival. “I think the biggest mistake before I went awry was just setting an unrealistic time frame for the festival,” he told Jordan Barbinger in a recent podcast. The interview has reportedly landed McFarland in solitary confinement, Barbinger has claimed. It was reported last year that he was placed in confinement after he tried to launch a podcast.
“Had we given ourselves a year or two and had I obviously not made the terrible decision to lie to my backers, I think we could have been in a bit better place, but regardless of the mistakes that I made or what made things go wrong,” McFarland added. “So that’s where things started and ended.” The fraudulent music festival, which was promoted by social media influencers such as Kendall Jenner, was the subject of Hulu’s Fyre Fraud documentary, and Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened.
“I knowingly lied to them to raise money for the festival. Yes. And that’s what the crime was,” he continued. “The crime was inexcusably lying about the status of the company to get the money I thought I needed for the festival.” Despite his admission that he lied, McFarland has maintained that he legitimately thought he would have been able to pull off the festival, despite the poor planning and a tight time frame. Still, he admits that there’s “no excuse” for how it went down.
“I wish I could have just woken up one of those mornings in the beginning and I just had stopped,” he added.
McFarland is currently serving six years in prison for fraud.
