The Fyre Festival brand is looking to a launch a hotel experience later this year – find out more below.
Yesterday (June 2), the much-maligned festival brand announced the Fyre Hotels experience, scheduled to take place from September 3 until September 10 at the Coral View Utila in Honduras, the Caribbean.
Per a newly launched Fyre Hotels website, the hotel experience stems from the initial 2013 incident that inspired controversial founder Billy McFarland’s Fyre Festival: “A software engineer and hobbyist pilot challenged Billy to leave NYC and to try and fly a small plane from NYC to a remote Caribbean island.”
“Along the way, Billy overshot, ran out of gas, and was saved by a landing strip on a remote island. The magic of the island created a legend that quickly spread back home. These trips grew from a single engine propeller plane with four crazy entrepreneurs to the talent lead and adventure infused trips that became FYRE Festival.”
Hotel packages are now on sale, priced from US$199.53 a day for a room that houses two people, bringing the total week-long stay to nearly $1,400. Included in the packages are day boat excursions and guided snorkelling, beach fitness sessions, kayaking, beach volleyball, guided hikes across the island, nightly entertainment and beach bonfire parties, guest merch, “exclusive surprise moments”, sunset cruises and more.
The most expensive hotel package costs $500 a day for two attendees. You can check out all available packages here.
According to the Fyre Hotels website, the pop-up experience comes as “a small beach resort and the island of Utila, Honduras had seen the headlines” following the Fyre brand announcing in April that it was selling its IP. “They have tapped FYRE to bring global attention to this off-the-map gem, programming unforgettable experiences, and simply enjoying life at the edge of the reef.”
Unlike past plans for the Fyre Festival brand, the hotel experience will stray away from the ultra luxury lifestyle: “We’re not chasing luxury. We’re chasing stories. Our trip is about deep dives, street food, late night bonfires, and waking up to something unexpected. This location is the essence of beauty, energy, and potential for adventure.”
Billy McFarland has also begun promoting the hotel experience, suggesting that he will be involved and present over the week-long event despite previous comments saying he would step back from the band. He wrote on Instagram: “See you on the island.”
This all comes after founder Billy McFarland in late April revealed that he was seeking to sell the entire Fyre Festival brand, and that he would be stepping away from operations and would let an independent team take control of Fyre.
He also briefly hinted at reports suggesting Fyre’s IP has already been purchased to be turned into a music streaming service: “In the two years since we’ve re-launched FYRE Festival, Hollywood and entertainment executives have already licensed the brand to develop properties specifically in theatre, music streaming, and Free Ad-Supported TV.”
His statement came after the unsurprising indefinite postponement of Fyre Festival 2 earlier in April. Fyre Fest 2 was originally announced for May 30 until June 2 on an island in Mexico, before the tourism board and local officials claimed that no such festival exists.
First developed by McFarland eight years ago, the botched festival Fyre Fest was originally set to run over two weekends on a private beach in the Bahamas but was revealed to be fraudulent once punters arrived on the scene, with inadequate conditions and a lack of food and water. The debacle was then captured in the now-iconic Netflix documentary FYRE.
The original edition in 2017 was reportedly set to include performances from Blink-182, Major Lazer, Disclosure, Migos, Pusha T, Tyga and more.
Back in February, it was announced that the festival would be taking place on a tropical island off Cancún, Mexico. However, it was revealed earlier this month that the permit McFarland had obtained – as seen in his timeline of events – only allows for a 12-hour listening party that must have fewer than 300 people.
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