‘Is That The Real World?’ CNN’s Don Lemon Challenges Fyre Fraudster’s Claim ‘The Response Has Been Insane’ For a Fyre 2

CNN anchor Don Lemon challenged Fyre Festival founder and convicted fraudster Billy McFarland’s claim that the response to his announcement of a second Fyre Festival “has been insane.”

Recently, McFarland — whose disastrous Fyre Festival launched multiple jaw-dropping documentaries and landed him in prison — recently announced on Twitter that “Fyre Festival II is finally happening” and asked users to “Tell me why you should be invited.”

On Tuesday morning’s edition of CNN This Morning, Lemon aired his interview with McFarland, his first since the announcement. Lemon grilled McFarland for 8 minutes about why anyone anywhere would ever be willing to do anything remotely adjacent to him ever again and challenged McFarland’s assertion that there’s a huge appetite for a Fyre II:

LEMON: How can you have Fyre Festival II when Fyre Festival I was such a bust?

MCFARLAND: Don, before we get there, the overall goal is to pay everybody back while still doing something incredible.

LEMON: Yes, but you still didn’t answer my question.

MCFARLAND: Yes. So I think the first time around I just didn’t understand the magnitude of the vision and probably, more importantly, the magnitude of the logistics that were required to execute that. And I need to go about it completely differently this time around.

LEMON: Well, obviously, it was a colossal nightmare —

MCFARLAND: Yes.

LEMON: — for a lot of people and for you because you were convicted of fraud. You spent nearly four years in prison over this failed festival. So I know you said you want to pay everyone back or what have you. We’ll get to that.

Why would any performer, or festivalgoer, or investor, or anyone want to do anything with you considering what happened the last time?

MCFARLAND: So, since getting out of jail I’ve just been looking at what opportunities I have to pay people back and I have been pitched on every iteration of a Fyre Festival from a local nightclub all the way up to a sovereign wealth fund.

And I put out a tweet a week ago just to really test the waters and see is there still appetite for this idea after six years. It’s already been six years. And the response has been insane.

LEMON: That’s on social media, you mean, right?

MCFARLAND: That’s on social media.

LEMON: Yes, but, I mean, is that the real world? People may say things on social media. You actually think they’ll show up for something considering what happened?

MCFARLAND: I didn’t know and it was really just to test the validity of these offers I have and to understand what kind of partners I need to do this. And the response is wild. People just want to help —

LEMON: Who?

MCFARLAND: — from providing catering to performing.

LEMON: OK, so you have investors, you have caterers, you have performers? Who?

MCFARLAND: I can’t speak on all of this yet.

But it’s really about figuring out what I am good at, focusing on the marketing, focusing on bringing people together, and then just getting help so I don’t have to touch the areas where I should not be touching.

LEMON: So, you can’t name a single performer, or caterer, or any — or investor at this point?

MCFARLAND: So, like we have not scheduled a festival. There is no Fyre Festival II on the books at this point. We are literally just like testing the interest in the concept. And I think the whole world saw how wild that went with one tweet and the response has been great. And it just, like, leads me to try to find the best partners first.

Watch above via CNN This Morning.

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