NEW RELEASES
Former Fyre Festival investor Andy King has warned of “a lot of red flags” over the event’s planned reboot.
This week the infamously disastrous festival’s return was confirmed by founder Billy McFarland, who claimed in a new interview with NBC News that it is locked in for April 2025.
The now notorious festival went viral in 2017 for promising a luxury festival experience on a private island in the Bahamas, only for it to unfold as a logistical nightmare with accommodation, food and water issues.
The festival received renewed publicity when Netflix dropped its hit documentary Fyre.
The defining moment of the tell-all doc came when event producer King recalled how he was prepared to give oral sex to a customs official in exchange for allowing Evian water onto the island.
King, who lost $1million (£765,250 in the original festival), has now spoken out about his doubts about Fyre’s planned return.
Speaking to the BBC, King said that McFarland was “known for the biggest failure in pop culture and wants to flip the script. But I’m not sure he’s going about it the right way.”
McFarland spent four years in prison on multiple counts of fraud over the event, after failing to deliver on any of the luxuries that tickets costing up to $250,000 (£191,342) promised.
King said he had met McFarland a few months ago to discuss Fyre 2, but feared the disgraced businessman hadn’t “learned a lot in prison… he’s shooting from the hip again”.
“Billy has a gift. He’s got a lot of charisma. He knows how to pull people in,” he added.
“Think about it: when he was 24, he walked in to investment banking firms in New York and got them to invest $29m.”
While he agreed that the new instalment could be a “huge success”, he admitted that if McFarland was “running the show again, it won’t work”.
“I’m just seeing a lot of red flags, and a lot of red lights”, he added. “And I feel bad. It saddens me.
King said that follow-up calls had fallen through, and he hadn’t heard from his former business partner in around seven or eight months.
He also warned anyone interested in attending the reboot to “proceed with caution.”
According to McFarland, tickets for next year’s event will start at $1,400 (£1,071), but may go as high as $1.1million (£841,808).
Back in 2019, King revealed that he “begged” for his infamous story about oral sex to be dropped from the film, but was told by the director: “Without that scene, there isn’t a documentary.”
The now viral moment has since afford King some level of success, with the breakout star even inspiring an Evian water bottle back in 2020. He also reported being offered numerous TV deals.
No talent has been booked for Fyre Festival 2 yet, per McFarland. The original Fyre Festival was reportedly set to include performances from Blink-182, Major Lazer, Disclosure, Migos, Pusha T, Tyga and more.
In August last year, pre-sale tickets to Fyre Festival 2 sold out despite the fact that the festival has no line-up, venue, or dates fixed for the event.
NEW RELEASES
Jessie J has unveiled her new single ‘Believe In Magic’ and opened up about her feelings of frustration after being forced to cancel and reschedule her tour dates in preparation for breast cancer surgery.
The track, originally written in 2022, reunites her with ‘No Secrets’ collaborators Los Hendrix and Jesse Boykins III, and comes alongside visuals directed by Mitch Peryer.
Blending honesty and hope, the lyrics include: “Such a waste being jaded/See all the little things that fix a broken heart/Open your eyes and you’ll see what can happen/Gotta believe in the magic.”
Talking about the song, Jessie J shared that it was written during the early stages of her pregnancy. “I was breaking open and loving writing again,” she explained.
“It was a deep, hopeful, loving feeling I wanted to put into a song. It resonates with me more now than perhaps it did then. That’s the beauty of music, it can travel in time. I love this song. I hope you (yes, you) get the inspiration for your life in your own way. That’s my only hope for all my music.”
‘Believe In Magic’ comes shortly after Jessie J revealed she would have to postpone her UK and European shows due to a second surgery for breast cancer.
The singer shared in June that she had been diagnosed with early breast cancer, saying at the time that “cancer sucks in any form” but she was “holding onto the word ‘early’.” She then went through surgery on June 24, which was successful.
In a press statement, she explained: “Unfortunately, I have to have a second surgery, nothing too serious, but it has to be done by the end of this year. This falls in the middle of the tour I had booked. I’m so sorry, I feel frustrated and sad, but I need to be better, I need to be healed.”
Her UK and European tour, originally scheduled to begin in September, has now been rescheduled for April 2026. All tickets for the October shows will still be valid for the new April dates.
the April dates.
APRIL
07 – Birmingham, Symphony Hall
08 – London – The Palladium
11 – Leeds, O2 Academy
13 – Manchester, Albert Hall
14 – Glasgow, SEC Armadillo
21 – Amsterdam, Paradiso
22 – Brussels, La Madeleine
23 – Cologne, E-Werk
26 – Paris, La Cigale
Jessie J also confirmed that all of her North American dates have been cancelled. In a video on Instagram, she said: “I need to be better, I need to be healed… here comes the bad news, I haven’t been able to finesse the US dates so those have to be cancelled.”
She added that since she already has other tours and shows planned for 2026, figuring out new US dates will take more time.
“Forgive me. I’m sorry, these sucks… April 2026, I’ll be on the road for the UK and European shows, and the US dates will be announced as soon as we can find time, and it feels good to do them.”
