The man behind 2017’s notorious Fyre Festival, Billy McFarland, has attempted to make a new podcast whilst in prison.
Billy McFarland just can’t seem to catch a break. The mastermind behind the infamous Fyre Festival has reportedly been placed into solitary confinement for making a podcast behind bars.
McFarland is currently serving a six-year prison sentence at the Federal Correction Institution in Elkton, Ohio, for his involvement in the fraudulent festival.
In 2017, Fyre Festival was supposed to be the biggest event of the year, promoted as a luxury music festival by influencers like Kendall Jenner and Emily Ratajkowski.
Instead, it duped 5,000 people of thousands of dollars (some paying up to $100,000) and left them stranded on a Bahamian island with rain-soaked tents and cheese sandwiches. The entire palava inspired two wildly successful documentaries, and may well go down as one of the most infamous scams of the century.
Now a tell-all podcast, Dumpster Fyre, made by McFarland behind bars, delves into the controversy of the 2017 festival, offering up his side of the story. All proceeds were set to go towards the money McFarland currently owes in reparations: a knee-buckling $26 million.
Yet after a trailer for the podcast popped up last week, McFarland was placed in solitary confinement, pending an unspecified investigation by the federal Bureau of Prisons.
prison guards check in on billy mcfarland in solitary confinement and somehow he converted his whole cell into a shi-shi podcast studio with the fancy boom arm mic stands and sony MDR-7506 headphones n shit
— Edward Said-ssorhands (@ElSangito) October 24, 2020
Speaking to The New York Times, McFarland’s lawyer, John Russo, described:
“We believe the investigation stems from his participation in the podcast and the photographs that were taken and utilized in the trailer, which were all properly taken. We don’t believe he’s violated any rule or regulation, and there can’t possibly be anything else. He’s been a model prisoner there.”
According to his lawyer, McFarland has been in 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement since last week and faces up to 90 days more – which, despite all the man has done, feels a little harsh.
Solitary confinement is immoral. Billy McFarland is a crook & an asshole but putting someone in solitary for recording a podcast highlights how evil our criminal justice system is.
Seen a lot of people dunking on him. Stand by progressive positions even for people you hate. https://t.co/x0nxP8onwt
— Jack Davis (@NotJackDavis) October 24, 2020
