Watch: Fyre Festival founder laughs while describing how he swindled billionaires

Billy McFarland appeared on the 'Money Buys Happiness' podcast

Billy McFarland, the man behind the debacle that was the Fyre Festival, has opened up about how he swindled the ultra-rich out of millions. During a recent appearance on the ‘Money Buys Happiness’ podcast, the Fyre Festival founder revealed that his strategy was to keep on adding more and more expensive packages for what he advertised as a luxury music festival in the Bahamas.

Although attendees of the 2017 music festival were told they would get an upscale experience, the event descended into chaos and confusion. Partygoers found flimsy tents instead of the luxury accommodations they were promised, and the food served to them consisted entirely of substandard sandwiches. Most of importantly, none of the big artists billed to perform at the Fyre Festival showed up.

Billy McFarland, 31, defrauded investors out of $26 million through the Fyre Festival. He was sentenced to six years in prison in October 2018 but released early last year in May.

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“We made our first tickets too cheap. We kept adding more expensive packages because people kept buying them,” he said.

He said he would put up a “quarter million dollar package to see what happens” and someone would buy it. “Who is this guy? No idea. Let’s make a more expensive package.”

“We just kept upping the package every time,” he chuckled, adding that the most expensive package on their website was for $500,000. Besides that, he received several queries for custom packages to the festival. “If you're a billionaire you don't want to buy what everybody else has,” McFarland explained.

Earlier this week, McFarland also announced that a second iteration of the Fyre Festival is in the works.

(With inputs from AFP)