Paradise, Pending

Fyre Festival, 2017. You are throwing the most exclusive festival on earth, on an island, in four months. Nothing is built yet. The internet does not know that.

WealthYour money. Hit zero and you are broke.

PR ShieldWhat the public still believes. Hit zero and you are cancelled.

ItemsOne-time aces. Play one when it fits and it is gone.

Fyre Festival: what actually happened

Scandal Run plays 10 decisions inside Fyre Festival, 2017. Your choices are invented; the record below is not. Each line quotes the MrScandal story and names its source, in the order it happened.

Show the real record (10 moments, spoilers)

December 2016 The $100 million class action later named Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Emily Ratajkowski, saying the models used their accounts "to generate ticket sales." The promo video featured Hadid, Hailey Baldwin and Ratajkowski. Source: Variety, BBC News.
Early 2017 The SEC said McFarland raised at least $27.4 million from over 100 investors, including by giving them a doctored brokerage statement showing over $2.5 million in stock when the account held shares worth under $1,500. Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
March 2017 Guests who paid for luxury villas arrived to disaster-relief tents and pre-packaged cheese sandwiches. Source: CNBC.
April 2017 McFarland admitted using fake documents to get investors and a ticket vendor to put more than $26 million into his company. Source: U.S. Department of Justice.
April 27, 2017 The festival was postponed and then cancelled. Organizers apologized and offered full refunds, and the Fyre account posted, "We owe you an apology." Source: BBC News, Pitchfork.
April 30, 2017 Ticket holder Daniel Jung sued McFarland and Ja Rule for $100 million, with lawyer Mark Geragos seeking class-action status for more than 150 plaintiffs. Source: Variety.
July 2017 While on pretrial release McFarland ran a separate scheme, NYC VIP Access, selling tickets to events including the 2018 Met Gala, Burning Man and Coachella that did not exist. Source: U.S. Department of Justice.
Spring 2018 Seth Crossno and Mark Thompson were awarded $5 million against McFarland, granted in absentia when he failed to respond. Source: Variety.
July 2018 McFarland admitted the SEC's allegations, agreed to disgorge $27.4 million and accepted a permanent officer-and-director bar. Source: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
October 2018 McFarland was sentenced to six years and ordered to forfeit $26 million. Released early in 2022, he announced Fyre Festival II, sold the Fyre brand on eBay for $245,300 in July 2025, then staged a smaller festival called PHNX in Honduras. Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bloomberg, the Guardian.

Read the full case with every receipt: The full Fyre Festival file. Desk editor: Laima Ērkšķe-Kreicberga.

A game. Your choices and their outcomes are made up and the player is not a real person. Every "What actually happened" panel quotes the record in the MrScandal story and names its source.