If there is one thing scammy tech bros will always have, it is “the audacity.” Despite being fresh out of prison on charges relating to the Fyre Fest debacle, Billy McFarland is already hyping another music festival — although he insists it isn’t one. This one, PYRT (pronounced “pirate,” because of course it is) will be a virtual event, which is just perfect for the post-FTX era. Billy even gave a mention to the metaverse, because self-awareness was the one app that didn’t come preinstalled on his mental hard drive.
McFarland pitched the event, which he described as a “virtual immersive decentralized reality,” via a TikTok video — and pardon me while I completely meltdown over having to write that sentence.
@pyrtbilly For all of those that either love to hate or genuinely support me… THIS is what I’ve been working on. THIS is what will clear the air. THIS IS PYRT @PYRT
Okay, we’re back.
Because Billy apparently did not learn from his previous mistakes, he said the festival will take place in a “small, remote destination” (yes, that worked swimmingly the last time), hosting a “handful of artists, content creators, entrepreneurs and any of you guys who end up joining the PYRT crew” (which sounds eerily familiar, doesn’t it?).
He’s even got the temerity to insist that he’s currently looking for a Caribbean nation to host the festival, with a dash of the gall to name-drop Exuma — y’know, the part of the Bahamas that famously played host to the Fyre Festival disaster. The Bahamian government washed its hands of McFarland and his events in 2017, so securing this location seems… unlikely.
Actually, Billy pulling PYRT off seems pretty unlikely in general, considering his history, but if there’s anything 2022 has shown us, it’s that if people will put faith in Elon Musk to “fix” Twitter, there will undoubtedly be some monkey NFT-toting suckers on the line for this thing. Fingers crossed it’s every bit as hilarious as the last one.