A former New York promoter is reviving the controversial Fyre Festival brand with a low-key resort event in Honduras, working alongside disgraced founder Billy McFarland.
Fyre Festival is back, just not in the way anyone expected.
Heath Miller, a former New York concert promoter, has announced a new pop-up event under the Fyre banner. Set to take place at Coral View Beach Resort on the Honduran island of Utila, the event is scheduled for September 3–10. Miller manages the 25-room resort, which his father purchased in the 1990s, and is now using it as the stage for what he calls the Fyre Resort Pop-Up (via Billboard).
Unlike the original disaster, entry is as simple as booking a room: prices start at $198USD a night for solo travellers, with larger room options available. There are no artist announcements yet (none have been secured as of yet), and Miller has made it clear the budget won’t accommodate headliners. “This event isn’t for an artist looking for a $100,000 fee,” he said.
He’s also quick to clarify that this isn’t Fyre Festival II, and that tickets from McFarland’s now-cancelled Playa del Carmen reboot won’t carry over. Instead, the pop-up is pitched as a scaled-back promotional project for his hotel – and, perhaps more oddly, as the final chapter in a memoir Miller is writing about his career in music.
“I’m well aware of Billy’s past and I think it’s important that we are transparent about what happened,” Miller said.
Miller says McFarland still owns the Fyre brand and has a small core team of around six people, including his long-time partner Michael Falb, working alongside him. As part of their agreement, McFarland retains full ownership, while Miller takes on the role of venue manager and on-site host for the Utila event.
The event marks the latest turn in the ongoing Fyre saga, with original founder Billy McFarland – who served four years in prison after admitting to stealing $26 million from investors – still retaining ownership of the brand. After his release in 2022, McFarland floated various attempts to resurrect Fyre, including an abandoned plan in Playa del Carmen that collapsed earlier this year after permits failed to materialise.
Despite the baggage, Miller sees potential in the controversy. “Fyre Festival is a tainted brand that obviously has a horrible reputation, but at the end of the day, this brand can create press and awareness better than Coachella can.”
Miller says the pop-up is inspired by music cruise promoters like Sixthman and aims to eventually develop unique artist experiences around diving and Caribbean culture. For now, though, the Utila event is a stripped-back experiment in brand resurrection, and one that leans into Fyre’s notoriety while trying not to repeat history.
Whether a twice-failed festival can strike gold on the third, smaller attempt is anyone’s guess, of course.
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