Bands like Blink 182, which were supposedly set to perform at the event, never even showed up to the Bahamas, where the Fyre Festival was taking place. "The organizers assured us that all measures were taken to ensure a safe and successful event," the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism said in a statement in 2017, "but clearly they did not have the capacity to execute an event of this scale." Thousands of people also bought tickets thinking they'd be hanging out with supermodels such as Kendal Jenner, but that was obviously just another lie.

"The defendant is a serial fraudster," Manhattan federal judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said on Thursday, according to ABC News. "Mr. McFarland is a fraudster and not simply a misguided young man. Bad intent was longstanding."