IT’S HELL TO PAY
Fyre fest staff told to ‘keep working till Friday’
Employees at the company responsible for the disastrous Fyre Festival have no idea if they’re going to get paid on Friday — as more details of the cofounder’s profligate spending come to light.
Earlier this week, Billy McFarland, the 25-year-old co-founder of festival producer Fyre Media, held an all-hands meeting in New York to stem an employee revolt — but couldn’t even answer basic questions about when workers would get paid.
“He said, ‘Just keep working till Friday, and we’ll let you know Friday,’ ” according to a person who was at the meeting.
Mired in money troubles, McFarland may have misled his own employees about the financial solvency of the company, according to sources close to the executive.
Another person who knows McFarland said that on Sunday he told employees at his other business, a Groupon-like company called Magnises, not to come into work that coming week.
On April 30, Fyre employees sent a companywide e-mail to McFarland demanding answers about how he was handling the fallout from the boondoggle that had erupted on so- cial media just days before, questioning whether they would get paid.
“This company needs to be made honest,” the letter said. “Clear budgets. Legitimate paychecks. Paystubs. Health insurance. Taxes on time. The bonuses promised to all of us in our contracts. Stopping on grossly unnecessary spending (pri- vate planes, $30K on speakers) when new members can’t even get laptops.”
The letter also demanded the ouster of Grant Margolin, the chief marketing officer. Many employees personally hold him responsible for the mess-up, one person said.
The Fyre Festival rocketed to infamy last week when the luxury Bahamian music extravaganza — with tickets that cost as much as $12,000 — turned out to be little more than a sham.
McFarland reportedly blew through millions of dollars on trips for himself and friends, and in one instance spent $250,000 on a single promotional Insta- gram post from Kendall Jenner.
The letter also asks McFarland about a supposed investment by Comcast Ventures.
“What is the implication of this on Comcast’s recent investment in the product?” the letter said. “Please provide the terms sheet and explain whether there is a possibility (however remote) of losing funding as a result.”
At this week’s meeting, McFarland assured employees that the Comcast deal was in “the final stages,” according to one person present.
But Comcast Ventures not only isn’t an investor — it passed on the company months ago.
“Comcast Ventures, like many other investors, considered an investment in Fyre’s marketplace business,” Tina McNulty, a spokeswoman for Comcast Ventures, told The Post. “After conducting thorough due diligence, we were unsatisfied with the results and passed on the investment, as we do with thousands of companies each year. Any indication that we invested in Fyre is completely false.”
McFarland didn’t respond to calls and texts about the letter, or the company’s relationship with Comcast.