After two failed attempts and time in prison, Billy McFarland has finally abandoned his Fyre Festival dream, selling the infamous brand on eBay for just $245,300 US on Tuesday afternoon.
The disgraced entrepreneur still owes $26 million in restitution for wire fraud conviction, meaning this sale barely makes a dent in his outstanding debt, covering less than 1% of what he owes, reports Rolling Stone.
Billy McFarland rose to notoriety in 2017 when his luxury music festival in the Bahamas spectacularly collapsed. The event had promised performances from major acts including Blink-182, Pusha T, Tyga, Desiigner, Major Lazer, Disclosure, and Migos, alongside luxury accommodation and gourmet dining.
Instead, attendees arrived to find disaster relief tents, grounds resembling a refugee camp, and the now-infamous cheese sandwiches. The catastrophic failure revealed that McFarland and his partners, including rapper Ja Rule, lacked the resources, expertise, and funding to deliver on their grandiose promises.
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The fallout was swift and severe. Multiple lawsuits followed, and McFarland received a six-year prison sentence. Despite this, upon his release in 2022, McFarland immediately began planning a second Fyre Festival, telling NBC: “We have the chance to embrace this storm and really steer our ship into all the chaos that has happened. And if it’s done well, I think Fyre has a chance to be this annual festival that really takes over the festival industry.”
Predictably, this second attempt also failed before reaching fruition. In a statement on Instagram, McFarland finally admitted defeat: “This brand is bigger than any one person. It’s clear that I need to step back and allow a new team to move forward independently.”
The eBay sale includes the Fyre Festival brand name, social media accounts, marketing assets, domain names, “artist & talent relationships,” a media coverage archive, and “optional” access to the core team. The identity of the buyer remains unknown.
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The sale raises several questions about what exactly the buyer has purchased. The listing’s claim to “artist & talent relationships” seems particularly dubious, considering how these relationships were damaged by the original festival’s failure. Similarly, the “optional” access to McFarland and his team seems an unusual selling point given their track record.
Despite these questions, the Fyre Festival brand now has a new owner with $245,300 invested in its future. Whether they can rehabilitate one of the most notorious failures in festival history remains to be seen.
