Fyre Sale: Rights To Disastrous Festival Sold Off

When we last heard about the Fyre Festival, it was going through some issues. And no, we’re not talking about the original fiasco in 2017. That one was such a grift that it was postponed, then cancelled, with founder Billy McFarland serving jail time after multiple class-action lawsuits. But like a phoenix rising from the ashes, or a jailbird rising from the allegations, McFarland announced a new Fyre Festival earlier this year – only to have it postponed as well. Perhaps embarrassed by a second failure, or not wanting to go back to jail, McFarland has just sold off the rights to the festival online for a mere $245,000 – Ja Rule not included. 

One would think that, being a con man, there’d be plenty of shady characters McFarland could have sold his festival to. However, just like anyone newly freed from the big house, he was trying to go legit and, as recently as last week, had a seven-figure deal on the table to sell the fest. You may find it hard to believe that the deal fell through, but it did, which led him to turn instead to eBay, where bidding for the rights started at just 1 cent. 173 bids later, the assets went for well under seven figures to an anonymous buyer.

We’re not sure who would buy the rights to a meme, but if you told us ten years ago that millionaires would be spending tons of bitcoin on Bored Ape NFTs in 2021, we’d have said “those are all words and letters, but none of them make sense together” and “you have to leave, you’re freaking out everyone else in the library.”  Perhaps that’s why the new owner remains anonymous for the time being. 

However, the new Fyre commissioner not only gets the naming rights but also the social media accounts, marketing assets, domains, documentary footage, the option for the Caribbean festival location that was cancelled earlier this year, and email and SMS lists. As for the documentary footage, there have already been two docs about the 2017 version, so maybe the new owner is a filmmaker looking to make a third one.

While the question remains ‘why own the rights to the Fyre Festival?’ we ask why NOT own the rights to the Fyre Festival?! Think of the fun you could have with it. Partner with Kraft Singles to provide food to anyone who goes to your fest! Make it a pop-up festival on different islands, but ones people would never want to go to – like Long Island, Staten Island, or Alcatraz! You could probably sell $245,000 worth of “I survived the Fyre Festival” t-shirts alone. And considering the sale comes with email addresses and phone numbers for all of the idiots who signed up for this twice, it’ll probably be pretty easy to part them from their money a third time.

If a little under a quarter of a million dollars seems like a lot of money, that’s because it is!. However, McFarland is probably a little disappointed, as that’s less than 1% of the $26 million that he owes in restitution. Maybe he’ll return to his old ways and start a new fest. If you decide to attend the Wynd Festival, check to see who’s promoting it first.