Fyre Festival sold the rights to the troubled brand, including its IP, brand trademarks and social media assets, on eBay on Tuesday for $245,300.
The online sale lasted a week, with 175 bids put in by 42 bidders. The final bid was accepted at 12:44 p.m. EST Tuesday.
It's a small price to pay for the Fyre Festival brand, which went from captivating to calamitous in 2017.
What was touted as a luxury outdoor music festival, promoted by A-listers in the Bahamas, ended up a disaster: Glamping turned into scattered disaster relief tents with dirt floors; food consisted of cheese sandwiches; and artists like Blink-182 pulled out of their shows.
Festival organizer Billy McFarland pleaded guilty to wire fraud and other related crimes stemming from the first festival and was released early from federal prison in 2022.
McFarland had streamed the IP auction.
“Damn. This sucks, it’s so low,” McFarland said when the bidding amount reached past the $240,000 mark.
He laughed when he looked at the brand who bought it and said, “It’s funny,” but didn’t disclose the name.
In a statement after the auction, McFarland congratulated the winner and said he looked forward to finalizing the sale and moving beyond the festival.
"FYRE Festival is just one chapter of my story, and I'm excited to move onto my next one," he said on social media.
The first Fyre Festival was the subject of two documentaries on Netflix and Hulu, as well as a social media storm of memes and ridicule.
But that didn't stop his resolve. In 2023, McFarland tweeted there would be a Fyre Festival II on a privately owned island off Mexico. Two years later, organizers announced that the event had been postponed — after tickets had already been sold — with the new date dependent on the location.
This spring, McFarland announced the Fyre Festival brand was up for grabs.
"After two years of rebuilding FYRE with honesty, creativity, and relentless effort, it’s time to pass the torch," McFarland wrote at the time on the festival’s official Instagram page.
“I’ve stood by my team, our partners, and our fans since Day 1 of FYRE Festival 2. Giving control of the brand to a new group is the most responsible way to follow through on what we set out to do: build a global entertainment brand, host a safe and legendary event, and continue to pay restitution to those who are owed from the first festival,” McFarland wrote. “The next chapter of FYRE will be bigger, better and built to last without me at the helm.”
