Fyre Festival brand up for sale after failed planned comeback

Billy McFarland just won’t let Fyre Festival die.

After the felon’s failed music festival failed again, he’s officially put the brand up for sale in the hopes that someone can save it. (But can something be saved when it never actually worked in the first place?)

On Wednesday, McFarland released a statement on social media about the proposed sale of the Fyre brand (NSFW water bottle sales not included). “A new chapter begins,” he wrote in the caption. “After two years of rebuilding FYRE with honesty, creativity, and relentless effort, it’s time to pass the torch. We’re officially putting the FYRE brand up for sale. To the right buyer: the platform is yours. Execute the vision. Make history.”

McFarland went into more detail in the full statement posted on the “Own Fyre” website. “When my team and I launched FYRE Festival 2, it was about two things: finishing what I started and making things right,” he wrote. “Over the past two years, we’ve poured everything into bringing FYRE back… We’ve taken the long road to rebuilding trust. We rebuilt momentum. And we proved one thing without a doubt: FYRE is one of the most powerful attention engines in the world.”

Well, at least he’s not wrong about that. McFarland went on to tout all of the attention on Fyre Festival as a good thing, believing that all press is good press.

“Since 2017, FYRE has dominated headlines, documentaries, and conversations as one of the world’s most talked-about music festivals,” McFarland said. “We knew that FYRE was big, but we didn’t realize just how massive the wave would become. That wave has brought us here: to a point where we know it’s time to call for assistance. This brand is bigger than any one person and bigger than what I’m able to lead on my own. It’s a movement. And it deserves a team with the scale, experience, and infrastructure to realize its potential.”

McFarland continued, “We have decided the best way to accomplish our goals is to sell the FYRE Festival brand, including its trademarks, IP, digital assets, media reach, and cultural capital — to an operator that can fully realize its vision. There is a clear path for operators and entrepreneurs with strong domain expertise to build FYRE into a global force in entertainment, media, fashion, CPG, and more.”

The convicted con artist went on to brag that they’ve found “the ideal location” for Fyre Festival 2, despite it’s many setbacks.

“Following the challenges we faced in Mexico, we were approached by several Caribbean destinations eager to host FYRE Festival 2,” he said. “We dove into the process — meeting with national officials, conducting site visits — and we’re confident we’ve found the ideal location for the festival. While I’m incredibly excited, I can’t risk a repeat of what happened in Playa Del Carmen, where support quickly turned into public distancing once media attention intensified. For FYRE Festival 2 to succeed, it’s clear that I need to step back and allow a new team to move forward independently, bringing the vision to life on this incredible island.”

McFarland claimed that “the most responsible way to follow through” on what he set out to do is “giving control of the brand to a new group” — rather than, you know, just calling it quits. With the proposed sale, he still plans to “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.”

He ended his statement by thanking “the supporters, believers, and builders who’ve stuck with my team and me.”

“We will pick the new group based on their ability to execute the vision of FYRE in a transparent, grand, and expeditious manner,” McFarland said. “The next chapter of FYRE will be bigger, better, and built to last without me at the helm.”

In August 2023, McFarland announced Fyre Festival II, intended to take place in the Caribbean at the end of 2024. The specific dates, location, and festival lineup were not revealed, but tickets went on sale starting at $499 and going up to $7,999, per the festival website. “It really all started during a seventh-month stint in solitary confinement,” McFarland said in a YouTube video. “I wrote out this 50-page plan of how it would take this overall interest and demand in Fyre and how it would take my ability bring people from around the world together to make the impossible happen.”

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The impossible turned out to be impossible after all. Fyre Festival 2 was originally scheduled for May 30 to June 2 on Isla Mujeres in Mexico, and then relocated to Playa del Carmen after issues arose with local officials. Then just last week, the festival was postponed indefinitely, and ticket buyers were told they would be refunded, or they could repurchase tickets “if it works” in the future.

McFarland was released from federal prison in May 2022 after serving four years for defrauding investors and committing wire fraud in the ill-fated 2017 Fyre Festival he launched with rapper Ja Rule, which had been branded as a luxury musical extravaganza with gourmet dining that amounted to FEMA tents and cheese sandwiches. The disaster was chronicled in two documentaries: Netflix’s Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened and Hulu’s Fyre Fraud.

Ja Rule, who has since apologized for the ill-fated fest and maintained that he too was “scammed” and “bamboozled,” told PEOPLE that he would not be involved in any Fyre follow-up. That probably means he won’t be buying the brand either.