Billy McFarland is putting Fyre Festival up for grabs—on eBay.
The controversial festival founder revealed on Monday that he’s auctioning off the rights to the infamous Fyre Festival brand. “Today, I am taking the most famous festival brand, Fyre Festival, and putting it up for auction on eBay starting at one cent,” he announced.
McFarland says he’s had “upwards of 1,000 offers” over the years to buy the Fyre Festival name and brand, even claiming a recent multi-million dollar deal fell through—prompting him to take things public with an eBay auction.
“Since its inception, Fyre has had over 32 billion impressions online,” he noted. “Whoever gets this will have an attention engine to launch festivals, do merch collabs, pop-ups, livestreams, or build a media brand.”
At the time of writing, the eBay listing has racked up 115 bids, with the highest offer sitting at $205,700.
According to Vibe, Billy McFarland has struck a deal with media entrepreneur Shawn Rech to utilize the Fyre Festival trademarks across various platforms—including a music streaming service, a broadcast channel, and an app.
Rech, who co-founded the TruBlu streaming service and is also known for his work as a documentary filmmaker, revealed that his company was offered the chance to buy the rights to Fyre Festival. However, he noted it’s “not a priority now.”
Fyre Festival shot to infamy in 2017 after promoting a luxury getaway experience that quickly spiraled into chaos. The disaster became the subject of popular documentaries on Netflix and Hulu. McFarland was later convicted of wire fraud and served under four years in prison before being released in 2022.
