The Fyre Festival brand is officially for sale. Billy McFarland, the controversial promoter behind the infamous 2017 disaster, announced Wednesday that he is stepping away from the brand and looking for a buyer to take it into its next chapter.
“A new chapter begins. After two years of rebuilding FYRE with honesty, creativity, and relentless effort, it’s time to pass the torch,” reads a post on the official Fyre Festival Instagram page. “To the right buyer: the platform is yours. Execute the vision. Make history.”
The announcement comes just a week after Fyre Festival 2 was postponed with no new date confirmed. The follow-up event had originally been set to take place next month in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, but those plans fell through.
McFarland, who was convicted of fraud and sentenced to six years in prison for his role in the failed 2017 festival, says he has worked over the past two years to rebuild trust and momentum around the brand. Released from prison in 2022, McFarland previously revealed that the idea to revive Fyre Festival came to him during a seven-month stint in solitary confinement.
“When my team and I launched Fyre Festival 2, it was about two things: finishing what I started and making things right,” McFarland said in a statement. “We rebuilt momentum. And we proved one thing without a doubt: Fyre is one of the most powerful attention engines in the world.”
Despite that confidence, Fyre Festival 2 has struggled to materialize. In his statement, McFarland said that several Caribbean destinations have expressed interest in hosting the next festival and claimed that the team had already found “the ideal location.” However, he also acknowledged that mounting media attention surrounding the project made some partners hesitant to move forward.
“While I’m incredibly excited, I can’t risk a repeat of what happened in Playa Del Carmen,” he said. “It’s clear that I need to step back and allow a new team to move forward independently.”
According to McFarland, selling the brand is the “most responsible way” to ensure the festival’s future — and to continue paying restitution to those impacted by the original Fyre Festival debacle.
The 2017 event, which was marketed as a luxurious, influencer-driven experience in the Bahamas, quickly unraveled into chaos. Attendees arrived to find makeshift tents, inadequate food, and no musical performances. The disaster spawned two high-profile documentaries — one on Netflix and another on Hulu — and landed McFarland in federal prison.
Despite the chaos, McFarland remains optimistic that the brand still holds value.
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