Latest news with #FyreFestival
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Fyre Festival's McFarland courts MAGA ahead of new business launch
By Convicted fraudster Billy McFarland is heading to MAGA-friendly television to pitch his next eyebrow-raising business. And curiously, the disgraced former owner of the Fyre Festival brand isn't offering many details about what it is. McFarland teased his next dubious product during the first episode of a brand new show, Real America's Pop Culture, a project of the MAGA-friendly Real America's Voice (RAV) hosted by Adrienne Gray. McFarland described his forthcoming venture as one that 'has more viability and fits better with [his] skill set than trying to do a festival.' 'We've built a new tech product,' he said. After the disaster of the first Fyre Festival, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018 for defrauding investors out of $26 million along with over $100,000 in additional fraudulent ticket-selling schemes. McFarland agreed to pay back his victims. Along with jail time he was ordered to forfeit the cash. After serving under four years of his six-year sentence, he was released to a halfway house, and was under house arrest until September 2022. Real America's Pop Culture debuts on RAV Saturday at 7:00 PM EST, and the maiden episode was reviewed exclusively by the Daily Mail. Some of RAV's current big-name broadcasts include Steve Bannon's War Room, Jack Posobiec's Human Events Daily, and The Charlie Kirk Show. McFarland sold the intellectual property rights to Fyre Festival brand on ebay this week for a measly $245k, which he described as 'so low' while live-streaming the internet auction. The Fyre Festival founder described the sale to Gray as a way to put a 'bow on the chapter of Fyre' which would then allow him to 'move on' and reveal his next move that he's been 'working on' which he will be 'announcing this summer.' Gray, a 36 year old mother of two young boys who lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area, told the Daily Mail that her vision is to 'create a show where we have an intersection of politics and pop culture.' Covering popular culture is a new venture for the conservative RAV network, and Real America's Pop Culture is planned to be the first show in an entirely new division called Real America's Music. 'I think about the show as ... my girlfriends group chat. It's the top headlines of the day in politics and the top, you know, headlines in pop culture,' Gray told the Daily Mail. The show aims to bridge the gap between diverse personalities in American pop culture while engaging conservative audiences who care about music, movies, and entertainment as much as their liberal counterparts but have been abandoned by the left. Asked by the Daily Mail who her dream show guest is, Gray replied, 'obviously Trump. He's the pop culture president.' Back in July of 2024, Rolling Stone reported that the Fyre Festival founder was acting as an intermediary between rappers and the Trump campaign, adding that 'McFarland has helped connect rappers with Trump at least twice.' McFarland also posted a photo with Trump on President's birthday in 2024. As the former host of The Apprentice for its first 14 seasons, Trump has spent more time in the pop culture spotlight than the political one. Gray told the Daily Mail that the Trump era seems like the ideal time for conservatives to reclaim pop culture, and that the creation of content such as her show may even help the right politically in bridging the gap the problematic demographics, including suburban women and young voters in Generation Z. The show is not explicitly political despite it's home at RAV, and Gray plans to interview progressives and liberals as well as MAGA friendly celebrities. Real America's Pop Culture can be viewed on streaming platforms including Rumble, YouTube, and Roku TV starting Saturday evening.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Fyre Festival's McFarland courts MAGA ahead of launch of mysterious new business venture
Convicted fraudster Billy McFarland is heading to MAGA-friendly television to pitch his next eyebrow-raising business. And curiously, the disgraced former owner of the Fyre Festival brand isn't offering many details about what it is. McFarland teased his next dubious product during the first episode of a brand new show, Real America's Pop Culture, a project of the MAGA-friendly Real America's Voice (RAV) hosted by Adrienne Gray. McFarland described his forthcoming venture as one that 'has more viability and fits better with [his] skill set than trying to do a festival.' 'We've built a new tech product,' he said. After the disaster of the first Fyre Festival, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018 for defrauding investors out of $26 million along with over $100,000 in additional fraudulent ticket-selling schemes. McFarland agreed to pay back his victims. Along with jail time he was ordered to forfeit the cash. After serving under four years of his six-year sentence, he was released to a halfway house, and was under house arrest until September 2022. Real America's Pop Culture debuts on RAV Saturday at 7:00 PM EST, and the maiden episode was reviewed exclusively by the Daily Mail. Some of RAV's current big-name broadcasts include Steve Bannon 's War Room, Jack Posobiec's Human Events Daily, and The Charlie Kirk Show. McFarland sold the intellectual property rights to Fyre Festival brand on ebay this week for a measly $245k, which he described as 'so low' while live-streaming the internet auction. The Fyre Festival founder described the sale to Gray as a way to put a 'bow on the chapter of Fyre' which would then allow him to 'move on' and reveal his next move that he's been 'working on' which he will be 'announcing this summer.' Gray, a 36 year old mother of two young boys who lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area, told the Daily Mail that her vision is to 'create a show where we have an intersection of politics and pop culture.' Covering popular culture is a new venture for the conservative RAV network, and Real America's Pop Culture is planned to be the first show in an entirely new division called Real America's Music. 'I think about the show as ... my girlfriends group chat. It's the top headlines of the day in politics and the top, you know, headlines in pop culture,' Gray told the Daily Mail. The show aims to bridge the gap between diverse personalities in American pop culture while engaging conservative audiences who care about music, movies, and entertainment as much as their liberal counterparts but have been abandoned by the left. Asked by the Daily Mail who her dream show guest is, Gray replied, 'obviously Trump. He's the pop culture president.' Back in July of 2024, Rolling Stone reported that the Fyre Festival founder was acting as an intermediary between rappers and the Trump campaign, adding that 'McFarland has helped connect rappers with Trump at least twice.' McFarland also posted a photo with Trump on President's birthday in 2024. As the former host of The Apprentice for its first 14 seasons, Trump has spent more time in the pop culture spotlight than the political one. Gray told the Daily Mail that the Trump era seems like the ideal time for conservatives to reclaim pop culture, and that the creation of content such as her show may even help the right politically in bridging the gap the problematic demographics, including suburban women and young voters in Generation Z. The show is not explicitly political despite it's home at RAV, and Gray plans to interview progressives and liberals as well as MAGA friendly celebrities.
Fast Company
5 days ago
- Business
- Fast Company
How much is a busted brand really worth?
How much is a brand name worth if it's well known, but only because of its failures? For the botched music festival Fyre Festival, it's nearly a quarter of a million dollars. The Fyre Festival brand sold for $245,300 on eBay Tuesday after 42 bidders made 175 bids. The sale includes rights to all trademarks, intellectual property, and social media assets associated with Fyre Fest, according to the listing. Although Fyre Fest founder Billy McFarland didn't think the sale price was high enough ('This sucks, it's so low,' he said on a livestream), it proved that even without actually ever putting on a successful music festival, there was some value in the rights to his trademarks and IP. McFarland congratulated the buyer in a Notes App statement posted to Instagram and said he would 'begin the process to finalize the sale.' As splintering media has made attention harder to capture and scrambled traditional publicity and marketing plans, some have turned to purchasing discounted brand names in hopes of buying themselves a shortcut. Fyre Fest might be a punchline, but since people already know what it is, it's also a starting point that a new owner can use as a launch pad. 'Someone paid $245k, so that establishes its value,' David Reibstein, a William Stewart Woodside professor of marketing at the University of Pennsylvania, tells Fast Company in an email. One thing Fyre Fest has going for it is 'its level of awareness, despite its baggage, and that cannot be overlooked,' he says. Enron, the energy company that went bankrupt in 2001, was bought by the organizers of 'Birds Aren't Real' to sell a parody product, and in March, an AI company bought Napster for $207 million and used the brand to launch a platform with 'AI companions.' McFarland didn't say who the Fyre Fest buyer is, but he did say, 'it's funny.' Whatever the new owner intends to do with it, they'll get extra attention at least for the name. Since Fyre Fest is more meme than a brand, 'its value isn't in social media followers or brand equity,' says Emily Day, a strategist at Mother LA, but cultural shorthand. McFarland said in a letter he put the brand up for sale as part of an attempt to make things right and pay back investors. Rather than go forward with a planned Fyre Festival 2, he said selling the brand for parts was the best way to accomplish that. His brand's nearly quarter-of-a-million-dollar purchase price, though, isn't enough to pay off all the $26 million he scammed investors of. Fyre Fest ticket holders also won $7,220 each in a 2021 class-action settlement. 'Fyre is one of the most powerful attention engines in the world,' he wrote, citing the documentaries and headlines the festival inspired. Fyre Fest was no good as a festival. As a meme, though, it was great.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
The Senate Surrenders on Spending, and Trump's New Epstein Strategy
Hosted by Tracy Mumford Produced by Will Jarvis and Ian Stewart Edited by Ian StewartJessica Metzger and Tracy Mumford Featuring Jan Hoffman Senate Approves Trump's Bid to Cancel Foreign Aid and Public Broadcast Funds, by Catie Edmondson Trump Has Draft of Letter to Fire Fed Chair. He Asked Republicans if He Should Send It., by Maggie Haberman and Colby Smith Trump's New Strategy on Epstein Fallout: Blame the Democrats, by Luke Broadwater and Erica L. Green Upended by Meth, Some Communities Are Paying Users to Quit, by Jan Hoffman Scandal-Ridden Fyre Festival Is Sold for $245,000 on eBay, by Neil Vigdor Tune in, and tell us what you think at theheadlines@ For corrections, email nytnews@ For more audio journalism and storytelling, download the New York Times Audio app — available to Times news subscribers on iOS — and sign up for our weekly newsletter. Special thanks to Jess Bidgood and Brian X. Chen.
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Fyre Festival's Billy McFarland just sold the brand for $245,000. He still owes his victims $26 million.
Billy McFarland, the founder and CEO of the Fyre Festival, said on Tuesday that he has sold the branding rights for the infamous event. McFarland, 33, wrote in a statement on X that he had auctioned off the Fyre Festival's brand and intellectual property on eBay. He added that the auction was the "most-watched non-charity listing on eBay." McFarland's listing received 175 bids and was ultimately sold for $245,300, per its eBay auction page. He said in his statement that he looked forward to working with the buyer to "finalize the sale." "Fyre Festival is just one chapter of my story, and I'm excited to move onto my next one," McFarland said in his statement. McFarland also teased his next venture, "a tech platform designed to capture and power the value behind every view online." He did not elaborate further but said the project would be "coming soon." Earlier, McFarland had expressed disappointment at the final sale price. "Damn. This sucks, it's so low," he said in a livestream on Tuesday, per NBC News. McFarland had gained notoriety following the failure of the Fyre Festival back in 2017. McFarland had marketed the event as a luxury music festival in the Bahamas. McFarland managed to raise over $26 million from investors and recruited influencers like Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber to promote the event. He ended up selling over 5,000 tickets, some of which went up to $75,000. But McFarland's customers were in for a rude shock when they arrived at the Bahamas in April 2017. What was supposed to look like paradise ended up resembling a disaster drill. Disaster relief tents from FEMA replaced the villas they were promised. Instead of gourmet meals, customers were served cheese sandwiches and salads. Bahamian locals who worked as the event's caterers and laborers said they did not receive their salaries. In 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud related to the festival and was sentenced to six years in prison. He was also ordered to pay $26 million to investors, concert-goers, and vendors. McFarland was released from prison early in March 2022. He apologized for his actions during an interview with Good Morning America in November 2022, saying that what he did was "wrong" and "bad." "I let people down. I let down employees. I let down their families. I let down investors. So I need to apologize," McFarland said. McFarland, however, was not done with the Fyre Festival just yet. In April 2023, he wrote in a now-deleted post on X that a sequel to the Fyre Festival was " finally happening." McFarland initially announced in February that Fyre Festival 2 would take place on Isla Mujeres, a Mexican island. The location was later changed to another Mexican tourist hot spot, Playa del Carmen, after the Isla Mujeres government said it had "no knowledge of this event." In April, the event's organizers said the festival would not be held at Playa del Carmen either. The organizers said in a statement to The New York Times published on April 16 that the event was "still on" and they were "vetting new locations." That changed again on April 23, when McFarland said in a statement on Instagram that he was selling the brand rights to the Fyre Festival. "For Fyre Festival 2 to succeed, it's clear that I need to step back and allow a new team to move forward independently," McFarland said.
