Latest news with #McFarland
Business Insider
17-07-2025
- 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.
Business Insider
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Fyre Festival's Billy McFarland just sold the brand for $245k. 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.
Straits Times
17-07-2025
- Business
- Straits Times
Scandal-ridden Fyre Festival is sold for $315k on eBay
Find out what's new on ST website and app. According to the eBay listing, 175 bids had been placed in about a week on the auction site. It had billed itself as an unrivaled music festival experience, one that its organisers fancied would bring together jet-setters for an Instagram-worthy lineup of A-list acts and hedonism in paradise. Eat your hearts out, Coachella and Burning Man. But after ignominiously failing to deliver on lofty promises, ones that resulted in prison time for the event's founder and documentaries by Netflix and Hulu, the scandal-ridden Fyre Festival sold its branding rights on July 15 via the auction website eBay. It did not exactly go out in a blaze of glory – more like a whimper – with an unidentified buyer paying US$245,300 (S315,000) to take over the brand and its intellectual property rights from Billy McFarland, 33, a so-called big-time millennial grifter. Still, the sale raised a fundamental question: Why would anyone pay any amount to inherit a brand with such a dubious reputation? According to the eBay listing, 175 bids had been placed in about a week on the auction site, where a description about the marketing opportunities associated with the Fyre Festival was presented in familiar grandiose terms. 'FYRE isn't just a name – it's a global attention engine,' the listing said. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore HSA launches anti-vaping checks near 5 institutes of higher learning Singapore Over 600 Telegram groups in Singapore selling, advertising vapes removed by HSA Business Singapore key exports surprise with 13% rebound in June amid tariff uncertainty Business Market versus mission: What will Income Insurance choose? Life First look at the new Singapore Oceanarium at Resorts World Sentosa Opinion AI and education: We need to know where this sudden marriage is heading Singapore Coffee Meets Bagel's Singpass check: Why I'll swipe right on that Singapore Jail for man who fatally hit his daughter, 2, while driving van without licence The listing was not eligible for eBay's purchase protection programmes, the auction site advised. Even before the bidding ended, Mr McFarland, who served nearly four years in prison for a fraud scheme involving the 2017 festival, could not hide his disappointment that the sale was not going quite as he had hoped. 'We had a seven-figure deal for the complete Fyre brand and IP package that fell through this morning,' he said in a July 7 social media video while walking along the Hudson River in New York. 'Ugh.' As the bidding closed on July 15, Mr McFarland bemoaned the sale price during a livestream, NBC News reported. 'This sucks,' he said. 'It's so low.' In a statement, Mr McFarland congratulated the buyer, whom he did not name, and wrote that the auction proved that 'attention is currency'. The sale appeared to bring an unceremonious end to Mr McFarland's festival gambit, which relied on influencers including models Emily Ratajkowski, Bella Hadid and Kendall Jenner to promote its inaugural event in 2017. Weekend ticket packages ranged from US$1,200 to more than US$100,000 for the festival, which was held on a Bahamian island once owned by Pablo Escobar. But when guests arrived on the island of Great Exuma, it was not the glamping experience that they had signed up for. NYTIMES
New York Post
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Billy McFarland sells controversial Fyre Festival brand for shocking amount
This sale was not on Fyre. Billy McFarland sold the rights to his infamous Fyre Festival brand on Tuesday, but he wasn't happy about the amount it went for. After the week-long sale involving 175 bids, the undisclosed buyer paid $245,300 for the Fyre Festival IP, brand trademarks and social media assets. 8 Billy McFarland leaves federal court in New York in March 2018. AP 'Damn. This sucks, it's so low,' McFarland, 33, said about the final bid while livestreaming the auction, according to NBC News. In a statement on his Instagram, McFarland wrote: 'I would like to congratulate the winning bidder in the FYRE Festival IP auction on eBay. I look forward to working with them to begin the process to finalize the sale.' 8 Billy McFarland in an Instagram video. pyrtbilly/Instagram 'FYE Festival is just one chapter of my story,' the convicted fraudster stated, 'and I'm just excited to move onto my next one.' McFarland claimed that the auction 'became the most-watched non-charity listing on eBay during its run, proving once again that attention is currency, and views are the root of attention.' 8 Billy McFarland's statement about the Fyre Festival sale. pyrtbilly/Instagram 'That belief is at the core of what I'm building next: a tech platform designed to capture and power the value behind every view online,' McFarland added, teasing that his next project is 'coming soon.' The original Fyre Festival, co-organized by McFarland and Ja Rule, ended disastrously back in 2017. 8 Views of the Fyre Festival in the Bahamas in 2017. Lee/Prahl/ Splash News 8 Billy McFarland went to jail for is involvement in the Fyre Festival scam. Attendees who paid thousands of dollars for tickets arrived in the Bahamas expecting a luxe celebrity experience only to be stranded with no musical acts, no electricity, no running water and a limited supply of cheese sandwiches and FEMA huts to nourish and shelter them. 8 Tents and a portable toilet set at the Fyre Festival. AP In 2018, McFarland pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud after the federal government determined he had defrauded investors out of more than $26 million. He was ordered to pay the full amount in restitution and sentenced to six years in prison, but was released in 2022 after serving just four years. The Fyre Festival controversy has been explored in several documentaries, including Netflix's 'FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened' and Hulu's 'Fyre Fraud.' 8 Billy McFarland leaving Manhattan Federal Court on July 1, 2017. TNS McFarland announced last year that Fyre Festival 2 was in the works. He claimed it would take place on 'a private island off the coast of Mexico in the Caribbean' and promised that 'an incredible production company' was handling the event. The festival was later slated for May 2025 in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, until a dispute with the location occurred. 8 Billy McFarland in an Instagram video. pyrtbilly/YouTube After Fyre Festival 2 was postponed indefinitely, McFarland revealed he was selling the brand. '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,' McFarland said in April. The entrepreneur stated that Fyre Festival 'deserves a team with the scale, experience, and infrastructure to realize its potential.'
USA Today
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- USA Today
Billy McFarland sells Fyre Festival brand on eBay for $245K. See what the buyer will get.
"Fyre Festival is just one chapter of my story, and I'm excited to move onto my next one," Billy McFarland said in a statement after the sale. Fyre Festival will soon be in different hands as the infamous music festival sold for $245,300 on eBay this week. Billy McFarland, the festival's founder and owner, launched a live eBay auction for the "iconic" brand, trademarks, intellectual property and social media assets on July 8. After 175 bids from 42 bidders, the festival sold for $245,300 on Tuesday, July 15. The winning bidder has not been announced. "Fyre Festival is just one chapter of my story, and I'm excited to move onto my next one," McFarland wrote in a social media statement on Tuesday. Who bought Fyre Festival? It is unclear who placed the winning bid for Fyre Festival, as eBay presents anonymous names during auctions for buyer safety. Fyre Festival has also not shared the name of the winning bidder. A Fyre Festival spokesperson did not provide additional information outside of McFarland's statement when contacted by USA TODAY on Wednesday, July 16. What did the auction include? According to the eBay listing, the sale included: What are people saying? Social media users didn't hesitate to share their thoughts on the eBay sale. "Is the next move where you get a job?" one Instagram user commented on McFarland's statement. "I'm confused by what he's even selling. Just the logo? They never did anything," another user wrote. Though some commenters were more positive. "Can't wait to see the new Fyre owner's vision for the brand!" a user wrote. What is Fyre Festival? Fyre Festival first gained traction in 2017. The two-week music and arts festival in the Bahamas, was promoted by influencers like Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid and Hailey Bieber and ticketholders were promised performances from acts like Blink-182 and Migos. However, upon arrival, festival-goers learned that the artists had canceled. Due to poor Caribbean weather, the festival was essentially washed out, with the promised luxury accommodations and gourmet food nowhere to be found. In the end, attendees only stayed one night before they were evacuated. In 2018, McFarland was sentenced to six years in prison for engaging in several fraudulent schemes related to the festival, including defrauding investors out of $26 million and more than $100,000 in fraudulent ticket-selling schemes. The festival inspired two documentaries, Netflix's "Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened" and Hulu's "Fyre Fraud." As part of his sentencing, McFarland agreed to pay $26 million in restitution to those who attended the first Fyre Festival in the Bahamas in 2017. The eBay listing states that a "portion of the proceeds" from the sale will be used for this. Upon his release, McFarland began to promote Fyre Festival 2, a second attempt at the festival. But problems quickly arose, as tickets starting at $1,400 promised luxury accommodations off the coast of Mexico, despite Mexican government officials claiming they weren't working with the festival at all. After a venue change – to an entirely different island – just weeks before the festival was to begin, McFarland called it off. "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 said in an April statement. As of July 16, McFarland claims Fyre Festival is working with "several Caribbean destinations" interested in hosting the festival. Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at gcross@
