Billy McFarland Sells Fyre Festival Brand on eBay
The auction climaxed on Tuesday afternoon included IP, brand trademarks and social media assets, and received a total of 175 bids.
And just like that, Billy McFarland has washed his hands of Fyre Festival.
The disgraced US businessman, who spent time in prison for his role in the unmitigated disaster that was 2017’s Fyre Fest, and had planned to resurrect the event, only for it too to fall over, has sold the brand on eBay for US$245,300 ($375,000).
The auction climaxed on Tuesday afternoon and included IP, brand trademarks and social media assets, NY Daily News reports, and received a total of 175 bids.
“Damn. This sucks, it’s so low,” McFarland said during a livestream of the auction when bids topped US$240,000.
McFarland still owes US$26 million in restitution for wire fraud conviction, meaning this sale makes only a dent in his outstanding debt, covering less than 1% of what he owes, reports Rolling Stone.
McFarland rose to notoriety in 2017 with a festival concept so epic a fail, the tale of jaw-dropping ineptitude was retold by multiple documentaries, including the Netflix's The Greatest Party That Never Happened and Hulu docuseries Fyre Fraud.
It’s a tale of two guys, McFarland and rapper Ja Rule, ideas men with a vision to deliver a festival in paradise, the Bahamas.
Reporting from inside the Australian music business since '94.
The concept never reached the delivery stage, as the lads burned through money (Kendall Jenner was reportedly paid US$250,000 for a single Instagram post spruiking the event) and time.
When the punters flew in for the big day, a fiasco awaited. Social media lit up. Multiple lawsuits followed, and McFarland went down, completing four years of a six-year sentence relating to wire fraud and other federal charges.
Despite the damage to his reputation, and that of the brand, McFarland immediately began planning a second Fyre Festival.
“Paying everybody back is the most important thing for me,” he told Vinyl Media for The Music Network podcast. “I think I violated the trust of people who supported me for four or five years.”
The idea of Fyre 2 “is still there. People want to escape reality for three days,” he insisted, in early 2024. “I think the demand for Fyre has almost increased since COVID,” he tells the podcast.
This second attempt also failed to launch.
A social post in February 2025 promoted a three-day escape from May 30th, 2025 on Isla Mujeres in Mexico. And, in an attempt to add legitimacy to this second round, the statement identified producers and partners. Those dates has long since passed.
At a glance, Fyre 2 looked legit. The event had a real website, peppered with images of pretty girls and fancy boats, with prices for tickets and packages ranging from US$1,400 to US$1.1 million.
In a statement posted to Instagram, McFarland admitted a change of heart: "This brand is bigger than any one person. It's clear that I need to step back and allow a new team to move forward independently."
The buyer is said to be a brand, but the identity remains unknown.
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Reporting from inside the Australian music business since '94.
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