Fyre Festival 2 seemingly canceled after creator Billy McFarland puts company up for sale: ‘I need to step back’
“We have decided the best way to accomplish our goals is to sell the Fyre Festival brand,” McFarland said.
nypost.com
Plans for Fyre Festival 2 went up in smoke Wednesday after its creator, Billy McFarland, revealed he was putting the Fyre brand up for sale, effectively canceling the doomed music event.
News of the sale, which includes the company’s “trademarks, IP, digital assets, media reach, and cultural capital,” was shared on Fyre Festival’s Instagram and website.
Only one week prior, Fyre posted — then deleted — a statement on the website saying the festival was “postponed and will be rescheduled for a later date in the future.” The event had been slated for late May in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, until a dispute with the location occurred.
Organizers then attempted to put out the p.r. fire, telling the world, “FYRE Festival 2 is still on.”
“We are vetting new locations and will announce our host destination soon. Our priorities remain unchanged: delivering an unforgettable, safe, and transparent experience.”
Wednesday’s announcement struck a slightly less optimistic tone, only implying that Fyre Festival 2 would happen at some point in the future — provided the brand gets purchased. In other words: The event was in ashes.
“This brand is bigger than any one person and bigger than what I’m able to lead on my own,” McFarland, 33, wrote. “It’s a movement. And it deserves a team with the scale, experience, and infrastructure to realize its potential.”
The original Fyre Festival, co-organized by McFarland and Ja Rule, ended disastrously back in 2017. 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.
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.
McFarland previously said he had the idea for launching Fyre Festival 2 during a seven-month stint in solitary confinement.