The price to own a brand synonymous with music festival incompetence: $245,300.
That is how much the Fyre Festival sold for on Tuesday on eBay, where festival organizer and convicted fraudster Billy McFarland was offloading the Fyre trademarks, social assets, and intellectual property.
“Damn, this sucks” McFarland said while streaming the auction. “It’s so low.”
The final bid covers less than 1% of the $26 million McFarland has been ordered to pay in restitution for the infamous festival.
Fyre Festival became a widespread joke after the 2017 bash, which was touted as a luxury music festival in the Bahamas, quickly turned into a “complete disaster.” Attendees, rather than receiving fancy villas and fine dining options they had been pitched, were treated to cheese sandwiches and forced to sleep in tents — if they were lucky enough to get one. General admission to the event started at $1,400.
Compounding matters, dozens of artists who were slated to perform backed out, including Blink-182, Kaytranada, Disclosure, and Migos.
The music festival meltdown was documented by a number of angry attendees on social media in the moment, and later, immortalized by two dueling documentaries on Netflix and Hulu in Jan. 2019.
McFarland plead guilty to wire fraud in 2018, after federal prosecutors said he defrauded investors and ticket sellers of $26 million. He spent a few years in federal prison before being released in 2022.
The 33-year-old McFarland was aiming to host a second Fyre Festival in Mexico earlier this year, but that plan was ultimately canceled.
