Photo by Anna Shvets
Billy McFarland, the controversial figure behind the ill-fated Fyre Festival, has placed the brand’s intellectual property rights up for sale on eBay. The listing includes ownership of the festival’s trademark, IP, social media assets, and more. As of this week, bids have surpassed $211,600.
The sale was announced by McFarland on Instagram on July 9th, where he described the move as “the craziest thing I’ve ever done.” The highest bidder will reportedly secure full rights to the Fyre Festival brand.
McFarland rose to notoriety following the catastrophic collapse of the original Fyre Festival in 2017, which promised a luxury music experience but ultimately delivered none of its high-profile commitments. In 2018, he was sentenced to six years in prison for defrauding investors, but released early in 2022 after serving four years.
Following his release, McFarland made repeated efforts to resurrect the brand, claiming to have secured backing for a so-called “Fyre Festival 2.0” in 2023. Earlier this year, he published screenshots of email correspondence in an attempt to verify the legitimacy of the plans. Edgar Gasca, from the Isla Mujeres tourism directorate, publicly denied any knowledge of the proposed event, which McFarland had claimed would take place in May 2025.
Despite the controversy, tickets for Fyre Festival 2.0 went on sale in February, with some listings reportedly reaching prices of up to $1 million. However, the project appeared to have stalled by April, when McFarland first indicated that the Fyre Festival brand was being prepared for sale.
Last week, McFarland claimed on Instagram that a $7 million deal to purchase the brand had fallen through. The following day, he confirmed that the rights were officially listed for auction on eBay.
The sale of Fyre Festival’s intellectual property on eBay underscores the bizarre afterlife of failed cultural phenomena in the digital age. What began as a symbol of influencer excess and catastrophic mismanagement has taken shape as a piece of internet lore – a cautionary tale now being commodified once again. The willingness of bidders to pay substantial sums for ownership of such a notoriously tarnished brand speaks to a broader cultural trend: the monetisation of infamy and our continued fascination with scandal. In an era where brand recognition, even of the most notorious kind, carries inherent value, Fyre Festival remains a potent example of how failure itself can be repackaged as opportunity.
