Fyre Festival being sold by Billy McFarland, claims it has found a new location

Billy McFarland is looking to sell the entire Fyre Festival brand, he has revealed.

• READ MORE: Fyre Festival: Is this the worst ‘luxury’ festival of all time?

Following the unsurprising indefinite postponement of Fyre Festival 2 last week (April 16), McFarland has issued a statement revealing that he is stepping away from the Fyre Festival brand.

He wrote in a statement on the Fyre Festival site last night (April 23) that since Fyre Festival’s return, the brand has consistently made headlines and dubbed it “one of the most powerful attention engines in the world”.

However, it’s now far bigger than he can manage on his own, and is looking for an independent team to take it off his hands while keeping the vision of the luxury festival experience alive: “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.”

According to McFarland, he envisions a “clear path for operators and entrepreneurs with strong domain expertise to build FYRE into a global force in entertainment, media, fashion, CPG, and more”.

He also briefly hinted at reports earlier this week suggesting Fyre’s IP has already been purchased to be turned into a music streaming service: “In the two years since we’ve re-launched FYRE Festival, Hollywood and entertainment executives have already licensed the brand to develop properties specifically in theatre, music streaming, and Free Ad-Supported TV.”

McFarland then went on to address Fyre Fest 2’s struggles with securing a location, which was originally announced for May 30 until June 2 on an island in Mexico, before the tourism board and local officials claimed that no such festival exists.

He’s shared that several Caribbean destinations are “eager” to host Fyre Festival 2, and he’s “confident” they’ve found the right location. However, McFarland will be stepping away as he “can’t risk a repeat of what happened in Playa Del Carmen, where support quickly turned into public distancing once media attention intensified.”

“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,” he wrote. “Giving control of the brand to a new group is the most responsible way to follow through on what we set out to do: build a global entertainment brand, host a safe and legendary event, and continue to pay restitution to those who are owed from the first festival.”

McFarland concluded his statement by saying: “The next chapter of FYRE will be bigger, better, and built to last without me at the helm.”

First developed by McFarland eight years ago, the botched festival Fyre Fest was originally set to run over two weekends on a private beach in the Bahamas but was revealed to be fraudulent once punters arrived on the scene, with inadequate conditions and a lack of food and water. The debacle was then captured in the now-iconic Netflix documentary FYRE.

The original edition in 2017 was reportedly set to include performances from Blink-182, Major Lazer, Disclosure, Migos, Pusha T, Tyga and more.

Back in February, it was announced that the festival would be taking place on a tropical island off Cancún, Mexico. However, it was revealed earlier this month that the permit McFarland had obtained – as seen in his timeline of events – only allows for a 12-hour listening party that must have fewer than 300 people.

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