Fyre Fest Brand Sold At Surprising Price After eBay Bidding War

The Fyre Festival brand has sold for a surprising $245,300 after founder Billy McFarland turned to the online bidding site eBay to solicit bids for the festival's IP, trademarks and social media assets.

McFarland still reportedly owes over $26 million in restitution, per Rolling Stone, after the failings of the original Fyre Fest in 2017.

The original Fyre Fest became the stuff of festival disaster legend. After being teased by social media influences and models, the booked bands started backing out in the days leading up to the event. Promised concerts never happened, those who did travel to the event received inadequate accommodations, subpar catering and witnessed a lack of infrastructure. And one of the lasting images of the festival's failure was that of a cheese sandwich that was shared by one attendee on social media.

McFarland later faced “lawsuits and criminal charges” due to the disastrous results of the first festival that led to his eventually serving jail time for fraud. He was eventually granted an early release from prison.

READ MORE: DJ Reveals Why She Turned Down Fyre Fest 2 Offer

Then, earlier this year, McFarland began teasing a second Fyre Festival. But after two attempts at staging a Fyre Fest event fell through, McFarland began to re-examine the future of Fyre Fest. After initially selling a portion of the Fyre Festival branding for a streaming service, McFarland announced his intent in April to find a new buyer for the Fyre Fest brand.

A Fyre Sale

After a previous attempt at selling to a new buyer fell through, McFarland recently announced his intent to sell off the remaining branding through eBay. The recently concluded bidding period lasted a week with the final winner of the Fyre Festival branding outlasting 175 bids placed by 42 bidders.

NBC News reported that during a live streamed event surrounding the sale, McFarland was viewed commenting, "“Damn. This sucks, it’s so low," when seeing the bidding hit the $240K mark.

At $245,300, the new buyer, who is currently unknown, has purchased the branding, social media assets, domain names, a "extensive media coverage archive" and access to "the core team," which was deemed optional. That would essentially include access to McFarland should the new owner want his involvement in any usage.