For decades, eBay has been a place where you can find and bid on anything: Old steamer trunks, vintage cookware, that one-of-a-kind 1970s jacket you've always wanted...
...oh, and also, disastrous music festivals?
Fyre Festival sold the rights to the troubled brand, including its IP, brand trademarks and social media assets, on eBay on Tuesday for $245,300.
The online sale lasted a week, with 175 bids put in by 42 bidders. The final bid was accepted at 12:44 p.m. EST Tuesday.
If you're not familiar with the disastrous history of the Fyre Festival, strap in, because it's a wild ride.
Per Wikipedia, the 2017 event was scheduled to be held over two weekends in April and May of that year, on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma. Organized by entrepreneur Billy McFarland and funded by millions of dollars in capital, it was touted as a luxury weekend where the elite could come and bask in rarefied glory, hob-nobbing with the rich and famous while dining on sumptuous four-course meals in five-star accommodations.
The reality was, ah, a bit different.
Instead of the gourmet meals and luxury villas for which festival attendees had paid hundreds or even thousands of dollars, they received packaged sandwiches and were lodged in poorly furnished tents.
Those weren't even the only disasters of the weekend. The festival was supposed to include major musical acts including Blink-182, Lee Burridge, Pusha T and others. Yet "in the days leading up to the festival, all of these acts pulled out."
Further disaster struck on the catering front (this probably explains the sandwiches):
[T]he caterer withdrew a few weeks before the festival. With only two weeks to go, a new catering service was hired with a $1 million total budget, drastically reduced from the $6 million originally allocated to provide what was promised as ‘uniquely authentic island cuisine... local seafood, Bahamian-style sushi and even a pig roast'
None of that materialized, of course. Event organizers who could see the writing on the wall urged leaders of the program to postpone it even until the following year, but it was ultimately decided to push on ahead, with one organizer reportedly stating:
Let's just do it and be legends, man.
Well, legends they certainly became! The entire fiasco is worth reading in full, and includes stranded guests, tents and mattresses soaked by rain, a single solitary musical performance, stolen luggage, non-working toilets, and scandals involving paid celebrity endorsements. There's even a Netflix documentary on the event entitled Fyre: The Greatest Party that Never Happened.
So you can understand why the Fyre brand is a bit devalued these days. McFarland — who was convicted of financial crimes related to the fiasco — seemed pleased with the results of the bidding nevertheless:
‘[Expletive]. This sucks, it's so low,' McFarland said when the bidding amount reached past the $240,000 mark. ...
The man said he "looked forward to finalizing the sale and moving beyond the festival," per NBC, although incredibly, years later, he tried to launch another Fyre Festival:
In 2023, McFarland tweeted there would be a Fyre Festival II on a privately owned island off Mexico. Two years later, organizers announced that the event had been postponed — after tickets had already been sold — with the new date dependent on the location.
Well, maybe the new owner can figure out where the next festival is going to be, and then, when the time comes, postpone it! 😂
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