BY: Walker
Published 34 seconds ago
Fyre Festival did not go well. Fyre Festival 2 is having trouble getting out of the starting block. Ultimately, the Fyre brand has only ever been associated with failure (although not failure to generate attention, admittedly).
“A new chapter begins. After two years of rebuilding FYRE with honesty, creativity, and relentless effort, it’s time to pass the torch. We’re officially putting the FYRE brand up for sale. To the right buyer: the platform is yours. Execute the vision. Make history,” reads a message on the festival’s official Instagram page.
McFarland said he was selling the brand because it has become “bigger than any one person and bigger than what I’m able to lead on my own.”
“When my team and I launched FYRE Festival 2, it was about two things: finishing what I started and making things right. Over the past two years, we’ve poured everything into bringing FYRE back with honesty, transparency, relentless effort, and creativity,” he said in a statement. “We’ve taken the long road to rebuilding trust. We rebuilt momentum. And we proved one thing without a doubt: FYRE is one of the most powerful attention engines in the world.”
The infamous 2017 festival was touted as a star-studded, ultimate luxury music festival on the Bahamian island of Exuma but quickly turned into a fiasco. It relaunched in 2023 with Fyre Festival 2.
McFarland said at the time that the idea to relaunch came to him “during a 7-month stint in solitary confinement.” He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and other crimes tied to the first festival and was released early from federal prison in 2022.
The first Fyre Festival was the focus of two documentaries on Netflix and Hulu.
The relaunched festival, however, has hit a few snags. Last week, organizers said it would no longer take place in the Mexican resort town of Playa Del Carmen. McFarland said the date is dependent on location, so it was not immediately clear whether the plans to hold the festival next month would change.
McFarland addressed the challenges surrounding Fyre Festival 2, writing in his statement that several Caribbean destinations have expressed interest in hosting the event.
“We dove into the process — meeting with national officials, conducting site visits — and we’re confident we’ve found the ideal location for the festival,” he said. “While I’m incredibly excited, I 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 said giving control 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 ended his statement by saying the next festival will be bigger and better. ?
via: NBC News
