Billy McFarland put the Fyre Pageant model up on the market on April 23 after canceling the second try on the notorious occasion in Mexico and issuing refunds to ticket holders.
The embattled founder, who served jail time for fraud tied to the unique 2017 catastrophe within the Bahamas, stated he’s stepping away from the model completely.
“This model is greater than anyone particular person and larger than what I’m capable of lead alone,” McFarland stated in a press release on the pageant’s web site. “It’s a motion. And it deserves a workforce with the size, expertise, and infrastructure to comprehend its potential.”
The sale consists of all Fyre Pageant emblems, mental property, digital belongings, media attain and what McFarland known as its “cultural capital.”
The announcement comes only one week after Fyre Pageant 2, which had been scheduled for Mexico, was formally scrapped.
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McFarland confirmed that refunds had been issued to those that had bought tickets.
“When my workforce and I launched FYRE Pageant 2, it was about two issues: ending what I began and making issues proper,” McFarland stated. “Over the previous two years, we’ve poured every thing into bringing FYRE again with honesty, transparency, relentless effort and creativity.
McFarland argued that Fyre nonetheless holds business weight regardless of the model’s disastrous beginnings.
“FYRE is among the strongest consideration engines on the earth,” he stated. “Since 2017, FYRE has dominated headlines, documentaries, and conversations as one of many world’s most talked-about music festivals.”
McFarland stated the choice to promote was pushed by the necessity for extra succesful management.
“We now have determined the easiest way to perform our targets is to promote the FYRE Pageant model,” he stated, citing a imaginative and prescient for the model to broaden into “leisure, media, style, CPG, and extra.”
He additionally revealed that a number of Caribbean nations had expressed curiosity in internet hosting a future model of the pageant.
“We dove into the method—assembly with nationwide officers, conducting web site visits—and we’re assured we’ve discovered the perfect location for the pageant,” McFarland stated.
Nonetheless, he added that he didn’t need to threat one other collapse just like the one in Playa del Carmen, the place Fyre Pageant 2 was initially deliberate.
“It’s clear that I have to step again and permit a brand new workforce to maneuver ahead independently.”
McFarland, who was convicted of wire fraud in 2018 and sentenced to 6 years in jail, has been trying to rebuild the Fyre model since his launch.
He stated he’s dedicated to persevering with restitution funds to these impacted by the unique pageant.
“Giving management of the model to a brand new group is essentially the most accountable method to observe by means of on what we got down to do: construct a world leisure model, host a secure and legendary occasion, and proceed to pay restitution to those that are owed from the primary pageant.”
He ended his assertion by thanking those that supported the relaunch.
“To the supporters, believers, and builders who’ve caught with my workforce and me: thanks,” he stated. “The subsequent chapter of FYRE will probably be larger, higher, and constructed to final with out me on the helm.”
