US-based website LimeWire has acquired the Fyre Festival brand, beginning a new chapter for the fraud-plagued music festival “grounded in technology, transparency, and a sense of humour”.
Per Rolling Stone, the file-sharing company wants to preserve Fyre Festival’s past while taking the brand into the future.
“Fyre became a symbol of hype gone wrong, but it also made history,” LimeWire CEO Julian Zehetmayr said in a statement. “We’re not bringing the festival back — we’re bringing the brand and the meme back to life. This time with real experiences, and without the cheese sandwiches.”
Fyre Festival was a “luxury” music festival organised by US businessman Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule. Promoted as an exclusive, high-end event in 2017, it quickly devolved into chaos when punters arrived, plagued with poor planning, insufficient infrastructure, and artist cancellations.
There was a subsequent federal investigation. McFarland was convicted of wire fraud for defrauding investors and ticket holders.
Netflix and Hulu both released documentaries about the failed festival, chronicling the chaotic planning and disastrous collapse.
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LimeWire, which relaunched in 2022, was among many companies taking part in a competitive bidding war for the festival, alongside Ryan Reynolds’ creative agency Maximum Effort. According to the Wall Street Journal, it sold for US$245,000.
Reynolds and Maximum Effort have had a longstanding fascination with the failed festival, referencing Netflix’s “Fyre” documentary memes in a 2019 ad for his brand Aviation Gin. Zehetmayr revealed that Maximum Effort got in touch after LimeWire outbid the agency and the two entities have since collaborated on a new Visa ad that Reynolds narrates, which reimagines Fyre’s slogan: “It’s everywhere you want to be.”
No further details have been shared yet, though LimeWire’s acquisition announcement promises plans that expand “beyond the digital realm and taps into real-world experience”.
COO Marcus Feistl said: “We’re not here to repeat the mistakes — we’re here to own the meme and do it right. Fyre became a symbol of everything that can go wrong. Now it’s our chance to show what happens when you pair cultural relevance with real execution.”
There is a wait-list open at the Fyre Festival website for early access and exclusive updates.