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Earlier this month, Billy McFarland decided to auction off the rights to the Fyre Festival brand on eBay and managed to spark a bidding war. However, he was not thrilled with the ultimate outcome of an auction that barely put a dent in the massive debt he still owes for defrauding the people who fell for his infamous scam.
It’s been close to three years since Billy McFarland wrapped up the prison sentence he was hit with in the wake of the unmitigated disaster that was Fyre Festival—a punishment that also required him to pay back the investors and attendees he swindled to the tune of $26 million.
It didn’t take long for the convicted fraudster to hatch some new schemes in an attempt to do exactly that, but his efforts have left a bit to be desired.
In 2023, he revealed a plan to bring Fyre Festival back from the dead before announcing it would take place on an island near Cancun earlier this year. However, he hit a snag when officials there said they had no knowledge of the event in question—an issue that resurfaced when it was purportedly relocated to another city in Mexico that also denied it was actually hosting it.
McFarland appeared to wave the white flag when the rights to the toxic brand and a slew of related assets were listed on eBay last week, but he seems to be very underwhelmed by the outcome of the auction.
Fyre Festival sold on eBay for less than .1% of the money Billy McFarland was ordered to pay to the people he scammed
It didn’t take long for bids to start pouring in when the Fyre Festival auction began. It was initially listed for a single penny when the sale went live on July 8th, but the first offer came in at $100,000 to kick off a flurry of bids that helped drive the price up to over $200,000 the very same day.
The auction officially concluded on July 15th, and according to NBC News, McFarland hopped on a livestream to keep tabs on the closing moments while making it pretty clear he expected to fetch more than the $245,300 the winning bidder secured it for, saying, “Damn. This sucks, it’s so low.”
He also appeared to be amused by the identity of the new owner, although we still haven’t learned who they are as of this writing.
He was a bit more conciliatory in the release he issued after the auction concluded while hinting it’s only a matter of time until he pops back into the news again with a new venture.
For immediate release 🔥 pic.twitter.com/BinoSDH4J5
— Billy McFarland (@pyrtbilly) July 15, 2025
I guess we’ll have to wait and see what that ends up being.