The saga that is Fyre Festival continues, and in an unlikely manner.
Per Deadline, Shawn Rech, co-founder of the streaming service TruBlue, has acquired some of the intellectual property from Fyre Festival that will be used to help launch TruBlue.
In a statement to Deadline, Rech says, „Music networks are all just programming now and I have no interest in watching people slip on bananas. It has nothing to do with music. I needed a big name that people would remember, even if it’s attached to infamy, so that’s why I bought these [trademarks] to start the streaming network. This isn’t about festivals or hype — it’s about putting the power of music discovery back in the hands of the fans. We’re building something authentic and lasting.“
Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland still owns the rights to the infamous festival event. Per a press release, Rech „acquired full rights to the FYRE name and trademarks for music streaming services and free ad-supported TV channels, securing their use in perpetuity for this venture. However, McFarland will „have a presence“ via the service, which is called Fyre Music Network.
As for when Fyre Music Network will launch, that’s slated for Thanksgiving 2025. This network will began as a fan-curated music service. Later, after launch, additional features, including a subscription VOD platform and FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming Television) channels, will be added.
This news comes about a week after it was announced that Fyre Festival 2, the sequel to the hilariously catastrophic 2017 Fyre Festival, which inspired a Netflix and a Hulu documentary, had been postponed. According to ABC News, Fyre Festival 2 ticket holders received an email stating, „The event has been postponed and a new date will be announced. We have issued you a refund. Once the new date is announced, at that time, you can repurchase if it works for your schedule.“
This sequel festival that no one asked for was originally scheduled to run from May 30 to June 2 in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. According to The New York Times, tickets went on sale in February and ranged from $1,400 to $1.1 million.
Despite a promise of a new date being announced, the fact that ticket holders were refunded doesn’t exactly scream confidence. Then again, as noted by ABC News and The New York Times, it didn’t help matters that after the second Fyre was announced, some Playa del Carmen officials denied that Fyre Festival 2 would be taking place in their city.
McFarland, the organizer of Fyre Fest 1 and 2, still isn’t giving up on holding the second installment. He told NBC News that the reason for the new date is due to having to find a new location. Of course, it’s hard to imagine any location being willing to work with McFarland, especially since he ended up serving about four years of a six-year prison sentence on two counts of wire fraud. McFarland also had to pay $26 million in restitution.
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