Here’s a shocker. Billy McFarland has “postponed” Fyre Fest 2. The event had been plagued with problems- no acts were booked, the local government stated that no permits were issued despite Mcfarland saying that he had obtained permits, and basic issues such as stage/event production had not even been started. Despite that, McFarland was selling tickets, the starting price which was in the $3,000 range and some of which cost over one million dollars US.
Well, Fyre Fest 2 has been “postponed” but not canceled… yet. People that did buy tickets have been refunded. There have been no details released as to the rescheduled event.
In the meantime, McFarland has sold some of the intellectual property associated with Fyre fest to Shawn Rech, who co-founded a streaming service called TruBlue with former To Catch A Predator host Chris Hansen and also started American Gospel TV. Essentially, McFarland has sold the rights to a few Fyre trademarks, which Rech will use to make a music video streaming service. 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.” As per the new Fyre streaming website: “FYRE Music Streaming is both a subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) app and a Free Ad-Supported Television Network (FAST)… The app works similar to well-known subscription services like Netflix. This is a start-up that secured the rights to use the FYRE brand for streaming, FAST and broadcast.”
