Fyre Festival Finds a New Flame With Acquisition by LimeWire
LimeWire has acquired Fyre Festival’s branding rights and plans a reimagining rooted in internet lore and real-world activations.
Even in a timeline chock full of bizarre brand revivals, this one feels particularly on the nose.
LimeWire, the one-time villain of music rightsholders, is now the proud owner of Fyre Festival, the most infamous live music event that never happened. The acquisition was fittingly announced via a press release issued to EDM.com with the title “What Could Possibly Go Wrong?”
LimeWire was revealed as the mystery buyer behind the Fyre Festival brand’s recent viral eBay auction. New details reveal that the bidding war, which culminated in a final sale price of $245,000, included Ryan Reynolds’ creative agency Maximum Effort as a participant.
“Congrats to LimeWire for their winning bid for Fyre Fest,” Reynolds quipped. “I look forward to attending their first event but will be bringing my own palette of water.”
It’s the kind of circumstance that seems almost tailor-made for Fyre. Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland launched the auction after making the difficult decision to step away from day-to-day control of the brand earlier this year. Speaking to EDM.com in an interview, McFarland shared that Fyre’s effort to stage a 2025 reboot in Playa del Carmen ultimately unraveled under media scrutiny and cemented his decision to let someone else take the reins.
That “someone” is LimeWire, a name equally synonymous with disruption. After its original shutdown in 2010 following a lengthy legal battle over digital piracy, the company reemerged in 2022 as a Web3-powered platform focused on decentralized content sharing.
“We’re not bringing the festival back—we’re bringing the brand and the meme back to life,” said LimeWire CEO Julian Zehetmayr. “This time with real experiences, and without the cheese sandwiches.” The company promises a bold new direction for the brand that expands “beyond the digital realm and taps into real-world experiences, community, and surprise.”
While the full extent of the new vision for Fyre is not entirely clear as of yet, what is clear is that the saga of Fyre is far from over. A satirical musical entitled Fyre Fest: The Musical, co-produced by Taika Waititi and Rita Ora, was recently revealed to be in early development.
