Whatever your view on it: there's no denying that, when the Fyre Festival documentary aired on Netflix in January, it gave us enough to talk about until 2020. From Ja Rule's hilarious twitter follow-ups ('I too was hustled, scammed, bamboozled, hood-winked, lead astray!!!') to that moment when Andy King admitted that Billy McFarland had called him up asking him to fellate the Head of Customs in order to get trucks of Evian water through to the site. Fyre Festival was the scam that captured the world's attention.
Simply put, it left us in disbelief. How could a festival that had Coachella investors desperate to be involved – a festival that managed to sell out and raise $26 million in funds – go so badly wrong?
It's the perfect parable for our generation: in which everything is frictionless, and the power of social media and viral market means that anything can be sold out on the back of Kendall Jenner posting an orange tile and telling people to buy a ticket. Now yet another twist in never-ending the tale of Fyre Festival has emerged - as Vulture reported last week that the United States Marshals Service’s Manhattan office have confirmed that they have two boxes of Fyre Festival merchandise that they plan to auction.
'We have an assortment of the ‘real thing’ Fyre Festival-branded tee-shirts, sweatpants, sweatshirts, hats, wristbands and medallions,' a spokesperson said. 'The USMS will dispose (or sell) the Fyre merchandise in the most efficient, cost-effective way in the best interests of the U.S. Government, we utilize our contracted partners to handle the marketing and sale and it will be an online auction.'
The proceeds from the auctions of the items will help try to recover $26 million owed by Fyre Media (we're just going to put it out there: that's a lot of T-shirts). Vulture confirmed that prosecutor have said vetted victims of the scam will get a 'percentage based on their respective losses'. We don't know what the merchandise looks like (pictures have yet to be released) and it's not yet been confirmed where or when the items will be auctioned.
It's a nice idea. But still – what essentially amounts to a government-run bring-and-buy sale feels a little futile in context of the $26 million Billy McFarland (who is currently serving a 6 year sentence) currently owes... Kendall Jenner and Bella Hadid: lend a hand?