LimeWire Decides to ‘Own the Meme,’ Buys Fyre Fest

LimeWire, the early-2000s file-sharing service once synonymous with pirated MP3s and slow-loading downloads, announced it has acquired the rights to Fyre Festival. Yes, that Fyre Festival—the “luxury music festival” that collapsed in spectacular fashion. 

On Tuesday, LimeWire said it had a “reimagined vision” for the infamous brand and promised a new blueprint in the coming months that will “tap into real-world experiences, community, and surprise.” In other words, they want to resurrect the name without repeating the disaster.

“Fyre became a symbol of hype gone wrong, but it also made history,” Julian Zehetmayr, CEO of LimeWire, said in a statement. “We’re not bringing the festival back - we’re bringing the brand and the meme back to life. This time with real experiences, and without the cheese sandwiches.”

Fyre Festival was marketed as an exclusive Bahamas getaway featuring luxury villas, the best meals, and a slew of A-list performances. None of this came to fruition, though. Instead, people arrived to only see tents, no good food, and even very limited water. The debacle was immortalized by Netflix and Hulu documentaries. Founder Billy McFarland was later convicted of fraud and spent four years in federal prison.

Despite his history, McFarland appears fully on board with the rebrand.  

“We’re excited for LimeWire’s plans for FYRE,” he said in a statement, according to the Wall Street Journal. “With LimeWire at the helm of FYRE Festival, and the pre-existing FYRE Musical and FYRE Music partnerships, there’s an incredible future for the brand. I look forward to continuing to make cultural moments, paying restitution, and shocking the world with PHNX.”

“We’re not here to repeat the mistakes — we’re here to own the meme and do it right," Marcus Feistl, COO of LimeWire also said in a statement. “Fyre became a symbol of everything that can go wrong. Now it’s our chance to show what happens when you pair cultural relevance with real execution."