LimeWire Acquires Fyre Festival, Plans Fresh Start With a Crypto Spin

LimeWire has acquired Fyre Festival, eight years after what is widely regarded as the most disastrous attempt ever at throwing a festival. Previously led by founder Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule, LimeWire has gutted the Fyre team and is plotting a fresh, crypto-fueled start for the controversial brand.

Julian Zehetmayr, CEO of LimeWire, told Decrypt that acquisition costs totaled approximately $230,000. He warned that the team’s plans are still in their infancy as they pin down specifics in the coming months, and that he expects a more detailed announcement to be released in early 2026.

What the CEO did confirm, however, is that LimeWire plans for there to be a physical event of some kind and that crypto will definitely play a role in the festival’s new chapter.

“The plan is really to properly and deeply integrate the LimeWire token into what we're doing with Fyre,” Zehetmayr told Decrypt. “We definitely want to do some kind of redemption for old holders of tickets as well. I think that's something where you could involve crypto or even NFTs.”

That said, he warned there are “no exact plans yet,” but confirmed that the team will “definitely” integrate the LimeWire token in some way. Zehetmayr also didn’t rule out the chances of an AI musician as a headliner, depending on how easy it will be to attract “real talent” with the Fyre brand.

Why is LimeWire doing this?

People may remember LimeWire as the popular early 2000s peer-to-peer music sharing service. It was known as a breeding ground for pirated music and viruses, later becoming an icon of the early internet. However, it shut down in 2011 after losing a piracy legal battle with the Recording Industry Association of America.

In 2022, LimeWire was relaunched as an NFT marketplace with new owners and Zehetmayr at the helm. It has since moved closer to its roots, with the CEO comparing it to WeTransfer with a “decentralized backend” and an Ethereum token to boot. The company believes the relaunch has been a success, claiming that it attracts 2.5 million active monthly users.

Fyre Festival, by comparison, is arguably one of the best-known festivals in the world—for all the wrong reasons. It was branded as a luxurious event hosted on a private island, advertised by big celebs, and said to be full of “the best in food, art, music, and adventure.” Tickets cost guests up to $100,000.

On arrival, however, the Fyre Festival was revealed to be anything but luxurious.

Rather, guests found disaster relief tents as the site was still under construction, with loose safety measures and limp cheese sandwiches that became a meme. No major artists ultimately performed, and guests were evacuated after the first night.

The epic failure embedded itself into the public consciousness with the 2019 release of a Netflix documentary, which was nominated for four Emmys. An attempt by McFarland—fresh out of prison—to launch a new Fyre Festival earlier this year was ultimately canceled.

The LimeWire team believes that it can revitalize the Fyre brand, just like it did with the file-sharing platform.

“Fyre, after all, is a well-known brand. Obviously, everybody knows it. It’s also a challenge for us,” Zehetmayr said. “Two infamous brands. We believe the brands fit together.”

However, LimeWire is fully aware that it is adopting a brand that has been shamed from all angles. In fact, it plans to embrace the meme-worthy side of Fyre’s failings.

“We're not trying to take it too seriously here. We're not acting like we bought a premium brand that is worth a lot,” Zehetmayr told Decrypt. “Everything we will do will be obviously based around humor and taking ourselves not too seriously. I think that's really important. I think there'll be, hopefully, a lot of funny memes and merch, etc., coming in the future.”