A documentarian is reimagining the Fyre Festival IP into a user-submitted content audio and video streaming platform.

Shawn Rech, who co-founded the true crime streaming platform TruBlu with To Catch a Predator host Chris Hansen, is giving the infamous ‘Fyre Festival’ name a new life as a music streaming platform. But, after Fyre Fest was such a disaster, why on earth would anyone want to use its name for a new venture?

In case you somehow missed it, Fyre Festival was a “fraudulent luxury music festival”, as Wikipedia puts it, that was meant to take place in 2017. It was organised by businessman Billy McFarland and rapper Ja Rule, and has been the focus of two documentaries which covered the unbelievable not-quite-event. The outcome was the sentencing of McFarland to six years in prison for various counts of fraud. This year, the organiser revealed he was planning round two… Fyre 2, which was set to run from May 2025 in Mexico, was postponed last week to be rescheduled at a later date.

Now, Shawn Rech has purchased two Fyre Festival trademarks with plans to transform the name into a video-on-demand platform, as well as FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) networks, according to Deadline. To begin with, this venture will start with one FAST video network that focuses predominantly on pop and hip-hop, with the hope to move into other genres if all goes well.

Currently, the plan is to launch the new Fyre streaming platform by Thanksgiving this year. This is the same time of year Rech launched his other projects, and he’s no stranger to media entreprenuerialism.

With his previous experience and success, why has Rech opted for the ‘Fyre’ IP? Speaking to Deadline, Rech explained, “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.”

Unlike the craziness of the actual festival, this venture isn’t just about hype. According to Rech, “it’s about  putting the power of music discovery back in the hands of the fans”, and the plan is to build something “authentic and long-lasting.”

Although Rech is using the Fyre name, he has not acquired the festival itself. However, Billy McFarland is supposedly going to have some involvement in the streaming platform, although it’s not yet clear to what extent or in what capacity.

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