The sad, sordid tale of the Fyre Festival—an ill-fated music festival that scammed hundreds and saw its promoter go to prison—has taken a strange final twist: Collectors are bidding hundreds of dollars to own a piece of merchandise from the festival.
You can see some of the items below. These are just a few of the 126 pieces of merchandise up for sale by a Texas auction house that is selling off the swag on behalf of the U.S. Marshals:
Other items for sale include a wrist band that reads “A Conspiracy to Change the Entertainment Industry” and pairs of bright yellow sweat pants “with the hand sewn label ‘F’.”
As of Monday afternoon, most items had attracted dozens of bids with a single Fyre Festival hat attracting a $505 offering. The auction is slated to end on Thursday though the site says the timelines may be extended if there is a flurry of last minute bids.
The U.S. Marshals are responsible for liquidating items of all sorts—including Bitcoin—seized from various federal law enforcement agencies.
According to the Marshals’ website, the merchandise up for auction was seized from Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland. The agency alleges McFarland had intended to sell the items at the festival but ended up keeping them in order to commit other unspecified criminal acts.
The festival in question was slated to take place in the Bahamas in 2017 and feature a series of A-list music acts like Blink-182, all while offering attendees luxury food and villas. The event, however, became a full-blown debacle—chronicled in two separate documentaries—as the bands pulled out and the festival-goers huddled in conditions resembling a refugee camp.
According to the U.S. Marshals, proceeds from the auction will go to victims of the Fyre Festival, who include investors and vendors who McFarland reportedly bilked out of $26 million.
McFarland is currently in federal prison with a slated release date in 2023.
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