Fyre Festival Headquarters Replaced By Fancy Jewelry Shop

TRIBECA, NY — The headquarters of the company behind last year's disastrous Fyre Festival has been replaced by a fancy jewelry shop.

The high-end jewelry store Foundrae took over the space at 52 Lispenard St., which was previously home to Fyre Media. The storefront has sat empty since the diminished company left in 2017. The Tribeca Citizen first reported that Foundrae had taken over the space.

The media company and its founder, Billy McFarland, were behind Fyre Festival, the failed music festival in the Bahamas that became an internet joke and made McFarland the target of a federal investigation.

McFarland was arrested in July and charged with defrauding at least two investors of $1.2 million to get funding for the festival, prosecutors said.

The music event, which was billed as a high-end, luxury retreat and promoted by celebrities, dissolved almost as soon as it started as it became clear that Fyre Media hadn't properly planned or prepared. In the months leading up to the festival, which was the brainchild of McFarland and his partner Ja Rule, it was advertised as an extravagant two-weekend getaway with top-of-the-line food, lodgings, music and ocean views.

Instead, guests who shelled out thousands of dollars found ramshackle tents and food packaged in styrofoam containers, not the luxury residences and gourmet meals they had paid for.

Sometime after the failed music festival in April, Fyre Media abandoned its fancy headquarters in Tribeca. A legal noticed posted in the storefront's windows claimed the company owed its landlord $35,000 in rent payments.

A spokesperson for Foundrae did not immediately respond to a question about when the shop opened in Tribeca.

Image credit: Ciara McCarthy / Patch