Long ago, in the misty dawn of the Internet, primitive humans used a software application called LimeWire to download pirated music — until record industry lawsuits brought it crashing down.
Now, one of the Noughties’ most popular music-sharing apps is back, and joining forces with another infamous online debacle: 2017’s Fyre Festival.
In a news release Tuesday, LimeWire — an unrelated cryptocurrency business which acquired the name in 2022 — announced that it had bought the branding rights to the ill-fated Caribbean music festival. Users on X, Threads, and Bluesky reacted with a mixture of confusion, derision, and amusement.
“Limewire buying Fyre Fest was not on my 2025 bingo card,” wrote one user on X. “The crossover event no one asked for,” said another.
Above all, the main reaction was simply: “LimeWire still exists?”
LimeWire, lest we forget, was one of the internet’s original “peer-to-peer” file-sharing services. In 2007 it was estimated to be installed on more than one third of all PCs on Earth, but it was shut down in 2010 after being found liable for “massive copyright infringement”.
Fyre Festival, meanwhile, was a lavishly-marketed event in 2017, billed as the ultimate exclusive beach party featuring celebrities, music and luxury glamping on an idyllic tropical island.
The result was a spectacular flop that unfolded in real time across social media, captivating millions of rubberneckers, spawning two documentaries, and earning its founder Billy McFarland a six-year prison sentence for wire fraud.
In July, McFarland sold off the Fyre Festival branding rights on eBay for just $245,300, having tried and failed to launch “Fyre Festival 2”. At the time it was unclear who had made the winning bid .
Now we know. “LimeWire, one of the most iconic names in early internet music culture, has officially acquired the Fyre Festival brand — bringing together two legendary names from digital history under one roof,” the new LimeWire company announced Tuesday morning, under the cheeky title “What could possibly go wrong?”
“Over the coming months, LimeWire will unveil a reimagined vision for Fyre — one that expands beyond the digital realm and taps into real-world experiences, community, and surprise…
“Fyre’s revival will be bold, self-aware, and impossible to ignore — staying true to its chaotic legacy, but with a new layer of credibility, creativity, and control.”
Further information was scarce, although LimeWire CEO Julian Zehetmayr did clarify that Fyre 2.0 would not repeat the sad, soggy cheese sandwiches served up to the original festival guests.
The company noted that it had successfully outbid actor Ryan Reynolds’ production company Maximum Effort — part of an eclectic business network that includes a cell phone carrier, a Welsh soccer team, and cybersecurity tools.
“Congrats to LimeWire for their winning bid for Fyre Fest. I look forward to attending their first event but will be bringing my own palette of water,” said Reynolds.
Today’s LimeWire entity has little connection to the file-sharing service so beloved by millennials. Indeed, LimeWire founder Mark Gorton has said he had no knowledge of the deal, and was “not thrilled” about it.
Instead, the new LimeWire is a marketplace for digital collectibles known as NFTs, which are based on the same technology that powers cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
NFTs are a controversial technology. Though billed as offering artists and fans a new way to buy and sell art online, in reality they have been dogged by endemic fraud and cyber-theft — and often barely policed by major NFT marketplaces.
In 2022 the NFT market crashed dramatically, causing heavy financial losses for buyers who had swallowed the industry’s promises of stratospheric asset appreciation.
