Firefly Music Festival

Firefly Music Festival
Dates Every June
Location(s) The Woodlands of Dover International Speedway
(Dover, Delaware)
Years active 2012–present
Founded by Red Frog Events
Website
fireflyfestival.com

Firefly Music Festival is a music festival produced by Red Frog Events, that was first held on July 20–22, 2012, in Dover, Delaware. The festival takes place in The Woodlands of Dover International Speedway, an 105-acre festival ground, over the span of four days. Many nationally known musical acts performed at the festival, with 48 performances held over the course of the festival in 2012,[1] 71 bands in 2013, and 95 bands scheduled to perform in 2014.[2] The festival is produced by Red Frog Events, with the hopes of having "an open-air festival on the East Coast with plenty of outdoor camping, much like the Bonnaroo music festival in Tennessee".[3] Firefly Music Festival's tagline is "The East Coast's Premier Music Experience." For the festival, The Woodlands of Dover International Speedway includes seven stages, named The Porch Stage, The Lawn Stage, The Backyard Stage, the Treehouse, The Coffee House, The Pavillion and The Firefly Stage.[4] There are many different passes options, as well as payment plans, to be as accommodating as possible. Pre-sale, early bird, advance, regular, and encore wristband options are available, with a limited quantity available of each type.

Musical acts

2012

The headliners for the 2012 festival included Jack White, The Killers, and The Black Keys. Each performer played as the final act for a separate night of the festival on The Firefly Stage, the largest stage at the event. Other notable acts included Death Cab for Cutie, John Legend, Bassnectar, Modest Mouse, The Flaming Lips, Cake, Lupe Fiasco, Girl Talk, and others. Although Passion Pit was listed as a musical act for 2012, their performance was cancelled due to lead singer Michael Angelakos seeking ongoing treatment for bipolar disorder. Yeasayer was chosen as the replacement for Passion Pit's performance.

The 2012 schedule listed in order from latest performance in the day to earliest:

2013

The headliners for the 2013 festival included Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.[5][6] Other notable acts included Vampire Weekend, Foster the People, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Avett Brothers, Calvin Harris, Passion Pit, MGMT, Ellie Goulding, Dispatch, Ben Harper, Kendrick Lamar, Alabama Shakes, Japandroids, Grizzly Bear, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, The Chevin, Big Gigantic, Azealia Banks, Jim James, Zedd, Matt & Kim, Public Enemy, and Dr. Dog.

Imagine Dragons was scheduled to be the only returning musical act between the 2012 and 2013 Firefly Music Festival. However, due to a scheduling conflict they had to cancel their performance and were replaced by Jim James.[7] The Lumineers were also scheduled to perform, but cancelled for medical reasons. Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite replaced them in the lineup.

The 2013 schedule (artists listed from earliest to latest set times):

2014

On January 14, 2014 the lineup for 2014 was announced via the official Firefly YouTube channel. The headliners for 2014 include Outkast, Foo Fighters, and Jack Johnson with other notable acts Weezer, Imagine Dragons, Tegan and Sara, Chance The Rapper, Arctic Monkeys, Sleigh Bells, The Lumineers, Pretty Lights, Band of Horses, Geographer, Young The Giant, Broken Bells, Childish Gambino, Grouplove, Portugal. The Man, Local Natives, Bronze Radio Return, Washed Out, Twenty One Pilots, Iron and Wine and more. Girl Talk, twenty one pilots, and Imagine Dragons are returning for their second year performing at the festival. The 2014 schedule (artists listed from earliest to latest set times):

  • "The Backyard:" Andrew Belle, Kodaline, Phosphorescent, Local Natives
  • "The Lawn:" Parade of Lights, Courtney Barnett, Amos Lee
  • "The Forest:" John & Jacob, Aer, Gregory Alan Isakov, San Fermin, Rac
  • "Firefly Main Stage:" Kongos, Bleachers, Iron and Wine, Arctic Monkeys, Foo Fighters
  • "The Backyard:" Hunter Hunted, Ghost Beach, Sky Ferreira, Portugal the Man, Young the Giant, Girl Talk
  • "The Lawn:" Basic Vacation, New Politics, American Authors, Chance the Rapper, Band of Horses
  • "The Porch:" The Secret Sisters, Vic Mensa, The Mowglis, Airborne Toxic Event, A-Trak, White Denim, Cash Cash
  • "The Forest:" Magic Man, Bronze Radio Return, Shakey Graves, The Jezabels, Son Lux
  • "The Coffee House:" Lily Mae, Cruiser, Gregory Alan Isakov, High Highs, American Authors, Iron and Wine
  • "The Big Break:" Mean Lady, Saints of Valory, Step Rockets, Christian Porter
  • "Firefly Main Stage:" Twenty One Pilots, Third Eye Blind, Grouplove, Imagine Dragons, Outkast
  • "The Backyard:" Bad Things, Smallpools, MS MR, Cage the Elephant, Tegan and Sara, Pretty Lights
  • "The Lawn:" The Ceremonies, Geographer, Lucius, Kaiser Chiefs, Tune-Yards, Beck
  • "The Porch:" Unlikely Candidates, Royal Teeth, Goldroom, Walk Off the Earth, Sleigh Bells, The White Panda
  • "The Forest:" The Weeks, The Wild Feathers, Wild Child, Boy & Bear, Johnnyswim, X Ambassadors
  • "The Coffee House:" Wheeland Brothers, Speak, The Colourist, The Wild Feathers, Smallpools, Grouplove
  • "The Big Break:" New Sweden, Holychild, Kite String Tangle, Sleeper Agent, Stop Light Observations
  • "Firefly Main Stage:" Dan Croll, City and Colour, Weezer, The Lumineers, Jack Johnson
  • "The Backyard:" Nonono, Jake Bugg, Ziggy Marley, Phantogram, Big Gigantic
  • "The Lawn:" Vance Joy, The Colourist, A Great Big World, Washed Out, Broken Bells, Childish Gambino
  • "The Porch:" Little Comets, Wild Cub, G-Eazy, Martin Garrix
  • "The Forest:" Misterwives, Haerts, Sir Sly, Cherub
  • "The Coffee House:" Casey Alvarez, Kawehi, Caroline Glaser, Misterwives, Jake Bugg
  • "The Big Break:" The Griswolds, Gemini Club, Little Daylight, Breach the Summit

2015

On February 17, 2015 the lineup for 2015 was announced via the official Firefly YouTube channel. The headliners for 2015 include Kings Of Leon and The Killers, with the first night headliner to be revealed at a later date. The schedule of performances and locations will also be released at a later date. On February 25, Firefly announced that the first night headliner would be Paul McCartney.

2016

Crowd surfing at the finale of a Blink-182 concert

Activities

In addition to attending the musical acts at the show, The Firefly Music Festival offers guests other attractions during the day. An arcade tent is set up, providing arcade and video games that are all free to play. In another tent, attendees can design their own pair of Toms Shoes and have an artist paint the design. With the purchase of the custom pair of shoes, an additional pair of Toms is sent to a child in need, through the Toms One For One Movement program. The Hammock Hangout is a shaded area for attendees to sit or lie down in a hammock. The Pathway is a wooded path from The Lawn Stage and The Porch Stage, leading to The Backyard Stage and The Firefly Stage, that contains colorful lights and video displays that come on at night at the festival.

The Thicket is another exciting attraction at Firefly, where festival fans can be immersed in a secret woods rave. For everyone with the special headphones on, the party in the thicket is unbelievable, with special DJs controlling the music on the front stage. The most amazing part is that the second you take the headphones off, you realize you are standing in a silent area in the middle of the woods, surrounded by people dancing like there is no tomorrow. In addition, the Coffee House offers a full cafe experience and music performances throughout the day. This area offers low key performances in the late afternoon to get festival goers ready for the late night shows.

In its first year in 2012, Firefly featured hot air balloon rides over The Woodlands. The rides are no longer offered to Festival goers, but the hot air balloon remains as an iconic symbol of Firefly; lighting up the night sky with its flame.[8]

Firefly partners with Delaware's Dogfish Head Brewery to have The Brewery, an onsite beer bar. The bar serves Firefly Ale, a microbrew Dogfish Head Pale Ale made specifically for the festival in its first year by the brewery. Firefly also sets up The Vineyard, an onsite wine bar.

Firefly offers a Photobooth and Flip Book tent, a cooling and charging station where attendees can charge electronic devices in an air-conditioned tent, a shaded pavilion, a merchandise tent, and a medical tent.

An unofficial after party called 'Afterfly' takes place directly across the street from the employee entrance to the festival, and provides water and music each night after the festival closes for free to combat the heat-induced risks of being in the sun.

Starting in February 2015, there is also an annual unofficial weekend long fan get together every year in Dewey Beach, Delaware. Called Winterfly, the event is un-associated with Red Frog Events, but features live music, group activities such as a private tour of the Dogfishhead Brewery and charitable auctions that benefit local music programs.

Lodging

A number of lodging options exist at the festival. Attendees of the festival can choose to camp in a tent or RV in what Firefly calls The Grove. Not to worry- if you do decide to camp, there are numerous port-a-poties and clean showers set up close to the camp sites that provide an excellent place to get clean. You park your car along the backside of the camp site, so it is always nearby to secure personal items as well. Additionally, attendees can choose "glamping", a portmanteau of the words "glamorous" and "camping", with private, air-conditioned safari tents, beds with sheets, access to private and air-conditioned showers and bathrooms, access to a private food lounge, and shuttle services to and from the festival and other attractions. For the "glamping" experience, at a lower cost, Firefly offers The Hideout Camping for 2013, which includes all benefits of the "glamping" package, except for the safari tent and beds. Finally, attendees can choose to make hotel reservations in Dover and stay offsite of the Dover International Speedway.

Accolades

"In its debut year, Firefly was surprisingly devoid of on-site hiccups. Organized by Red Frog Events...Firefly rolled on with the precision of an event many years in the making." - Billboard[9]

"It’s about damn time the East Coast had a great music festival." - Emily Sheetz for MusicUnderFire[10]

"I think this festival is special because of the combination of the forest setting, the great lineup, and the overall vibe of the festival. It was a really great place to see music with all of the new friends you made." - TheFestivalGuy.com[11]

"Save for some first-year jitters, the inaugural edition of Firefly was a highly promising one." - Ben Kaye for Consequence of Sound[12]

Economy

In 2012, Delaware Tourism Director Linda Parkowski said she expected the festival to generate $12.6 million in revenue for Delaware, as well as bring 30,000–40,000 people from 48 out of 50 states to Dover.[13] For 2013, expectations are even greater, with estimates of generated revenue being between $12–30 million for central Delaware.[14]

Environmentalism

Firefly Music Festival promotes itself as a sustainable and environmentally friendly festival, with its program Sustainable Beats. A part of this program includes carbon footprint offsetting with ticket purchases. Attendees of the festival have the option of donating to the carbon footprint offsetting program when purchasing their tickets online, which allows each attendee to offset 440 pounds of carbon dioxide. The festival matches each of these donations up until the festival is completely carbon neutral. In 2012, this program offset over 1.5 million pounds of carbon dioxide.[15] Additionally, water refill stations are found throughout The Woodlands, reusable water bottles are sold at the concert and encouraged to concert attendees, and the festival participates in a waste diversion program to reduce the amount of trash from the festival that ends up in a landfill.[15]

Partners

Firefly and Red Frog Events have partnered with St. Jude's Music Gives to St. Jude Kids program to "enlist artists large and small, emerging and established, to join St. Jude in the fight against childhood cancer."[16] This program includes having a tent for donations at the event, having meet-and-greet events with various performers at the concert, and other ways of fundraising for the program. In 2012, Firefly attendees raised over $4.6 million for Music Gives to St. Jude Kids.[16] In addition, Firefly partners with Bud Light, Jack Daniel's, Tito's Vodka, StubHub, AXS TV, Cupcake Vineyards, Alex and Ani, Fye, Dogfish Head, Camelback, El Jimador, and Garnier. As of 2015, Sirius XM's Alt Nation has broadcast multiple Firefly performances throughout the festival.

References

  1. ↑ "2012 Lineup".
  2. ↑ "2013 Lineup".
  3. ↑ MCKINLEY, James. "A New Pop Music Festival in Delaware". The New York Times Company. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  4. ↑ "Festival Map". Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  5. ↑ Mehalick, Mike. "Firefly Music Festival Unveils 2013 Lineup Headlined By Tom Petty, Red Hot Chili Peppers". Speak Into My Good Eye. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  6. ↑ Mehalick, Mike. "The Postal Service Playing Firefly Music Festival 2013?". Speak Into My Good Eye. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  7. ↑ "News & Updates". Red Frog Events.
  8. ↑ "Attractions". Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  9. ↑ Comer, M. Tye. "Firefly 2012: Highlights From Delaware's First Major Music Fest". Billboard. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  10. ↑ Sheetz, Emily. "Firefly Music Festival 2012: Polica, The Knocks, Yeasayer, The Killers". MusicUnderFire. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  11. ↑ "2012 Firefly Music Festival Review". Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  12. ↑ Kaye, Ben. "Festival Review: CoS at Firefly 2012". CONSEQUENCE OF SOUND. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  13. ↑ Bothum, Peter. "Firefly Music Festival set to make Delaware's economy glow". Delaware Tourism. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  14. ↑ Rainey, Doug. "2013 Firefly Music fest expected to boost central Delaware economy". Delaware Business Daily. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  15. 1 2 "Green". Red Frog Events. Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  16. 1 2 "St. Jude". Red Frog Events. Retrieved 20 March 2013.

2015 Lineup

External links

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