Firefly Music Festival is a music festival produced by Red Frog Events alongside Goldenvoice, 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 over 100 performances held over the course of the festival in 2016. The festival is produced by Red Frog Events with Goldenvoice, with the hopes of having "an open-air festival on the East Coast with plenty of outdoor camping". The festival includes seven stages; The Porch Stage, The Lawn Stage, The Backyard Stage, the Treehouse, The Coffee House, The Pavilion and The Firefly Stage. Firefly offers three different passes options; general admission, VIP, and Super VIP.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
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, and The Flaming Lips. 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:
- Friday, July 20
- Saturday, July 21
- Sunday, July 22
2013
The headliners for the 2013 festival included Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. Other notable acts included Vampire Weekend, Foster the People, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Avett Brothers, Calvin Harris, and Passion Pit.
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. 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):
- Friday, June 21
- Saturday, June 22
- Sunday, June 23
2014
On January 14, 2014 the lineup for 2014 was announced via the official Firefly YouTube channel. The headliners for 2014 included Outkast, Foo Fighters, and Jack Johnson with other notable acts Imagine Dragons, Beck, The Lumineers, Pretty Lights, Arctic Monkeys, Weezer and Broken Bells. Girl Talk, Twenty One Pilots, and Imagine Dragons returned for their second year performing at the festival. The 2014 schedule (artists listed from earliest to latest set times):
- Thursday, June 19
- Friday, June 20
- Saturday, June 21
- Sunday, June 22
2015
On February 17, 2015 the 2015 lineup was announced via the official Firefly YouTube channel. The headliners for 2015 included Paul McCartney, Kings Of Leon and The Killers. The schedule of performances and locations were released on a date closer to the festival. Due to a severe thunderstorm on Saturday night of the 2015 festival, Kings of Leon had to cancel their performance and the festival grounds were temporarily evacuated.
The full alphabetical 2015 lineup was as follows:
2016
The 2016 lineup was released on November 18, 2015. Headliners included Mumford and Sons, Kings of Leon, Florence and the Machine, and deadmau5. Two Door Cinema Club served as the Thursday night headliner.
The official alphabetical 2016 lineup was as follows:
2017
Headliners included The Weeknd, Muse, Twenty One Pilots, Chance the Rapper and Bob Dylan.
The official alphabetized 2017 lineup was as follows:
Camping At Firefly Video
Activities
In addition to musical acts, The Firefly Music Festival offers other activities. An arcade tent is set up, which houses arcade and video games. 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 in which you can sit or lay down in a hammock. The Pathway is a wooded path that connects the two "halves" of the festival. Each year, The Pathway has a theme, and as of the 2017 festival, fans get to choose what that happens to be.
The Thicket is another attraction at Firefly, where attendees can participate in a silent rave. For everyone with headphones on, however; the Thicket music filled, with DJs playing music that can only be heard through the headphones. The Coffee House offers a multiple cafe-style vendors, and music performances throughout the day.
In its first year, 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.
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 makes specifically for the festival.
Firefly also offers various charging stations, where attendees can charge electronic devices.
Starting in February 2015, there is also an annual unofficial weekend long fan get together in Dewey Beach, Delaware. Called Winterfly, the event is un-associated with Red Frog Events, but features live music, and 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. Additionally, attendees can choose "glamping", a portmanteau of the words "glamorous" and "camping". Some glamping options provide private, air-conditioned tents, beds with sheets, access to private and air-conditioned showers and bathrooms, access to a private food lounge, as well as food and snack vouchers for inside the festival.
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
"It's about damn time the East Coast had a great music festival." - Emily Sheetz for MusicUnderFire
"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
"Save for some first-year jitters, the inaugural edition of Firefly was a highly promising one." - Ben Kaye for Consequence of Sound
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. 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.
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." 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. 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.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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