The Firefly Music Festival will likely yield higher attendance this year, which means extra work to make sure enough facilities are available.
Ask a die-hard concertgoer about his or her favorite festival, and it’s likely you won’t hear about anything east of Tennessee’s Bonnaroo. That’s about to change.
Or at least that’s the hope of Red Frog Events, the Chicago-based company responsible for creating Firefly Music Festival in Delaware. Now in its second year, the festival is looking to expand on widely positive reviews of its first go-round in 2012 with new attractions and a lineup that features more than 70 acts, adding about 20 more performances than last year’s event.
Now, three months before its sophomore showing from June 21 to 23, Firefly’s ticket sales have already exceeded the 30,000-person attendance of last year’s festival, and Red Frog is fully expecting a sellout crowd. People can still buy three-day passes from the website for $258 before fees.
These are impressive numbers for a second-year festival, but the event is less of an overnight success than you might think. In fact, when Red Frog first decided to launch a music festival back in 2010, even location was a big question.
“We knew we wanted to create a one-of-a-kind music experience and searched many areas and venues on the East Coast,” festival director Greg Bostrom wrote in an email. “When we came to Dover and walked over to the space that is now The Woodlands, we knew we came to the right place.”
Of course, the personal belief that NASCAR town Dover, Del., would be “a new mecca for music on the East Coast,” as Bostrom wrote, is one thing. Convincing top-tier acts likewise is another.
“Year one is definitely a challenge for any music festival to sign on high-level talent, as several groups have policies against playing first-year festivals,” Bostrom wrote. Despite the adversity, the festival managed to book The Killers, The Black Keys and Jack White as headliners in 2012.
After the success of the inaugural festival, Bostrom said, acts started reaching out to Red Frog, which contributed to the increased number of performers this year. Highlights of the upcoming festival’s roster include the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
Setting the bar high can also be problematic. The larger predicted attendance will yield a need for more food stalls, bathrooms and general entertainment to keep the masses occupied between performances. Festival security could have their hands full with the additional turnout.
Red Frog is working with Dover International Speedway to control increased traffic and continues to take pride in having enough facilities for guests at The Woodlands, Bostrom wrote.
In fact, Jake Krolick of JamBase.com commented on last year’s bathroom conditions by declaring there to be “enough port-o-johns for a Bonnaroo-sized crowd, even though Firefly was closer to 30,000 music fans.”
Unfortunately, because Firefly is now a bona fide contender in the world of American summer music festivals, it’s also no longer free of unrealistic expectations. That means it’s going to be under microscopic scrutiny from critics.
Since it is becoming more inevitable for some complaints to be made along the way, the challenge will involve refining the event rather than adopting a preventative strategy.
The Grove, the festival’s accommodations area, will include a multitude of new attractions to be announced in the coming months — a necessary improvement in the festival’s progression toward the top, Bostrom wrote.
There can be no confusion with the festival’s goal, as its website includes the tagline “The East Coast’s Premier Music Experience.” But with newly established three-day festivals, such as The Governors Ball in New York, applying some competitive heat in the region, Firefly has come under even more pressure to have another nearly flawless showing this year.
When asked about a possible rivalry with The Governors Ball, Bostrom replied with an answer strikingly similar to the laid-back vibe the festival seems determined to exude.
“We welcome everyone in the industry,” he wrote. “Our goal is to provide the best experience we can.”
Contrary to the typical attitude of the region (overstressed and generally too sophisticated for its own good), Firefly has introduced a weekend on the East Coast with a distinctly West Coast atmosphere. And with this identity harnessed, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to get familiar with the festival. While it’s still too early to say for certain, Firefly Music Festival might just be here to stay.
