Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Firefly?

Photo Credit: Mikaela Wegerhoff

The west has Coachella. The mid-west has Lollapalooza. The south has Bonnaroo. But what has the East had? Well, apart from the weather-sabotaged All Point’s West back in 2009 and NJ’s Bamboozle festival, not much…until now.

Okay, so the East Coast may not have had the biggest music festival this year; Coachella packed the titular valley for two music-filled weekends back in April, Lollapalooza is celebrating it’s 15^th year with additional festivals in two South American countries, and Bonnaroo scheduled a whopping 275 artists, comedians, and films across twelve stages during their four day spread this June.  That being said, Firefly, self-proclaimed as the East Coast’s Premier Music Experience, had a phenomenal inaugural weekend this past July 20^th-22^nd.

“This is our first time playing a show in Delaware,” proclaimed Heartless Bastard’s front woman Erika Wennerstrom to a relatively small crowd at their early Friday afternoon set.  Throughout the weekend, many bands shared this fun fact to crowds of varying sizes. OK Go’s Damian Kulash even went so far as coming out into the crowd to inspect the unfamiliar faces in a state not often frequented by touring acts, let alone seasoned festival performers.

Photo Credit: Mikaela Wegerhoff

Despite heavy rain Thursday night into Friday morning threatening to postpone early performances and turn the festival grounds into a mud fest á la Woodstock & All Point’s West, event planners, performers, and concert goers alike continued on without a care in the world.  Most performers made mention of the perseverance their fans portrayed by soaking up twice as much raindrops than sun on Friday and Saturday.  Although it never got quite as bad as the first night, the rain never really let up completely until Sunday morning.

One of the greatest aspects of this festival, and the only reason why I was able to attend the festival as a poor college student, was the company behind the event’s attention to going green. Months prior to the festival weekend Firefly promoters, Red Frog Events, opened up positions to volunteer in six-hour shifts for a small fee of $20 (which covered the volunteer t-shirt, small snacks, and the liability of you actually showing up.) Volunteering at Firefly also enabled you a free camping spot close to the festival gates, which was great, apart from the fact they placed the showers in the camping site furthest away.

 Schedules for volunteering more or less made it so that each volunteer worked one morning shift, one afternoon shift, and one night shift.  For a $158 (early bird),  $178 (advanced), or $198 (regular) discount on an all-inclusive 3-day pass, sacrificing 18 hours seemed like a reasonable price to pay.  For those of us volunteers lucky enough to be placed on the “sustainable beats” team, it was more than reasonable.  Stationed in close proximity to one of the four stages, with backstage access (for recycling purposes, of course) I was able to catch sets by Drexel’s own (sort of?) Chiddy Bang, English indie rockers Bombay Bicycle Club (on the first date of their American tour), electronic producers The Knocks, and Chi-town rapper Lupe Fiasco.

When I wasn’t restricted to my station, I made the most of all Firefly had to offer: free cell phone charging & air conditioning tents, free water refill stations (courtesy of Klean Kanteen), the Hammock Hangout, and the not-so-free-but-very-delicious food stands scattered throughout the grounds.  Delaware brewery Dogfish Head even brewed a special one-time-only Firefly Ale for the weekend. At a steep $8, having one pint of the inherently bitter pale ale was a fitting drink to accompany the mind-blowing laser & fireworks show put on by the Killer’s during their headlining set Saturday night.  The two attractions I simply didn’t find the time, energy, or quite frankly money to check out were the heavily advertised hot air balloon rides, and the expansive (and completely free) arcade tent, complete with button mashers, pinball machines, shooters, and foosball/air hockey tables.

Photo Credit: Mikaela Wegerhoff

Walk The Moon surprised me with their energetic set on Friday evening.  I had listened to the singles off of their self-titled album, but it wasn’t until I was watching them blow the crowd away with their fast paced, infectious indie-pop hits that I truly understood them as a band.  The Cincinnati four piece danced their way through an hour set, and left everyone within listening distance tired, but wanting more.  Their spot-on cover of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” may have been one of my favorite performances of the entire weekend.

Ra Ra Riot’s spirited second morning set was the perfect music to prepare the mass of tired, hung-over, and yes, already drunk crowds pouring into the festival. Empathizing the sweeping, comforting strings early in their set, constantly building to a tumultuous finish got all who were lucky enough to catch their set ready for the long day ahead of them.

Michael Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs of Fitz and the Tantrums thoroughly captivated the attention of a crowd easily comparable to any of the main stage acts on Sunday afternoon.  They flirted with each other (and the crowd) for the duration of their hour-long set.  Being able to completely control an audience, they commanded the crowd to “get low” with them for their final song.  In a matter of seconds, hundreds, possibly thousands of festival goers were kneeling down, patiently waiting for their chance to jump up and dance around one last time. 

Photo Credit: Mikaela Wegerhoff

Modest Mouse and Death Cab for Cutie attracted large crowds to the main stage on Saturday and Sunday before headliners the Killers and the Black Keys, respectively, were set to go on.  Death Cab for Cutie opened their near perfect set on Sunday night with the eight and a half minute long “I Will Possess Your Heart.” 

Photo Credit: Mikaela Wegerhoff

After plowing through a few songs, front man Ben Gibbard apologized for having a cold and made a few jokes about prescription drugs.

Photo Credit: Mikaela Wegerhoff

Attendance for the festival averaged out at approximately 30,000 each day, although if you ask me, there felt like twice that many were trying to leave after a purely fantastic final performance by the Black Key’s on Sunday. But the music didn’t end there. Many drunk, high, and sober, but all extremely exhausted fans, chanted and sang all the way back to their tents or cars.  In those few post-Firefly moments, you could feel it in the air: Firefly was a success, on many levels, and it would return for many more years to come.

In fact you can head on over to fireflyfestival.com right now to pick up next year’s super pre-sale 3-day pass for the ridiculously low price of $148…that is if you can plan for a weekend 11 months from now. People do it for weddings and apocalypse theories all the time.

~ Austin LoCicero

@AustinLoCicero

To see the rest of the truly amazing photos our fantastic photographer, Mikaela Wegerhoff got, click here!