Firefly festival

Wondering what the implications of the apparent Passion Pit cancellation will be on such short notice. It doesn't really bother me other than I was hoping the Passion Pit/Lupe Fiasco conflict would thin out the crowd and allow me to get an awesome spot for The Killers. Don't think Lupe alone would do much for me so really hoping they can fill the spot with something at least. Also now wondering if the after party may be something more intriguing for me.

Hoping they move Trampled by Turtles, either by putting them directly into Passion Pit's slot, or by bumping Cake up one slot and moving Trampled to Cake's spot.

Would get rid of the Trampled/Modest Mouse conflict.

I work the weekend so I bought tickets just to the after party. This is just my luck Passion Pit cancels. I hope Phantogram plays til the a.m or Bassnector.

Right now I have no idea. Still no idea who's playing. Passion Pit for 24 bucks was worth it but now....who know's it's a toss up.

I hope this after party is worth it. I don't know about this yeasayer replacement. Good thing it's only an hour drive.

Moi.

I won't be camping in volunteer camping though.

After Party Anyone?

Gambit nailed it spot on. Youngings seemed to be the theme. I only went for Saturday and camped on the main stage rail so I didn't experience its full force but my friends had some very unpleasant sounding experiences that really left a sour taste in their mouths for the fest.
I had a great time though, Modest Mouse exceeded my expectations, The Killers were outstanding as usual, I even liked Young the Giant(I didn't the last time I saw them).
Logistically, it was a pretty small venue and even a little crowded in my opinion.
Personally, I don't think this first-year fest will survive. I could be wrong, who knows.

A good friend from my Bonnaroo crew went to Firefly just for Saturday. I figure his comments may be helpful to some...

Firefly vs. Bonnaroo (or why we all need to go to Firefly next year)


So Firefly has a multitude of major advantages over Bonnaroo, while also holding some disadvantages, which I'll highlight below. However, the net experience is just as good, if not better than Bonnaroo, and here's why.

Stages: Firefly has 4 stages, a small one called "The Porch" right at the entrance, 2 pretty big ones (think the size of This Tent if there was no tent, just the stage and a lighting rig) and one very large one called Firefly stage that's somewhere between the size of Which and What (but closer to Which). The main advantage Firefly holds here is that the stages are 5-6 feet above the ground! This means that you can actually see everything that's going on, on every stage, for every show. After Bonnaroo, this seemed rather insanely luxurious. The stage set-up provides views that aren't even in the same class as Roo's.

Cons: There are no Tents at Firefly. I didn't see much electronic music, but I'd wager that stuff would do a bit better in a Tent. Also, I lucked out and the weather was mid 70's and cloudy. If it was 90 and sunny, no tents at all might've gotten nasty.

Crowd size: I'd estimate that if there were 80,000 paid attendees at Roo, there were 30,000 at Firefly. Given that the quality of the line-up is comparable (although Bonnaroo, as a bigger festival with more bands, days, time slots and stages has more depth, the quality of the headliners is equal. The Killers would've been billed first at Roo in my estimation.) this means that everything is much easier to get to since you're not constantly pushing through massive crowds. Also, Firefly is much more compact than Centeroo, so you never have more than a 4 minute walk between stages. The smaller crowd provides huge advantages in getting great spots for shows.

Cons: One of the things that makes Roo ROO, at least for me, is the ginormous crowd. Because basically everyone camps, Bonnaroo comes to feel like a magical city of fun. The fact that concerts go around the clock heightens this. Firefly doesn't have nearly the sense of community that Roo does (people aren't shouting Firefly at the top of their lungs setting off long chains). The fact that some people are only there for a day, relatively few people are camping and most people stay at hotels at night hurts that sense of togetherness. Having said that, this was a first year festival, and I'm sure that will improve next year with veterans around. However, I highly doubt it ever reaches the spirit of Roo.

Time slots and set times: Here's an area where I think Roo has a major advantage. There is simply nothing at all like Late Night at Firefly. The fact is that at 11:10 or so, the headliner is finished, and the night is over. Now, that certainly has its advantages for rest and recuperation but I personally absolutely love Late Night. Also, some acts are forced to play during the day that would be so much better at midnight (ie: Skrillex played at 8:00 at Firefly). Roo set times are also much longer, a major bonus. Firefly doesn't have any sets over an hour and a half, while the basic headliner slot at Roo is typically 2 hours.

Traffic and Travel: This is a complete no contest. Unlike Manchester, TN; Dover Motor Speedway is fully equipped to handle an influx of tens of thousands of people in a day. Parking was laughable, we literally drove right up to the gate! This means the trip to Dover is 3.5 hours, instead of the 15 hour monstrosity that is the ride to Roo. It also means that grabbing a hotel is much more feasible, since you can exit and enter easily. This means that rather than a week off from work, Firefly can be done by only taking off Friday. (You can get back at 3 on Monday morning and be ready for work. Man up.)

Final: Firefly has major advantages over Roo as a festival. However, Roo has a special place in all of our hearts, and I wouldnt miss it for the world. Thus I propose we do both next year.

My (not so brief) view of Firefly:

I too only went Saturday and stayed in a hotel right down the street from Dover Downs. First off, I thought they did a great job organizing the grounds, entering and exiting was smooth and I didn't find it to be overly crowded at any one point. With the way the stage times were staggered, I never had a bad spot at any of the shows and didnt find traveling too and from to be too difficult. The grounds definitely seemed much smaller than expected (advertised as 87 acres), mainly because of the wooded area that divides the center area in half. I didnt walk back and forth over the wooden deck too often but I can see that being a difficult travel route at certain times. Didn't wait on any long lines for food or beer, and even though the water fill station was small, that line moved quickly as well. They had plenty of porta podies set up and kept them pretty clean throughout the day. As a matter of fact the entire grounds itself was well kept throughout the day.

I will say that I was a little disappointed in the crowd overall. They should have stuck to their policy of no one under 18 being permitted without an adult. I witnessed a lot of wasted 16 year old's just acting a fool. Spilling drinks all over people and just bouncing around with disregard like they were at their own backyard party. Also, I came across plenty of seedy characters as well. My girlfriend dragged me to Chiddy Bang to hear "Kids" and at one point we were surrounded by kids with house arrest ankle bracelets on and a guy with "187 Cop Killer" tattooed on his stomach trying to grind on girls. Not a very comforting feeling when at a music fest

Musically, Moon Taxi made the most of their early, half hour slot and I was happy I didnt hit traffic driving in and was able to make it in time. Imagine Dragons followed and they were my surprise favorite act of the day. They really rocked out and attracted such a great crowd. Charles Bradley was phenomenal as always, so much fun to watch. Grouplove show was a blast, they were having as much fun as the crowd. I balked at the idea of squeezing in Young the Giant at Roo, but with the smaller scale Firefly I decided to go check em out and I am glad I did. They played a high energy set and I thought they really captured the crowd, even when mixing in new songs. Modest Mouse had some great moments in their set but I feel the few technical difficulties they encountered killed their enthusiasm and at points I felt bored with the performance. Lupe really killed it. I had never seen him live and I thought his tight flow with a full band was an awesome way to turn over into night. As for The Killers, they are definitely entertaining and a lot of fun live. Their songs create a lot of crowd interaction, sing alongs and dancing and were a great way to end the night. I was just a little disappointed (yet not surprised) by the length of their set. Coming on twenty mins late and playing till 11 on the dot. Headliners holding up the Saturday slot should be able to crank out a longer set, in my opinion. 1hour 10minutes? And people are predicting them to headline Roo next year. Unless they can add more songs into their set and follow a monster pre headline show, ala MMJ 2011, then they would be better off sticking to these smaller fests. Ultimately with this line up, I would have loved to have been there Friday for Jack White, and I heard John Legend was a highlight of the weekend, but just couldnt sacrafice any days off of work for this.

Overall, I thought the innaugral fest was a success and would make the move back if they returned next year. If this fest does continue on, I cant imagine I would ever camp for it though. The prices to camp, compared to the hotel room I had (which was only an additional 10 minute walk to the fest) wasnt much difference. And as I walked through the camp site at night there wasnt much going on that I felt like I was missing out. I dont know if it can survive as a full out 3 day camp fest, but for a day trip I certainly would do it again.

We attended all three days and stayed in Lot 9 (RV lot) and had a great time. No it was not Bonnaroo nor do I think they wanted to make it as such. It was music and only music. No Yoga, post office or fountains.

Here are some things we liked:
- Stages vs. tents. You could see the musicians a lot easier since they were elevated.
- Schedules of acts on the two larger stages.
- Efficiency of security doing bag checks.
- Cleanliness of the grounds. People here actually used the trash cans.

While we still plan on attending Bonnaroo this was quite nice, not to mention that it is only 150 miles away form our house compared to the 850 that Manchester, TN is.

The one thing it lacked was vegetarian food. there was some but talking to people who just purchased it did not look very good. I was glad to have everything back at the RV for late lunch early dinner. Bonnaroo does a great job in food selections.

All in all we would / will go back again.

I had a great time at Firefly. OK Go and Flaming Lips stole it for me. Other top bands were Fitz and the Tantrums, Reptar, Imagine Dragons, J Roddy Walston and the Business, Charles Bradley, and Moon Taxi.

My biggest complaint was the number of bros there. The arcade was badass though. And it was nice not having too much overlap and shade!

Pre-sale tix for next year went on sale today and it's scheduled for two weeks after 'Roo (June 21-23). Really disappointed that they did it that way...wanted to go back but now I'm not sure if I will or not.

I think firefly did a good job lineup wise for its inaugural fest. There were some things that were frustrating and maybe this is cause I am a festie (as are most others on the board). That attitude of some people. Maybe they never been to a festival who knows, but that certainly isnt fireflys' fault. No one was dancing and people got a little annoyed at my group for dancing I couldnt believe it!! Also the food was bleh! not many options. also they really dont check you for anything and glass bottles were all over. Never the less I bout my 2013 tix today