Firefly 2021: September 23-26

FF just sent out a communication advising campers to secure your camp and find shelter to ride out the storm. All tollbooths are closed until further notice.

Just looking at the radar the rain isnt going to settle down til maybe 5pm. So if they had to cut the first couple hours of music I dont think anyone is gonna miss much. Feels like All Points West in 2009 when part of the day got cut due to lightning and rain.

not again. PTSD.

Not arriving until after work tomorrow, but hope you all get to enjoy tonight. Some of my campmates are arriving/have arrived. They say it’s a sloppy track and everyone has battened down the hatches. Prepare accordingly. Still psyched to have a festival to go to after cancelroo.

No

Update: health screening opened at 5, not 6 as announced. They give you a wristband which I hope gets us in all four days.

Waiting at the gates…

Schedule has been updated. Looks like they got til 1am.

Don’t tell me no.

Maybe.

Down to meet up with some of y’all on Saturday. Just my lovely wife and I raging it up. Only definites are Caribou-> Glass Animals -> Khruangbin -> Tame

Not sure I’m going to review each day, but Thursday was interesting to say the least and I think Firefly actually did a very good job considering the circumstances.

First - we really lucked out with the weather. My wife and I followed the radar closely all morning and afternoon, and there was a big area of heavy rain and likely thunderstorms that ended up passing just east of Dover. It really could have been a total washout and wasn’t, so any music yesterday to me was a blessing (sounds overstated but man I needed this). Most of of the heavy weather had cleared by 3pm so we go to day parking at that time (we didn’t camp) and got in a back way I think - they weren’t ready and we didn’t get charged. Firefly updated via the app that gates were not opening at 3, but we figured we’d get there early. Walked over the bridge to the venue and security there was pretty upfront with two bits of bad news. One - we had to go back over the bridge to get health screened. We had passed empty (closed) health screening booths and now had to go back and wait for them to open. Second, gates weren’t opening till 6:30 (it turned out to be 7:30), there’s no music till 8, and ‘everyone’s playing at the same time’. So we headed back, and meanwhile Firefly sent this info by the app. Anyway - we lined up and health screen opened early at 5 -so we got screened and we went back to the venue. By this time, some vendors were open, so we lined up for entry and had a few beers on line. Eventually they let us in 2 hrs later at 7:30. Can’t say for sure if they even looked at our health screen wristbands - it was dark, they checked bags and everyone lined up at once, so it went pretty fast (at least if you were near the front because you lined up at 5:30 lol).

The music: Thursday was my most anticipated day. Planned on Turnstile, the Hu, Girl in Red, Phoebe, Rebillet and Billie Eilish, with the first 3 being my most anticipated. Was able to see those 3 at night, but shorter sets (30-35 min). Opened with Girl in Red at 8:10 which was great. Had to choose between Turnstile and Phoebe unfortunately (I chose Turnstile). Left Billie early for Rebillet (I saw her twice in 2019) and actually caught some carolesdaughter which was cool. Ended the night with the Hu from 12:30 - 1am which was tremendous.

So happy to see my most anticipated acts today - was sure they would be washed out as the were all scheduled relatively early but they did a good job with the rescheduling and letting people know via the app. Hope to see Phoebe at Shaky Knees - already missed out on her when Roo cancelled. Less sad to miss Billie as I saw her at the last big fest I attended (ACL 2019).

The grounds were wet and muddy in places but manageable. The crowd is pretty young, but pretty respectful on first impression (said the grumpy old guy). They were loud for Girl in Red and Rebillet. Also there was a very good and energetic crowd for the Hu to end the night, which was nice. There will be more music that skews to a younger crowd the next 3 days so we will see if that holds up.

First time at this fest - I thought they dealt with tough weather very well. Now let’s hope for 3 nice days!

Domlogia pretty much summed up our impressions, too- wet, muddy, but manageable. All things considered they did well to provide 5 hours of music, featuring Billie serenading many thousands of young girls (and some old guys) screaming like it was Beatlemania. We enjoyed her, Phoebe’s all-too-short set, and Girl in Red. Saved steps for the three long days ahead.

I suspect the mud will hang around a little longer, so if you’re arriving today, you may want to stop at Walmart and pick up rain boots. We did yesterday, and it was the best $14.99 we spent all day.

Clear weather and good times ahead!