Photography + Review: Firefly Fest

Posted: 3rd October, 2022 by The Editor

Firefly Fest celebrated its 10th anniversary this past weekend in the woodlands of Dover, Delaware. Ten years is no small victory and it deserves a rightful celebration. We’ve been lucky enough to join them for the past three and understand what keeps bringing people back. Beyond a stacked lineup every year is the community that emerges from being in the woodlands. Festival goers each year spend (previously three) four days spreading love and enjoyment with one another and forgetting the problems of the world while being secluded inside the campgrounds.

Since recently becoming a four day festival, we used the first day to get adjusted to the grounds and meet as many people as possible before we ramped up our sets for the weekend. We spent almost all of Thursday at the pavilion stage while admiring everyone’s custom signs and EDM-inspired dance wear. On the pavilion stage, we caught Alexander 23, San Holo, and 100 Gecs before watching Halsey close out the night on the main stage

Friday felt like being born again. Filled with excitement and recharged from our drive down the night before, we rushed to the fest to make it for when the gates opened. We wasted no time and immediately headed to main stage to catch Anna of the North. This may have been our most anticipated set of the weekend due to her getingt cut last year because of rain delays

Following Anna of the North, we began our circuit of jumping back and forth between the Firefly stage and Backyard stage. We managed to catch Dayglow, Ashnikko, Avril Lavigne, and Weezer before settling down at the Treehouse stage to see Nightly

While we may have gotten our steps in for the day in a few short hours between these stages, we would like to note that the spacing on these stages was perfect. Just far away enough from each other to play at the same time but easily accessible through the main walkway path. By now, the night was starting to set in and we were eager to catch the closing acts. On the Firefly stage was the legendary My Chemical Romance making an appearance as part of their comeback tour and Zedd on the Backyard stage to close out night two.

Saturday was undoubtedly the biggest day crowd and performance wise. It was a perfect fall weather day and Green Day was set to take the stage later. This combination is a formula for success but before the punk aficionados took the stage, we spent the day catching some amazing opening acts. Kicking off the Backyard stage for the day, we saw Benny the Butcher who brought out some of his Griselda crew. Immediately following, we managed to catch back to back sets from Wolf Alice, Princess Nokia, and Yungblood.

After capturing Yungblood’s set, we decided to take a ride on the Ferris wheel right next to the Firefly stage and admire the crowd from the highest point possible. Taking in such an incredible view while watching The Head and The Heart play was an experience we won’t soon forget.

By this time in the night, we were getting ready for the closing acts of day three. Bleachers took to the Firefly stage as the final act before Green Day came out to rock the ever growing crowd. Both artist gave a set to remember and by the end, those that weren’t going to Porter Robinson’s late night set left the festival with smiles all around.

We’ll admit that pushing through Porter Robinson’s set was a bit of a challenge due to pure exhaustion from the acts before but we couldn’t miss one of our favorite artists at our favorite festival. We’re glad we stayed and got to witness Porter asking everyone to throw their glow sticks at him on stage – a perfect ending to day three.

Waking up on the final day, we were starting to feel the soreness in our body but knew that what was coming that day would make us forget the pain. Starting out our final day, we caught Flor and Magic City Hippies on the Firefly stage.

After seeing the first two sets of the day, we started to catch momentum to push us through the final day and made our way to each stage to see Dorian Electra, MAX, and The Regrettes

Midway through The Regrettes set, the festival was notified that we had to evacuate the premise due to severe weather in the area. This was a blessing and a curse as we did have to miss Manchester Orchestra but the nap that was taken during this time rejuvenated us fully for the night. Starting almost immediately after gates reopened, we saw T-Pain take the Firefly stage which was the most excited we had heard fans all weekend (who doesn’t love T-Pain?)

Due to the change in scheduling, we were only able to catch Dua Lipa after T-Pain but her perfectly choreographed set and outstanding vocal performance made it all worth it. A wonderful highlight to end another incredible Firefly weekend on.