Are you wondering what happened to Day 1? It happened but we were not there. We are sure it was wonderful.
Day 2: Friday, June 17
We (I attended the music fest with my traditional Music Fest Bestie, Karen–my MFB) arrived after driving the fabulously overcrowded I-95 from the DC area. This trip included going over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, which if you have any degree of bridge phobia will set you off like a rocket. Holy Moly, that stunk. Fast forward, despite being unprepared for toll roads and the *&%^ bridge, we arrived at Dover International Speedway, home of The Woodlands and Firefly 2016 in time to hear The Wombats, our first set for the day. Yaaaay.
The first thing you need to know about FF is that when you park you will be a mile (or more) from the actual festival entrance (find the restrooms when you arrive!). Good walking shoes are imperative. The second thing you need to know is that all your walking mates will be drunk. It makes for fascinating conversation and memories that last them as long as their beer buzz. Once in the festival everything is fairly well laid out with the various stages on the periphery of the grounds and multiple water, beer, food, merch stands nearby. Water is free (bring a bottle to refill), prices are reasonable(ish) and there are a lot of porta potties (bring hand sanitizer).
First thing we did was find the St. Jude Children’s Hospital tent. St Jude is the chosen charity for the Firefly Festival and a portion of the money spent by attendees goes directly to the charity. Insider note: if you follow St. Jude on Instagram (@StJude) or Snapchat (StJudeofficial) you can be alerted to special fan meet and greets you can attend. We were lucky to be one of the first 20 fans to ask for the Of Monsters and Men meet and greet and got a wristband to attend! Weeeeee! #Firefly2016 off to a great start!
Brynjar Leiffson (aka, the adorable blond guy in OMAM)
After The Wombats played, we moved directly to the FYE tent where we searched out the list of artists who would be signing CD’s during the Festival. We chose two and bought the CDs. When you do this you will need to get a (another) wristband to actually get in the line for autographs so DON’T LOSE YOUR RECEIPT! We chose The Wombats, because as you now know, we love them.
Since we still had time before our next set, we then went to The Market and explored the very cool, unique items for sale such as Alex and Ani jewelry and amazing handcrafted boots at Teysha Social Enterprises.
One of the new things we found to do this year, was compete in challenges through an app called Social Ladder. This is an invitation only app but the invitation codes were offered through Firefly social media. By completing the various challenges you can win free stuff! We love free so we were all over that! Challenges are fun and are things like “take a selfie at The Thicket” or “take a photo next to your favorite stage.” You post your pictures on Instagram and *voila* you earn points towards rewards. It’s easy and fun and can be done while you are moving from one stage to another.
Social media adventures aside, the music of Day 2 (the reason we came, right??) was great! We heard music from The Wombats, Saint Motel, Of Monsters and Men, Flogging Molly, Civil Twilight and Night Riots. We walked 17,347 steps (thank you FitBit) and drank 3 gallons+ of water and 1 BudLight Lime (AWESOME!)
Our adventure continues tomorrow when we hope to see The Neighbourhood, Florence and the Machine, Death Cab for Cutie, M83, Chvrches, Coleman Hell, DeadMau5 and so many more. Firefly does have day passes available, you can get the information for them here. Sunday’s lineup is AMAZEBALLS so if you are in the Dover area you need to be there.
