MF #5
Firefly Music Festival 2014
Dates
June 19th – 22nd, 2011
Location
Dover, Delaware
Reason
Fun
We followed through on the plan – we were going back to Firefly. The festival was now four days instead of three, and we would be there the entire time. Most importantly, we were going to be camping on-site. We had a solid group of friends, we had supplies, and we were full of excitement.
We arrived early on Thursday and quickly found ourselves in a 4-hour line for camping. The party started in line. Beers were cracked, music was turned up, and every single car enjoyed the experience. Nobody was impatient, rude, or unable to deal with the situation. We all signed up willingly, and this was just part of the experience.
The 4-Hour Long Line to Enter Camping
Just by chance, Chance the Rapper performed at Santa Clara University a few weeks earlier. My friend was first in line when his band members came out inquiring about California supplies 🪴. I got the text and headed down there as fast as I could.
Chance the Rapper and me at Santa Clara University
A few weeks later, Chance was now performing at Firefly and I had his drummer’s phone number from that interaction. Naturally, I reached out to inquire if they needed more supplies. They were excited to hear that we were stocked and I quickly got the invite to the hotel. I grabbed Dave, we ditched our group, and proceeded to make the longest walk ever all the way around the outside of the venue towards the hotel.
We met Stix in the lobby and quickly headed up to his room. We parted with a few grams, and I started rolling up the first blunt of the festival. Just then, we heard a knock on the door. Stix opened it up and it was Chance. Word had gotten out that we had arrived. Chance is just about the nicest person you will ever meet. He remembered me from a few weeks earlier, said hello to Dave, and quickly went about criticizing my blunt roll.
We considered lighting it up in the room, but apparently, they had over $5000 in hotel fines from the last tour due to in-room consumption, so we decided to head out to the hotel’s basketball court. The rest of the crew met us down in the hotel lobby, and we made our way outside to the sports court. While it was just a half-court, it made a fantastic quiet smoking area. We passed the blunt around the circle as everyone shared stories from the tour. With the blunt extinguished, Chance took off without a word and sprinted inside. A few minutes later, he comes running back outside with a basketball. The game was on!
We started playing 21 on the half-court. While Chance and his band members are world-class musicians, they are musicians, not athletes. At 6 feet, I was taller than pretty much everyone except for Dave, who ended up winning the game.
We retired to the hotel’s outdoor gas fireplace area. It wasn’t on, but we gathered around the seating area anyway and hung out after the game. While we wanted to hang out and chat all night, Dave and I knew we had a long walk back to the tent, so we said our goodbyes and hit the road.
We had just spent the night playing basketball with Chance the Rapper. This weekend was off to a great start.
We woke up giddy the next morning. Dave cooked us all breakfast and we all prepared to actually go to the music. Writing this years later, I can’t remember a single set from that day except for Chance. It was a sunset set on the Lawn Stage. It was magical.
While Chance dominated our first two days, a good music festival can never be overshadowed by a single individual. It is the collection of artists that makes a festival a festival. Saturday was jam-packed with world-class artists. Twenty One Pilots was back, and they were ready to show the crowd that they belonged on the main stage. The lead singer Tyler Joseph climbed all over the stage during the performance, impressing fans and raising the eyebrows of the festival’s insurance adjuster.
The afternoon weather was hot but nice. Grouplove followed Twenty One Pilots, and the group vibes were at an all-time high. We wandered around to a few of the other stages that evening, before returning to the main stage to watch Outkast headline. We ended the night with an amazing Pretty Lights performance on the Backyard Stage. This was it. I was finally doing a music festival properly!
Waking up Sunday I could see the signs of a long weekend worn on the face of many of my friends. I felt good. I felt full of energy, relaxed, happy, and alive. The festival went as well as I could have hoped. I knew I would be back next year.
Sunday sets always have a different energy level. Luckily, the festival organizers actually (or accidentally) understood that and scheduled great bands like Wheezer and Jack Johnson. Our group still wanted to party, so we did show up for (18-year-old) Martin Garrix, and we made a valiant effort to bring the party to Big Gigantics’ closing set. And just like that, my first camping festival was over. It wouldn’t be the last.