The High’s and Low’s of Firefly Music Festival 2021: Performances, Attendee Experience, and More

After its cancellation in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Firefly Music Festival returned to The Woodlands of Dover, Delaware for its 2021 comeback. With a strong lineup featuring some of the music industry’s top performing artists, the festival was definitely a weekend to remember for all attendees. However, with all the ups that come with such a large scale event, there are some inevitable downsides that many festival goers reported regarding their experience. If you were unable to make it to Firefly this year, here are the main highlights (and lowlights) of the event.

Low: Delayed Opening due to Inclement Weather

In an unfortunate case of Mother Nature, the first day of the music festival got off on a late start due to the heavy rains and thunderstorms that the Dover area experienced. While the gates were originally set to open at 3pm, festival organisers sent out a message approximately an hour before to say that there would be a delay in order to let the rain pass. While many attendees who were already on the grounds braved the harsh weather conditions at their campsites and hoped their tents wouldn’t blow away, other newer arrivals got stuck in the long back up of cars at the entrance to the camping sites. Luckily, the gates opened at 7:15pm on that Thursday, just in time for people to see the bigger named artists for the day’s lineup.

As another side effect of the inclement weather, the rain made the grounds muddy and stages incredibly slippery, which posed some challenges for people driving into the camps and walking on foot through the festival. Needless to say, many people’s shoes were caked in mud by the end of the weekend. 

High: Billie Eilish’s Performance is Hilariously Interrupted

To close out the first night of the festival, 19 year old artist Billie Eilish headlined with a fantastic set, including her biggest hits from her entire discography. With stunning visuals as she sang one of her breakout singles ‘Ocean Eyes’, to her high energy stage presence, the young singer showed that she is no stranger to getting a crowd hyped up. 

However, Eilish also showed off her sense of humor as she began singing a song from her debut studio album Happier Than Ever. Upon the beginning of ‘Billie Bossa Nova,’ the singer suddenly stopped the performance after seeing an audience members’ sign that said “Sign My Tits”. She laughed at the fact that this made her forget the lyrics to her own song, and the crowd started chanting to encourage her to do as the sign says. With the help of security, Billie Eilish made her way down to the audience member with the sign and fulfilled his wish. It was a hilarious break from the performance, and that lucky fan definitely had the night of his life.

Low: Overpriced Food Vendors

Firefly definitely did not fail in offering a large variety of food vendors. From Hawaiian noodle bowls, to chicken paella, macaroni and cheese, and waffles shaped like male genitalia, there was certainly something different for festival-goers to try every day for every meal. However, many attendees reported that despite the variety in options, many of them were not worth it for the price sticker. 

It is a given at any large scale event that food and beverage prices are bumped up, however many complaints regarding the quality of food in comparison to the price were raised on social media. For example, many of the pizza stands sold whole pizza pies for a whopping $54 when pizzerias outside the grounds sell the same amount for less than half that price. One festival goer took to Reddit and commented on the taco stand saying, “the taco stand was the most entertaining. $10 for what looks like a 3 year old portion.” The food trucks in Food Truck Oasis were no better in terms of pricing, with one vendor selling a 20oz cold brew coffee for $10 when a Starbucks’ venti of the same size can go for as low as $4.75.

Many attendees that were camping on the grounds brought their own food to eat while at their sites, and some brought propane stoves to do their own cooking. If you plan on attending Firefly in future years, we highly recommend packing your own meals to save on money, as there was evidently not much to miss out on regarding the food vendors.

High: Oliver Tree’s Eclectic Humor On Stage

Oliver Tree played the Firefly mainstage on Saturday, September 25th and put on quite the performance. His eclectic sense of humor translated well on stage as he pretended to yell at his bandmates, and brought out comically sized instruments (such as a hand built giant guitar and a tiny piano) with which to play his songs. His energy was contagious as he ran around in a ski jacket and JNCO jeans, only later to reveal an under layer of bright pink two piece set and bolo tie. He was also very successful at engaging the crowd by encouraging them to sway their arms in the air, scream, and even raise their middle fingers in the air. Oliver Tree ended his set with crowd favorite “Hurt” after asking the crowd whether he should “pay $1000 fine” for going over set time. 

Low: Pick Pockets in the Crowds

With thousands of people in attendance at Firefly, there were bound to be a few bad apples in the crowd. Saturday night was a huge night for pickpockets, as many of them hid in the large crowds for bigger performers and stealthily reached into people’s pockets to steal phones, wallets, and other valuables. Many festival goers on Reddit reported missing phones on Saturday night while watching Glass Animals and Tame Impala, while the Lost and Found received many visitors in search of items that they hoped people turned in.

For future festival goers, we encourage you to keep a close eye on your valuables and to bring appropriate clothing that has enclosed pockets and secure bags when entering larger crowds. While the festival only permits small bags and clear backpacks, carrying something on your body is definitely much safer than having loose items in your pockets. Additionally, we recommend keeping your valuables close to you, such as in your hand or in a fanny pack that is close to your front. Many pickpockets often go for back pockets and backpacks since these are not in a person’s line of sight, and it is less likely to feel someone reaching into these pockets.

If possible, we recommend leaving a majority of your valuables at your campsite, hotel, or other places of residence in a secure location. This way, you can ensure that you leave the festival with all of the important items with which you came.

High: Megan Thee Stallion Brings Guests Up To The Stage

On Sunday night, Megan Thee Stallion took the Backyard stage to show off her powerful rap vocals and entertaining dance choreography. The rapper did not disappoint with her efforts to engage the audience in her performance as she invited two groups of audience members to share the spotlight with her on stage. The crowd went wild for these lucky members of the audience as they danced and twerked with Megan, with many of them having a surprising amount of dance talents of their own.

Megan Thee Stallion put on a high energy performance that made every audience member feel like a “hot girl” as she affectionately refers to her fans. From her performance of her hit breakout song ‘Savage’, to her collaboration with Cardi B ‘WAP’, Megan definitely had the crowd screaming the lyrics along with her.

Low: Ritt Momney Lacks Stage Presence and Audience Engagement

On the other end of the field, Ritt Momney took the Wonder stage late Sunday afternoon to perform some of his music. Despite his TikTok trending cover of ‘Put Your Records On’, the crowd seemed unfamiliar with much of his set list, and received little engagement from the audience. Additionally, the singer did not do much to interact with the crowd, transferring instruments across the stage and switching from song to song with barely any talking to break up the set. 

He also spent most of his set sitting down at instruments or walking around on stage, sometimes with his back turned to the crowd. To top off this bad performance, Ritt Momney forgot the lyrics to “Put Your Records On” and missed the beat on which he was supposed to sing. In all fairness to the artist, these slip ups were likely due to nervousness and inexperience which can definitely be improved for future live performances. However, Ritt Momney does have some good music, and is without a doubt talented at singing and playing instruments. 

High: Lizzo Closes the Festival with a Bang

To end the weekend on a high note, Lizzo headlined the Sunday event and closed off the entire festival. With her and her dancers donning bright pink outfits, Lizzo kept the crowd alive in the late hours of the night and put on an exceptional performance with high energy songs and incredible crowd engagement. The stage was set up with structures spelling out LIZZO, with large graphics showcased on a big screen behind the performers. 

Lizzo showed that she is well versed in performing as she danced and showed off her powerful vocal range. From belting out the lyrics of “Cuz I Love You” with raw emotion to her sassy performance of “Boys” in a trucker hat, the crowd went wild for everything the artist did or said. To make the night even more memorable, Lizzo interacted with the audience constantly as she read the signs held up by members of the crowd and even duetted Selena Gomez’s Tik Tok on stage. She ended the festival with a real bang, closing out her set with her two biggest hits: ‘Truth Hurts’ and ‘Juice’.

Overall, Firefly Festival was a spectacular showcase of music, and revived the love that many of us have for live performances after eighteen months without it. Despite a few drawbacks -with many lessons learned for future events and attendees- the experience was undoubtedly an unforgettable weekend. If you could not make it to the Woodlands this year, we highly recommend keeping an eye out for Firefly’s 2022 lineup announcement, and get your tickets before they sell out!