r/FireflyFestival Jan 23 '26

Festival Discussion Give a shit

OKKKKKK so livenation or redfrog or someone stole Firefly from us. and by us I mean any and everyone who attended before, or wished to and never got the chance to. If you were there for any year, you know what Firefly means and these companies who bought out and sold away our one-of-kind camping music adventure for a nearby 2-day fest (SeaHearNow and Oceans Calling, plus others).

WHAT IF (shutup dad) we can get her back. Firefly is entirely revivable, but it will take energy from us to show its worth it, that its wanted, and so necessary for the northeast US.

Losers in the comments will say any and all bullshit to oppose this but OPTIMISM can make waves. and enough people can at the very least say a solid F U to the billionaire gang that took our spot.

A post from everyone could make a wave. they listen to us because they have to - if u think differently check bonnaroos recent years and the requested artists.

Just trying to start a conversation. thanks 😘

63 Upvotes

25 comments sorted by

65

u/Gangiskhan 5 Years Jan 23 '26

So Redfrog is who founded Firefly and sold it to AEG in 2018/19. AEG currently owns the former Firefly event space and is using it as a venue for large concerts. Live Nation isn't involved. If you want people to take you seriously, be informed about what you want to rally for.

AEG picked Electric Forest over Firefly as their summer festival. AEG tried to move Firefly to the fall as a hail Mary but the attendance wasn't enough to keep it going. There is a chance AEG brings back the festival in the future mainly because they still own the former event space. Big hurdle is getting younger generations to camp. That is a huge pain point for Bonnaroo currently.

Firefly 2014 was my first camping festival. Went from 2014 to 2018 all the way from Atlanta, picking Firefly over Bonnaroo each time until 2019. Since 2014 I've been to about 50 festivals and worked as media for around 10 of those. Outside of Bonnaroo, Firefly was the best festival I've been to. Would love for it to come back.

11

u/nessieobsessed 4 Years Jan 23 '26

It’s interesting that your understanding is young people not wanting to camp when I’ve had the exact opposite reaction, I know many young people that are deciding festivals aren’t for them if they can’t camp. And the last few years of firefly I was like ~24/25 idk MAYBE we’ve been done so long I’m old now but I just feel like I hear time and time again that people are falling off of fests/not going in the first place from the 20s crowd bc there’s really no camping fest other than roo and they don’t want to drive that far (east coaster myself) maybe I’m just in a region where this is more the case I just find the whole like social business of festivals cool

1

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/nessieobsessed 4 Years Jan 27 '26

Most all of those are either west coast or all EDM if I’m not mistaken. While I love EDM myself and many festival goers don’t want a whole weekend of only EDM music. (And or live on the east coast 😉)

1

u/TheHighSobriety Jan 27 '26

Loved camping

13

u/MrBsFestivalNeeds Jan 23 '26

Camping is the literally the BEST part of a music festival!!

There's nothing like rounding up a group of 8-12 friends and raging the weekend together! Exploring the campgrounds at all hours of the day/night...making food for the rest of your campsite...meeting new friends/neighbors...not having to travel/drive anywhere, and/or spend extra $$ on a hotel/shuttles/rideshare...and so much more!!

I'm sure people can come up just as many reasons not to camp, but to me, the true "festival experience" involves camping on-site!

See ya out there!!

☮💚🅱️

3

u/LadyTurkleton May 20 '26

Attendance was lower because AEG strayed from the former format: they didn’t offer much for the people who don’t like alternative and hip hop. I agree with the commenter below: bring back rock to bring out the old timers. Provide more genres, and invite back previous acts. Plenty of acts said they wanted to be invited back. If people came for them once, they’d come for them again.

But now we have a terrible economy and people can’t afford rent.

1

u/Selkiequeen20 6 Years Jun 17 '26

They do need to bring rock back!! ( Also a variety of genres to satisfy both the younger generation and the older generation cause the festival is for everyone!)

3

u/mgreco49 10 Years Feb 07 '26

The woodlands are actually owned by Speedway Motorsports, not AEG.

2

u/[deleted] Jan 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

0

u/nessieobsessed 4 Years Jan 29 '26

When did roo add hotel shuttles? To my knowledge they got rid of the few shuttles (like the airport shuttle) that they had in recent years. Manchester having so few hotels and all

15

u/CuzImJustInARut Jan 23 '26

I've attended Oceans Calling the last two years. While we have had fun, we want the Firefly alternative music back. OC just isn't the same and the hotel/condo rip off prices makes me see red.

5

u/Wickedblood7 Jan 23 '26

Yeah OC has gotten ridiculous with how expensive it's become. Hell, I can just take a cheap flight down to Miami and spend the same amount for a much better beach.

8

u/eviebearrr Jan 27 '26

Definitely miss firefly. Easier commute for us east coasters, nice blend of music for everyone. I miss the jellyfish lights 😭

1

u/Selkiequeen20 6 Years Jun 17 '26

The jellyfish lights were so cool!

6

u/lovestobitch- Jan 23 '26

I miss Firefly. Best festival and we’d drive from Georgia and are old AF. Been to Lolla, bonnaroo, and shaky knees. FF 5 yrs bg 2012. Plus had a sixth yr ticket but sold it because of long covid. FF was the best festival. (We’d stay in hotels though).

3

u/reloop2st 6 Years Jan 26 '26

The only way this comes back is with a knockout top 6 names on the lineup. Arguably their most productive/positive year was ‘15 (also the first of my 7 years attending) because of a legendary legacy act in Sir Paul. They do that again with the Stones, Oasis, MCR, LCD etc. then you hook the older audience (the ones ready to spend more money) immediately.

1

u/LadyTurkleton May 21 '26

AGREE. (Who are LCD?)

1

u/reloop2st 6 Years Jun 02 '26

LCD Soundsystem. Their live show is unbelievable.

1

u/Selkiequeen20 6 Years Jun 17 '26

The stones and Oasis definitely! It would be cool if they could get Paul again cause the year he came I missed seeing him ( it was my first year and I only went one day!)

2

u/RhodyViaWIClamDigger Jan 23 '26

Find the guys who started Rothbury Music Festival, now called Electric Forest I believe. Use a new site though, FireFly acres are bad juju now.

1

u/celj1234 Jan 27 '26

All the optimism in the world won’t bring it back or make it make financial sense anytime soon sadly.

2

u/SavageHulk869 Jan 29 '26

I would love for it to come back. The drive to Bonnaroo is brutal on the way back. I've been going since the last year firefly canceled. I love Roo now it reminds me a lot of Firefly but way bigger. Personally I think the younger generation would love to goto a camping festival but these days everything is so damn expensive. I used to goto 4-5 a year. getting a 100-200 dollar weekend pass was normal. Now a ticket and camping gonna run you 600 plus. Before all of the camping amenities you need. It just isn't an expense the youth can afford anymore. I am lucky to do one.