Firefly fans shouldn't expect major change after fest's sale to Coachella producer AEG

Firefly Music Festival founders have sold the Dover event to global entertainment company AEG Presents, which also runs California's Coachella festival, The News Journal has learned.

The move comes four years after AEG and its subsidiary, Coachella founder Goldenvoice, partnered with Chicago's Red Frog Events to help produce and promote Firefly, becoming its majority owner.

"Red Frog identified a fantastic site, a great partner in Dover International Speedway and had a vision that they executed really, really well," Melissa Ormond, chief operating officer of festivals for AEG Presents, told The News Journal in a Wednesday morning interview from Ireland.

"Very few people — even those of us who have been in the music business for decades — are launching successful festivals in Year One or Year Two," added Ormond, former president of Madison Square Garden Entertainment. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for what they did. The timing was right for both of us."

Discussions began over the winter about Red Frog looking to sell. AEG recently acquired Red Frog's remaining shares in the festival, making the deal complete. 

When AEG first teamed with Red Frog in 2014, the company instantly made its heft known by helping land former Beatle Paul McCartney as a headliner for the 2015 festival, giving Firefly its first 90,000-person crowd.

AEG's festival portfolio now includes Firefly, California's Coachella and Stagecoach festivals and New York's Panorama, which will be held on Randall's Island July 27-29 with headliners Janet Jackson, The Killers and The Weeknd.

Ormond said there is little cross sales between the older-leaning Panorama and Firefly, even with their proximity. Both will remain in operation.

With AEG acquiring Red Frog's remaining ownership shares, the takeover of the seven-year-old festival by one of the world's biggest live music companies is complete. Even so, organizers say fans will not see many radical changes.

Said Ormond: "We feel like it's run really well for the last several years and we just want to continue that with small improvements."

A few larger modifications have already been made.

With Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival moving its 2019 edition to Father's Day weekend, which had recently been Firefly's weekend, the Dover event will move next year's festival to the weekend after: June 20-23.

Officials are still unsure if the festival will kick off on Thursday or will be reduced to a three-night event. Passes are not yet on sale.

Firefly will be run by AEG Presents, not Goldenvoice. However, Ormond added the festival "will utilize all of the assets that we have."

One thing is for sure: Firefly will not suddenly become Coachella East.

"Coachella is a unique situation, in a desert. You can go on and on about why its unique, but similarly, Firefly is unique," Ormond said. "In the Northeast, in The Woodlands with a fantastic environment and camping. Many of the festivals that we own are not camping festivals. We wouldn't look to replicate any of our festivals anywhere across the U.S."

The festival's new owners also made some managerial moves tied to the announcement.

Stephanie Mezzano, a Firefly founder who had been president of operations for Red Frog Events, has joined AEG Presents and will continue to manage the festival as its director. 

About 10 other Red Frog employees who have been with the festival since the beginning have joined Mezzano at AEG Presents. They will continue their work at Firefly.

It's that work that drew the attention of AEG in the first place in 2014, said Ormond, who joined AEG in the fall.

"From my understanding, AEG and Goldenvoice first approached Red Frog because they were so impressed with what they accomplished," she said. "It also speaks to why we retained so many of the Red Frog employees."

In addition, Alicia Karlin, a vice president and senior event producer for Colorado-based Madison House Presents, which is operated in partnership with AEG Presents, will become Firefly’s talent buyer.

Karlin has booked Michigan's eclectic, electronic-leaning Electric Forest festival for years.

With new ownership, a new booker and a new weekend lined up, Firefly's brand as a camping festival that draws a young crowd, many aged 28 and under should remain essentially unchanged.

"We really want our eighth year of Firefly to feel fresh," said Mezzano, who has been festival director for Firefly since 2016. "I hope that when people see the year of work we went into planning, they see changes. Music festivals are ever-changing and we need to evolve and continue to innovate if we want to stay at the top."

Mezzano said the festival will re-evaluate its talent strategy to make sure it is current and in-the-now, as well as covering more genres.

Karlin told The News Journal that Firefly fans shouldn't expect their festival to morph into an Electric Forest clone just because she's the one booking the acts.

"They are two completely separate events," she said. "Electric Forest is probably electronic heavy on the top. Firefly is different in that regard. But in the past couple of years, they have already been incorporating some of those elements, like [electronic duo] Odesza being at the top of the bill this year."

She added, "Firefly has an incredible foundation based in rock 'n' roll and I think that is definitely the key to it being different than everything out there — keeping that strong with indie rock, alternative rock and pop while peppering in the EDM where it makes sense."

Another area evaluation beyond music is the festival's experiential aspects, especially camping conditions.

"We'll be putting some focus on camping and making sure the experience is what we want our fans to have," Mezzano said. "It's a full weekend they are spending with us and we have to make sure they are enjoying every minute of it from start to finish."

Dover International Speedway President and CEO Mike Tatoian thanked Red Frog for their work and commitment to the community. 

“Now with a world-class company like AEG further involved, we’re confident the festival will continue to deliver an amazing experience for music fans from around the world for years to come," he said.

Mezzano remembers the day in 2011 when they called Dover International Speedway and set-up a same-day tour of The Woodlands, known at that time as RV Lot 10 for camping race fans. They had never put on a music event of any kind.

"To see what it has become from that first year in 2012, we've just come so far," Mezzano said. "To have this support behind us, I think its only going to give Firefly the opportunity to push itself even further. We're estatic. This is a big moment for us."

The ownership change shouldn't worry anyone that the local touch developed by Red Frog to include Delaware brands such as Dogfish Head, Grotto Pizza and Rainbow Records would be abandoned.

"Those local partnerships with Dogfish are very important to Firefly, so we have full intentions on continuing those relationships and working with the community to build an even stronger relationship," she said. "The key to Firefly is to have community involvement and bring as many local vendors in. We want to keep making those connections and make sure Firefly is a great representative of the state of Delaware." 

Red Frog has expanded into other events.

Before Firefly, Red Frog was best known for race events, such as the Warrior Dash, a 5k obstacle course race. More than 3 million people have completed one of their races since 2009, the company reports.

In December, Red Frog announced it was getting into the air show business, launching the industry's first nationwide series, called Grunt Style Air Show Majors. The series debut events have already been held in Florida and New York with fall shows in Cleveland and Houston.

With Red Frog now focusing solely on its non-musical offerings, AEG now is in full control of its own East Coast event to rival the Bonnaroo camping and music festival in Manchester, Tennessee. It's run by Tennessee-based AC Entertainment and New York's Superfly Productions.

And Firefly seems like it's built for the long-term, especially since it still has five years left on its 10-year exclusive lease to host live music events in The Woodlands, located across Del. 1 from the Dover International Speedway.

"[Firefly] is unique in a lot of respects, including its great location in Delaware, making it one of the few successful camping festivals in the Northeast," Ormond said. "Plus, we have fantastic partners in the speedway who are very much invested in the future of the festival, so it makes it very easy to think about moving forward for many years." 

This story will be updated throughout the day. Read The News Journal's  complete coverage of Firefly Music Festival, including photo galleries, videos, articles and reviews. 

Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).