Firefly: A magical land of freedom, friends and music
You know that feeling you get when you visit your grandparents' house?
That cozy, kick your shoes off, let your hair down, and raid the fridge feeling?
Well, that was Firefly for me.
That's how I felt the entire weekend.
It wasn't my first time at the Dover music festival (I attended two years ago with a one day pass), but this time was the real deal, the full experience — four days and five nights of music, friends, dancing, drinking, eating, laughing and everything in between.
As corny as it sounds, the entire weekend was magical. I went with a few friends and acquaintances, and by the end of it, the 11 of us were family.
Not going to lie, though, after four days and five nights, I was ready to come home. But in my short time in this scene, I can confidently say that I have never felt more welcomed, relaxed, and comfortable at a festival.
Ever.
And it wasn't just at my campsite. I felt it everywhere.
The music
Each stranger I met along the way seemed genuinely nice and solely interested in having a good time. I felt as if I was surrounded by positivity, and honestly, it was hard not to be happy with this year's lineup. It featured more than 50 acts and big name artists like Two Door Cinema Club, Kings of Leon, Florence & The Machine, Ellie Goulding, Ludacris and Mumford & Sons.
There was never enough time to check out all of the stages, no matter how hard I tried to prepare, but the shows I saw were all enjoyable and I even discovered a few new bands.
My favorites from the weekend were AlunaGeorge, Tame Impala, Quilt, M83, Elle King and Of Monsters and Men. But my favorites of the favorites, were Florence & The Machine and Mumford & Sons.
Seeing Florence has been a desire of mine for years, so it literally, was a dream come true. And the show lived up to the hype, and then some. She put on an amazing performance and her vocals were out of this world.
Mumford & Sons was special for me in a completely different way. I'm actually not even a huge fan of their music, but for some reason, their set moved me. I got really emotional, in a good way.
The food
The food got me pretty emotional too.
I was really impressed with Firefly's vendors. There were plenty offering something healthy, something unhealthy, and a bunch of the yummy and the bizarre, like the stuffed pretzels from Pretzel Revolution or literally anything from Gouda Boys, who are all about smothering everything in mac and cheese.
In addition to a diverse lineup and tons of good food, Firefly provided a number of activities to keep people busy all weekend long including yoga classes, beach volleyball, installation art, a Dogfish Head brewery and arcade, as well as the opportunity for festival goers to use the weekend to explore the grounds and themselves.
The downside
Firefly was by far, the dirtiest festival I have ever been to.
The sheer amount of trash — the massive mounds of garbage that collected over the weekend — was disgusting. And it was disheartening to see festival goers littering the grounds we were all calling home for the weekend. I often had to kick away empty beer bottles and crumbled up paper plates before I could even sit down in the grass.
I'm not sure how the festival can improve upon this for next year. But I sure hope it does.
Also, despite an abundance of trash, Firefly appeared to be lacking in porta-potties.
There didn't seem to be nearly enough for thousands of people who attended the festival. The bathroom lines were ridiculously long every morning and many had run out of toilet paper by Friday night.
However, I will say, the festival did a decent job at regularly cleaning them. I shudder to think what they would have looked like after four days and five nights without maintenance.
The verdict
It wasn't my first time at The Woodlands and I know it will not be the last.
I left with a lot more than what I brought.
I left a better person, a happier person. And I am counting down the days until 2017.
"You know the great thing, though, is that change can be so constant you don’t even feel the difference until there is one. It can be so slow that you don’t even notice that your life is better or worse, until it is. Or it can just blow you away, make you something different in an instant. It happened to me."- Life As A House
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