Firefly Music Festival has become a behemoth over the past few years. The Delaware music festival has attracted 90,000 fans for many years running, and has become one of the landmark music festivals in the country. In doing so, the festival has formed a strong bond with its fanbase, using a survey system to find out artists that their fans would like to see in The Woodlands. In fact, Blink-182, Earth Wind & Fire, and Busta Rhymes were all booked in recent years specifically due to fan requests, while the festival has booked “31 of the top 30 mid-tier acts and 7 of the top 10 headliners” in the past four years in response to fan demand. Using their fans to crowd-source their lineup decisions has paid off, leading to a true connection between Firefly fans and promoters Red Frog Productions.
Now, in 2017, Red Frog and Firefly will take their connection with their fans even further, as the festival has announced that the entire festival will essentially be decided by fan voting. The festival team posted an update on the event’s website today, explaining that fans will help decide the food, the art, the design, and the overall feel of the festival. See below for a portion of their full statement:
“As each Firefly is built, it is a lengthy and complex process with ups and downs, lefts and rights. There are numerous decisions to be made about every inch of The Woodlands. What stays and what gets replaced? what do we hang here and built there? Hammocks or swings, tacos or crepes, kickball or capture the flag? Starting now, you will have the opportunity to be involved in every piece of Firefly. Throughout the next seven months, we will be releasing several surveys specific to each area of the festival. Artists, attractions, food, camping, merchandise, etc. These are your opportunities to voice your opinion, to help curate the best weekend of the summer…”
In a festival market filled with homogenous lineups, seemingly endless corporate sponsorships, and many of the same attractions, it’s time for fans to finally have their voices heard at a large-scale festival. The only question is, will fans create a festival that the majority of festival-goers actually like? Or will this new strategy end up as another gimmick? With the involvement of festival giants Goldenvoice, one can only wonder how much power they will cede, especially given their involvement in the disappointing Hangout Festival lineup. We can only hope that real fans will show them a thing or two at Firefly this summer by democratically deciding on an amazing event!