Firefly Music Festival’s history in 44 seconds
A brief history on Delaware’s legendary Firefly Music Festival, which includes Paul McCartney.
- Firefly Music Festival has been the site of many memorable fan experiences over its 10-event history.
- Some of the crazy things that have happened at Firefly involved ‘frat boys’
- Fans say the campgrounds is where some colorful activity has happened in The Woodlands of Dover.
Lots of crazy, fun and strange things have happened over the years at the Firefly Music Festival.
Some of them made national news, like the guy who famously got arrested for climbing the speaker tower during Snoop Dogg’s set, but not before he hung upside down and, miraculously, didn’t fall to his death.
But other events were more low key, like the time furniture was purposely set on fire.
Traces of Firefly will flicker in The Woodlands of Dover Motor Speedway when festival organizer AEG Presents brings back a pair of Firefly alumni – Kings of Leon and Alabama Shakes – to open for country superstar Zach Bryan’s two-headline show there in 2026.
Still, whatever antics might unfold at those shows will have to work hard to match the energy (and often, the cuteness) of some of these colorful Firefly fan stories.
Not to mention, being too ambitious with shenanigans at festivals and concerts can lead people being led away in handcuffs with a nice police record.
But if you know, you know …
‘Paul McCartney & Snoop Dogg played at my wedding’
Jimi Gauthier runs the popular Facebook fan group The Firefly Family. He launched it in early 2014 before the third festival, with just 40 members. The group has grown to over 21,000 followers.
Having been to all 10 Firefly fests, Gauthier has been around some wild stuff there.
For one, the fan group admin got married at Firefly in 2015. He said his wedding was advertised on the Firefly Main Stage’s big screen. The relationship has since ended, but the ceremony lives on in Firefly history.
“The marriage didn’t work out, but the wedding was insane,” he said. “I love telling people that Paul McCartney and Snoop Dogg played at my wedding. I’m not lying, technically.”
Couch gets set on fire at Firefly Music Festival
In the early years of Firefly, Gauthier recalled festival dudes who started an “annoying” tradition in the northern camping area by setting furniture on fire.
“Frat boys brought a couch in the back of their truck and lit it on fire on the last day,” the upstate New York resident recalled, adding the blazing trend lasted about two or three festivals.
Firefly bros let fans ‘destroy their truck’
In another episode of What Happens at Firefly …, Gauthier saw fans destroy their own truck.
The revelers were “dancing on the roof and then the roof caved in,” he explained.
Then the fans put a sign on their truck that basically said: “Give us five bucks and you can hit our truck with a baseball bat,” Gauthier noted. “People were paying them to just destroy their truck.”
Mission impossible? An auntie, stepmom sneak niece into Firefly
When Christy Hawkes bought tickets to her first Firefly in 2022, the plan was to go with her sister, Mandi Chandler, to see rapper/singer Ashnikko.
Hawkes also wanted to hang out with her niece, Alyssa Fearn (Chandler’s stepdaughter), another Ashnikko fan. But Fearn lives in Ohio and had to work, so she couldn’t make the trip to Delaware for her first Firefly.
Her festival auntie got creative to get the Ohioan to Firefly anyway by creating cutouts of Fearn’s face. She and Chandler then had festivalgoers pose with the cutouts in The Woodlands. It allowed her to work and simultaneously party at Firefly.
“I thought it would be a cute idea to bring some cutouts of her so that she could be there in the pictures with us,” Hawkes said. “It was actually a great conversation starter.”
What was Fearn’s reaction when she saw so many strangers posing with her picture at Firefly?
“It was amazing that they included me,” Fearn said. “I smiled all night seeing all the pictures people took with me.”
Hawkes said it broke their hearts that Firefly hasn’t returned since 2022 because the plan was for all of them to go in the future. She and her sister had a great time and were embraced by strangers who treated them like part of their tribe, she said.
“At least once a year, we still go to a concert, but it’s nothing like Firefly,” Hawkes said. “The energy of Firefly is unmatched, still. It was family vibes.”
‘Forever festival buddy’ at Firefly
Firefly veterans may call 2022 the weakest year of the festival, but for Johanna Murphy and John Welch, it marked their second date.
“It was a little bit nerve wracking because I wasn’t quite comfortable with her yet [and] was still getting to know her,” Welch said with a nervous laugh.
It was Murphy’s seventh Firefly, more than double the number Welch had attended. She explained that the festival is more of her scene, a place where she can dress up “kind of crazy,” flaunt the totems she crafted and hang with 30-plus festival friends.
Many from that Firefly crew later attended the couple’s wedding this May, which had a festival theme.
“It felt like dropping John into my world, basically. But he did really well,” Murphy recalled about their Firefly debut together, branding Welch her “forever festival buddy.”
‘I saw a naked parade’ at Firefly
It all started one night when Gauthier decided to stargaze in the campgrounds, while his crew was asleep. Then he heard a noise.
“I saw a naked parade,” he explained. “I looked down and there’s like 40 naked people walking towards me.” The nudists invited Gauthier to tag along. But he was stuck in his ways and remained clothes-minded.
“Honestly, my girl [was] sleep, and I don’t think she’d appreciate that,” he explained.
The untold ‘Fight Club’ moment at Firefly
Over the last year, Lindsey Biagiotti has gambled on traveling to other festivals like Bourban & Beyond in Louisville and Bonnaroo. But neither could scratch her Firefly-sized itch.
Biagiotti attended every Firefly and, as a bonus, she got to see her Delaware state trooper cousin who always was on festival duty. Firefly was a gateway to great times for her.
The festival also gave her a crazy story.
The Firefly fan recalled one festival when guests had to evacuate during a thunderstorm and she decided to seek shelter in her SUV and sleep. That decision led Biagiotti to having a Delaware-themed “Fight Club” moment in her vehicle.
“My blanket was stuck in the door and as I was pulling it up, I ended up punching myself in the nose and bleeding everywhere in my car,” she recalled.
Despite looking like an unintentional Andrew W.K. “I Get Wet” album cover, Biagiotti is tough as nails and still has fond memories of The Woodlands.
“It introduced me to the wonderful world of festivals to other music lovers just like me.”
Here’s the ‘strangest thing’ about Firefly
Across 10 Firefly festivals (2012–19, 2021–22), tens of thousands attended each year, peaking at over 90,000 in 2015.
Yet for Gauthier, the strangest sight at the festival wasn’t the naked parade, the dudes’ wrecked car or even the burning couch.
It was something he’d never witnessed there.
“The strangest thing is the fact that I went to every single one, and I never saw a fight. Not once, which is crazy if you think about it.”
Biagiotti objects … but that’s for a different day.
If you have an interesting story idea, email lifestyle reporter Andre Lamar at [email protected]. Consider signing up for his weekly newsletter, DO Delaware, at delawareonline.com/newsletters.
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