Kent County prepared to welcome Firefly visitors
Sean Greene
It's been 10 years since the first Firefly Music Festival was held in Dover, and once again thousands of music lovers are heading to Dover for four days of music.
The 2022 Firefly Music Festival begins Thursday, but some festival enthusiasts were in town on Wednesday, making their final preps for four days of camping, including Scott McMurtrie, who is attending his 4th Firefly and knows some supplies needed to be bought locally.
"Mostly anything fresh. We picked up our meats and chicken last night and this morning."
Kent County Tourism Corporation's Pete Bradley said that's just some of the money that will be poured into the state, and Delaware's middle county, through Sunday.
"I know for a fact that all of our hoteliers are sold out for the weekend. There's no exact quantification, but anecdotally you see the restaurants full, the hotels full, and I think one of the intangible things is you have thousands of visitors to our county and you expose people to our county for a future trip."
Firefly started as a July event in 2012, and segued to June through 2019, as Dover's NASCAR race was pushed earlier on the calendar.
After missing 2020 due to the pandemic, Firefly was held in September last year, and is back in that spot again.
McMurtrie said when given the choice of dates, there are benefits to staying away from early summer in Delaware.
"Fall, for sure. The cool nights are a lot better than going to bed when it's 95 degrees out."
Firefly continues to attract national acts, including headliners Halsey, My Chemical Romance, Green Day, and Dua Lipa, with undercard names Weezer, Big Sean, and Avril Lavigne gracing one of the five stages.
The music gets underway Thursday when Madds hits the Pavillion stage at 3:10 p.m., some 7 hours before Halsey begins her set.
The concerts get under way as early as noon the other three days, and the Eagles game against Washington will be shown on the Pavillion stage Sunday, with Whipped Cream,
Elderbrook, and Girl Talk finishing up a unique quadrupleheader.
Kayla McMurtrie said she wants to get her first Firefly experience underway.
"I've never camped before, and I'm excited to set our tent up and be with all of our favorite people."
Tickets, including four-day passes, remain on sale at the Firefly website.