Firefly cancels 2024 festival. Organizers shine light on event's future & The Woodlands

The organizers of Firefly Music Festival finally addressed the elephant in the room and announced Thursday that the festival won’t return this year, for the second straight year.

“Firefly Music Festival will not return in 2024,” the festival organizers posted on their Facebook page at noon. “We look forward to powering Firefly’s lights back on someday when the timing is right, but until then, The Woodlands will continue to host new music events for years to come. Keep on dancing, fam.”

Firefly fans: ‘They are trying to break up with us’

In late 2022, after its 10th Firefly event, festival producers AEG Presents promised Firefly would come back to The Woodlands of Dover in 2024, before the festival went on hiatus last summer to “recharge our lights.”

Until this Thursday afternoon, the organizers hadn’t made any announcements on its Facebook or Instagram page, which led fans to assume the festival wasn’t coming back in 2024, or possibly ever again.

Fans watch Avril Lavigne’s performance on the Firefly’s main stage on Day 2 of the 2022 Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Friday, Sept. 23, 2022.

Firefly fans expressed a mix of heartbreak and fond memories under the festival’s Facebook page following the post.

“Please please please I cannot beg any more, please just figure stuff out and make damn sure to be back again sometime soon then!!!” a passionate fan demanded.

“Thank you for the memories, and the closure,” another person said.

“I feel like they are trying to break up with us but still leaving a shred of hope. Not cool lol,” one fan claimed.

Why was Firefly canceled in 2023 & 2024? 

Firefly organizers never elaborated on why the festival went dark this year or in 2023. But last week we reported that it was reasonable to assume the festival’s struggling attendance played a key role in that.

Organizers likely needed time to figure out a good strategy to rejuvenate interest in their event, a theory that appears to be validated by their latest Facebook post.

Attendance at Firefly has dipped 

At its height in 2015, Firefly attracted 90,000 fans. That was the same year Paul McCartney headlined. But since then, the festival has shrunk.

In 2019, Firefly reduced from four to three days (Friday through Sunday), which trimmed the crowd down to maybe about 60,000 fans. Firefly organizers have been shy about releasing attendance stats for their festival since their 2015 event.

Firefly would return back to four days for its 2021 and 2022 events. Organizers announced they were capping the 2021 festival at about 50,000 people, which helped them meet the state’s COVID-19 restrictions.

Happy participants form a line to re-enter the 2022 Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Sunday, Sept. 26, 2022

Despite the capped attendance, the fan excitement at the 2021 event was still strong, with plenty of first-timers.

But hosting the festival in late September of 2021 and 2022 made it more difficult for its high school and college-age crowd to attend.

Firefly competes against more festivals like Oceans Calling  

Blink-182, which played the Firefly Main Stage in Dover in 2016, will headline Oceans Calling Festival in Maryland this fall.

There are multiple reasons why Firefly has dimmed over the years. One reason is the festival landscape is more competitive now than when Firefly launched in 2012.

New festivals have popped up like Oceans Calling in Ocean City, Maryland, which debuted last year. That event catered to old-school Firefly fans who wanted to see more rock bands and ’90s/2000s acts, and it featured Firefly alum.

This week Oceans Calling dropped its lineup for their fall event, which has doubled down on those types of acts and features headliners The Dave Matthews Band, Blink-182 and The Killers, the former of which both played Firefly.

The festival’s lineup has received rave reviews from concert lovers. Some commenters even mentioned Oceans Calling under Firefly’s latest Facebook post.

“Yeah that Oceans Calling Festival is taking you alls mojo,” one person said.

Firefly got younger; older fans left

Another reason some Firefly fans abandoned the festival is because it began to attract a high school crowd. Firefly started out as an indie/alternative rock festival.

In 2022, News Journal reporter Ryan Cormier pointed out: “Over the years, pop, hip-hop and electronic music overtook rock as the dominant sound of the festival, which eventually lost much of its older fan base and saw more teenage and college-aged music fans coming to the 300-acre site.”

Is Firefly dead? Fans share some of their issues with the festival

Phish festival Mondegreen comes to The Woodlands Dover

Phish’s Trey Anastasio plays guitar during the Phish concert, Friday, June 3, 2022, at Ruoff Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana.

It’s no secret AEG has a working history with Phish and has partnered with the jam band to help them with their Mondegreen festival, coming to The Woodlands this summer from Aug. 15 to 18.

AEG’s efforts are more focused on making that a success, an event that’s buzzing, than shifting its attention to Firefly this year. That festival is a surefire way to bring in lots of attendance because the Phish community is very loyal and has a reputation for traveling the country to see the band.

What’s next for Firefly Music Festival? 

As the Firefly promoters mentioned in their update on Thursday, fans shouldn’t be surprised to see them hosting more festivals in The Woodlands.

The reality is there’s not that much pressure for a new Firefly to bounce back tomorrow because AEG’s lease for exclusive festival rights to the Firefly site for music festivals extends to 2032.

So it sounds like the promoters plan to bring big events to Delaware for years to come.

Delaware Online reporter Ryan Cormier contributed to this report.

Are you a Firefly fan with an interesting story? Please email lifestyle reporter Andre Lamar at [email protected]. Consider signing up for his weekly newsletter, DO Delaware, at delawareonline.com/newsletters.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Firefly cancels 2024 festival. Organizers shine light on event’s future & The Woodlands