The start of this day was no different than the others: traffic, parking issues and lots of walking. We were somewhat rushed getting there, because we had to race to the Media Tent to get to RNR’s interview with The Struts. Once arriving at the gates, we quickly scanned our wristbands and scurried off to work. The Media Tent is located backstage, through the VIP area and behind the Artist Compound. There was a security guard staked at the entrance, there was always a security guard by all entrances of the VIP areas. Not all wristbands have the same benefits, so security had to make sure no one was sneaking around backstage (we’ll explain later how we managed to do so).
Pushing through the crowds of people, we managed to the get to the tent with two minutes to spare. Running was definitely not a good idea in 90 degree weather. Luckily, we had this little Evian spray mister that helped to cool us down.
When it came time for the interview with The Struts, one of the band members was missing (he needed to use “the little boys room,” as he put it). Listening in on the interview seemed just as fun as being in it; when listening The Struts answer Carrie’s questions we got a sense of just how close the band really is. They all laughed together, and teased one another as though they were brothers. They seemed to compliment each other perfectly.
Sunday was definitely the hottest day of the festival, and as such, the air-conditioned Artist Lounge became our sanctuary that day. The Artist Lounge had chandeliers hanging from the ceiling that cast a purple light over the area; here you could sit and enjoy drinks from the bar, or simply enjoy the air conditioning. Every so often, you would see an artist hanging out there but this area was mostly where people with VIP wristbands would hangout.
Later on, we sat in on an interview with Nathaniel Rateliff. When he walked into the Media Tent, one could not ignore his presence. He had blue ink tattooed all over his body, and a great, dark orange beard. He was accessorized with a hat and beautiful turquoise rings. Right after that interview, we headed over to see Elle King. WRNR held a contest on-air, giving away Firefly wristbands and the chance to come backstage for a quick meet and greet with the artist. We both snapped a picture with her as well. Yes, it is true, Elle can hang...but not for too long this time (she needed to prepare for her performance).
When we finally had time to watch performances, we went to see Earth, Wind & Fire perform on the Backyard Stage. Sadly, the sound system was not working properly, but because we managed to get close to the stage, we could hear them. After listening to some of our favorite songs by them such as “Shining Star” and “Boogie Wonderland”, we headed off to see the next performance.
Mumford & Sons was playing at the Firefly Stage; this was another show that the entire festival attended. We have been huge fans of Mumford & Sons for as long as we can remember, so we had high expectations for their performance. This performance was the one of the best of the weekend. They played old hits like “Little Lion Man” and the some newer, less popular (possibly for this reason) songs such as “There Will Be Time”.
On the last day we knew we had to do one more thing to make this trip even more memorable. Since we’re sharing our secret on how we snuck around backstage, we won’t name any names. We met two artists who showed interest in us, even though they were the one’s wearing the artist bands, they took us backstage with them to the forbidden territory: the Artist Compound. There we hung out with other artists, some of which we had met before. When we imagined going backstage at a concert,we pictured something wild and crazy. When we walked to the backstage area of the festival, almost all of the artists were sitting down, lounging around; It was interesting to see these famous artists in a different setting. It proves the theory that they are really just like us.
Sunday’s Countdown
14,000 steps
25 times we scanned our wristbands
7 new friends (4 of our friends names we already forgot)
6 artists met
3 performances watched
2 golf cart rides
2 hours dancing to Major Lazer
1 hour in the artist lounge
1 time we got in a golf cart crash
1 hour singing to Mumford & Sons
Artist We Watched
Mumford & Sons
Mumford & Sons was by far one of the best performers there. Their music was even better in person if you can believe it. When Marcus Mumford sings, his beautiful voice lingers in the crowd. You could hear everyone singing along to every lyric of every song. Being that it was the last night of the festival, their performance really helped to emphasize that sense of community that we mentioned in our first post. We enjoyed that they were playing some of their older, popular songs because most artists had been playing newer less popular songs. This way, we were able to enjoy ourselves even more because we were familiar with almost every song.
Major Lazer
Going from Mumford & Sons to Major Lazer was an adjustment. Major Lazer was a good way to end Firefly because they lightened everyone’s mood since we were not ready to say goodbye to Firefly just yet. They played some of their most popular songs like “Lean On” along with other popular songs that they remixed like “Stay High” and “One Dance”. As if the crowd wasn’t going crazy enough, they had someone crowd surf in a huge inflatable ball! They rallied the audience by encouraging them all to take off their shirts. We kept ours on.
Earth, Wind & Fire
We grew up listening to Earth, Wind & Fire. It’s impossible to not be a fan of theirs. Unfortunately, their show wasn’t all that we had expected it to be because the sound system was having a malfunction. The band put on a good show despite of this. They were jumping around stage as though they were the youngest performers there. If you watched the group together you could see how coordinated their dances were and how passionate they were about each song they performed. If the sound was working properly this could have been one of the best performances of Firefly.
