After the canceling of Firefly in 2020 due to Covid-19, Firefly has returned and it is bigger than ever. Firefly is a 3 day music festival that takes place in Dover Delaware at the Dover International Speedway. It hosts some of the top music artists in the entire world and attracts music fanatics from all over the country. It has been consistently ranked in the top 20 music festivals yearly throughout the entire United States and serves as the east coast’s biggest camping festival. 

Firefly occurred September 23-26, 2021 and featured top performers of Girl in Red, Diplo, Bleakbear, Machine Gun Kelly, Lizzo, Billie Eilish, and plenty of more. Music and artists performances were spread out over 5 stages at all different times. It had a large audience of over 50,000 spectators, but it was one of the smallest Firefly music festivals ever since its opening in 2012. Before the start of Covid, Firefly reached new heights recording over 90,000 spectators, but because of a decreased amount of tickets being available this year, the size of the crowd shrank by over 40%. Regardless, Firefly’s pop music lineup, with performances from Lizzo and Billie Eilish, has become widely considered one of the strongest lineups of the year for any music festival. 

With Archmere giving students off on September 24, student turnout was very high with even a teacher, making an appearance. Archmere students have raved about the experience with senior Olivia Reese commenting that “Being able to go was definitely a blessing. It allowed me to make up for lost time and experiences and really connect with my classmates in a way I’ve missed.” Firefly brought together students for the first time in a long time with senior Emma Fannin stating “I felt that firefly was the closest to normal we’ve ever gotten, the audience and performers really bonded together at every concert and it was really an emotional experience for everyone.”

Not only was the festival enjoyable for its spectators, but it was also enjoyed by the artists themselves. Specifically, Billie Eilish was extremely grateful for the opportunity to sing at Firefly with her saying to the crowd “Guys, I can’t tell you how many times I dreamed this” after her headlining performance and even thanking the crowd at the end.

The return of Firefly has served as a much needed and missed tradition that enters us into the start of normality. Firefly 2021 was truly a sight to see and was definitely not one to be missed.