a rookie's guide to all things music festival

That’s me. A first-time music festival goer who had NO clue what to expect.

I’m a planner to the point that I drive my friends and family insane sometimes (okay, maybe all times), so I had the hardest time planning for the Firefly Music Festival in Dover, Delaware due to pure lack of helpful information available. Firefly provided a vast list of prohibited items, so I was covered on what NOT to bring, but we were a couple of late twentysomething accountants going to our first music festival, so what the heck do you bring? Through my research, one site I found fortunately suggested packing toilet paper (super helpful tip), but then went as far to suggest wearing a diaper to skip over the porta potties altogether – hard pass.
So off we went to Delaware. I did my best to prepare as much as possible, bought a couple of cute outfits and dyed my hair pink. And we had an unbelievable weekend that I would repeat 20x over.
Sidenote – neither Brandon nor I had any interest in camping, so we stayed at a lovely Best Western 8 miles north with a king size bed and our own bathroom where we could shower without waiting in line. For all you other twentysomethings like us, we highly highly recommend.

EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED

REWIND to Thursday afternoon – it’s go time. We arrive. We walk for what seems like miles. Gates aren’t open. Holy lines. NBD. At this point, I’ve noticed that half of the people around us are children (aka much younger than us) and I see a lot of skin, but I am mostly focused on getting inside and hoping they won’t confiscate my blanket and toilet paper. They didn’t. We get in and stop for our first photo op…then our second (they sure do have a lot of great backdrops) and head to our see our first show. It is at this point that I start really noticing everyone else and boy was I in for a surprise. The first thought that crossed my mind was that I immediately regretted not packing all of the glitter [cue Ulta trip first thing Friday morning], but then I saw this outfit (pictured below) and I was SHOOK. I couldn’t believe that 1) they even make dresses like this, 2) someone bought it, and 3) wore it out in public. You won’t find me rocking that look, but YOU GO GIRL.

At this point, I had no idea what was coming… I could have never prepared for the amount of butt cheeks, lingerie, fishnets, mesh, costumes, topless women, and body paint that we saw over our four days in Dover, and I was over here worrying that the one inch of skin showing between my crop top and high-waisted shorts was too much. Even more surprising was the fact that there were tons of families with young children or worse – pre-teen boys! Midway through the day Brandon turned to me and said “If I have a daughter she is never leaving the house.” HAHA! By the end of the weekend, though, no matter how much time was spent planning these outfits for the music festival, once everyone was there – there was a huge IDGAF attitude and it was pretty glorious. So if you’re here looking for outfit advice, I have nothing to offer except wear whatever the f@%k you want and you’ll fit right in.
**SCROLL DOWN FOR SOME OF MY FAVORITE OR LEAST FAVORITE OUTFITS OF THE WEEKEND

SUGGESTED PACKING LIST

So what did we take with us? As I mentioned earlier, there was a long list of things that you are not allowed to bring in with you and they are pretty strict about certain items on the list, but not all of them. You are limited to one bag that is smaller than 16 x 16 x 8, but it seemed like most backpacks were allowed in. A ton of people had just a fanny pack and/or a CamelBak backpack for water or a regular backpack.
We packed one backpack that contained the following:

ID and credit card (and cash if you’re parking) – the entire event was cashless and they only accepted cards or apple pay, which was pretty convenient. Daily parking was cash only though, so plan accordingly.
An outdoor blanket – this was a must have and was such a lifesaver. You’re in the park for so long that at some point, you just need to sit and take a break and there is not a lot of seating. Other people were sitting or laying directly in the grass and dirt, but you know your girl is not doing that.
Sunscreen/hats/sunglasses – it was blazing hot all weekend and shade is very limited. Pack lots of sunscreen, but only the lotion type because they were not allowing in aerosol bottles.
A portable charger – there are charging stations all over the park, but you’d have to sit with your phone. It was much easier to have a charger on us when needed. Also, anyone who has been in a venue with a ton of people should know but the cell service gets really bad, especially during the peak concerts. Fortunately it worked enough to text or call but not for much else.
Empty water bottles – the prohibited items list is a little misleading, but you can bring in empty bottles (or CamelBaks) and refill at one of the many water stations for free! It was a hot one all weekend and staying hydrated is a MUST.
Toilet paper/baby wipes and hand sanitizer – I wasn’t kidding earlier. The porta potties start to run out towards the end of the day so best to be prepared!

Other must-haves:

Closed-toe shoes – I would highly recommend closed-toe, comfortable shoes because the entire event is ourdoors and there are lots and lots of dirt and dust and rocks holes. I apparently have the bones of a 90-year-old because my body was dead from all of the walking on the uneven ground even after I wore my most comfortable and worn in sneakers. **Also I would estimate that 60% of all people were wearing converse and 95% of those converse were white, so this basic girl was fitting in with everyone else in that aspect. By the end of the festival, all white shoes were a lovely brownish, gray. Yum. I don’t recommend Cher Horowitz’s shoes over here >> no way she wasn’t ready to kill herself for wearing those.

A jacket for the evenings – even though the heat was on during the day, as soon as the sun went down, it was chilly.

There were some things that we didn’t have that I kind of wish we did:

Bandanas – as mentioned there is dirt and dust everywhere and you’re inhaling a lot of it (what no one will tell you is that when you blow your nose after a day out there, your snot is a nice grayish/black) so that would have been helpful to cover our faces.
A hammock – they literally have “hammock hangouts” where people just set up the hammocks and lounge. They sold them at The Market, but we probably wouldn’t have even known how to set it up, so we passed on that.

Totems or rage sticks (restricted to a certain size, but they seemed pretty lax on this rule most days) – some people had really creative totems that they made and it definitely would have been helpful if we had a larger group and people weren’t together the whole time. Also, they’re just fun!

All in all, we were pretty prepared, but even if we weren’t, it’s hard not to have fun in such an amazing environment listening to so many phenomenal artists. Now that I’m a pro, Cochella 2020 here I come!