Firefly Music Festival promoter Red Frog Events has sold its share of the Delaware music fest to the promoter of the Coachella Music Festival.
AEG Presents is a national music festival and concert promoter that operates the flagship event in the southern California desert. Among its holdings is Golden Voice, which was a partner in Firefly.
Billboard.com reported that AEG, which has owned a stake in Firefly, decided to buy out Red Frog’s stake, following the success of the 2018 festival. An AEG official went on to praise the event in a statement.
Prior to 2018 attendance at Firefly had been down in recent years. Figures are not released. Still, festgoers spent heavily on tickets and amenities that included “glamping,” (campsites with high-end amenities).
Firefly has shown its staying power in its seven-year history of being held at The Woodlands at the Dover Downs complex. Other events on the East Coast have come and gone or were one-time “pop ups.”
However, Red Frog , which got its start as a running events company, was never able to build a festival presence outside of Firefly.
Top groups and performers of all ages have appeared at the festival over the years, with the target audience being affluent younger people.
Festival line-ups have brought scattered complaints that the event lacked diversity when it came to African American and female performers.
Also, earlier hints that Firefly would build permanent facilities at the site never materialized and an attempt at copying the festival’s success with a country fest. was dropped after a year.
The Delaware State Fair has since doubled down on country acts and has not been as aggressive at in recruiting rock performers.
