After 10 Firefly festivals and 1 Mondegreen, fans compare experiences

When Phish’s Mondegree music festival opened on Thursday, August 15 at The Woodlands in Dover, some fans who had been roaming the same festival grounds for Firefly Music Festival had an out of body experience – no drugs needed.

“It was the same, but different,” as Newark’s Mike Zenorini put it. “It was kind of weird to see.”

For 10 years, starting in 2012, Firefly transformed the wooded area formerly used as RV campgrounds for Dover Motor Speedway’s NASCAR races into a musical wonderland, hosting everyone from Paul McCartney and Kendrick Lamar to Tom Petty and Eminem.

This time, Mondegreen’s festival organizers leaned on everything Firefly had learned over the years, shading their game plan when it came to organization and infrastructure, taking full advantage of a decade of trial and error at Firefly, which drew up to 90,000 people in 2015.

While Mondegreen’s performance stage for Phish was the same main stage used by Firefly’s headliners, all other areas once home to Firefly’s other six stages were dark when it came to live music, mostly used as camping areas for Phish fans.

So for Firefly fans, it was a Woodlands unlike any they’d ever seen.

It was also new for Phish fans since the band’s 11th festival came to Delaware for the first time. In fact, Mondegreen was the first Phish-hosted festival in nearly 10 years following 2015’s Magnaball, which was held in upstate New York.

We spoke with three Delawareans who attended both Mondegreen and several years of Firefly to get their thoughts on the ground as they compared the two experiences in this Battle of the Woodlands:

Zenorini, 43, who attended nine Firefly festivals and has seen Phish 33 times, including at one of the band’s previous festivals: the 2011 Super Ball IX in Watkins Glenn, New York.
Brian Lofink, 48, of Wilmington, who attended the first eight Firefly parties and has seen 50 Phish concerts.
And David Nordheimer, 64, of Arden, who went to Firefly five times and has seen seven Phish concerts.

Here’s what they had to say about their return to The Woodlands, which had been lifeless since the last Firefly in 2022.

What did the Mondegreen audience look like?

If festival organizers were expecting 45,000 people — a final crowd figure wasn’t released — it certainly felt like it during Phish’s performances for Delaware fans, who reported that it got pretty crowded when the band hit the stage.

“I really didn’t move,” Lofink said. “It was cramped to the point where I didn’t want to go to the bathroom and then not be able to get back to my seat.”

In general, the Mondegreen audience was older than Firefly, especially its last several years when musical lineups were aimed at a younger fan base.

Zenorini estimated that the average age of Mondegreen was 20 years older than Firefly. “But the excitement was perhaps even better,” he added.

What was Mondegreen’s mood

Firefly was a fun scene that cast a wide net, attracting all types of fans in terms of musical tastes, ages and more. It sometimes felt more like a party where the social scene and people watching in the field was as important as what happened on stage.

If Firefly was more of a rampage, Mondegreen was more of a fun family gathering. There’s a reason Phish fans call their community a “pham”—there’s a family bond as many attend multiple shows each year, building on the close-knit community and following the Grateful Dead’s establishment years earlier.

“I don’t want to say family reunion, but it was kind of like that,” Zenorini said. “Everyone had a great attitude and was there for a great time. I’m not saying Firefly wasn’t like that, but it was a more cohesive feel.”

As Lofink put it, “People were really friendly and created conversations because of the shared joy.”

How was the music at Mondegreen?

Instead of the 40-plus sets from different acts each day spread across seven stages at Firefly’s height—it shrank considerably in its final years—Phish was the lone band playing the festival grounds, delivering nearly 14 hours of music through eight unique sets. 75 different songs.

If you were there, it was because you’re a Phish fan and you loved it.

If you were camping, there were “skids” – small shacks with makeshift stages – nestled in the campsites that offered nightly live music and comedy acts by those who didn’t want the fun to end.

There was also Leigh Fordham Hall – a circus-like tent and theater on the festival grounds with game shows and live comedy sets – and the Heliograph, “a retro-futuristic beacon” that hosted DJ sets, including one by The Roots’ Questlove.

With everyone there for one band at Mondegreen, the crowd focused in unison on Phish’s set.

“Everybody was on the same page and in the same frame of mind. They knew what they were there for,” Zenorini said.

It was unlike Firefly, where its firehose of different musical acts meant that some fans knew the band was performing in front of them and others didn’t.

Fans would sometimes camp out and save a good spot for their favorite act and sit through some acts they didn’t know or even like, leading to many fans talking or not paying attention during the sets. (Morrissey admonished the audience in 2015, some of whom arrived early to save seats for McCartney, who performed on the same stage an hour after the former Smiths singer’s set.)

How was the camping at Mondegreen?

Lofink and Zenorini stopped at the RV campground west of Route 1 near the speedway, which wasn’t as close as it had been for Firefly.

Zenorini noticed a lot more RV camping for Mondegreen, a shift from Firefly where tents ruled. That pushed some of the RV campsites further away from the festival grounds.

“The Fish community is much older than the Firefly community, so there’s a lot more disposable income, more people spending money for comfort,” he concluded.

How was the food and drink at the Phish festival?

The setup for the food and beer vendors at the main stage area was exactly as it had been for Firefly: food booths set up on the perimeter with Mondegreen’s large-scale Taste the Beer tent where the Dogfish Head-branded beer tent had stood for Firefly.

“Food and drink prices were mostly on par, but I would say everything was just a little more expensive. A beer was $16 to $18,” said Lofink, who gave the featured craft beer selection a thumbs up.

Zenorini agreed that prices have crept up, but that was in line with other festivals he’s visited recently.

For Nordheimer, one of the benefits of traveling back and forth to the festival every day was being able to eat at home before and after. Especially after paying $18 for a falafel at Mondegreen one night and seeing poke bowls cost $20.

“I’m not broke or anything, I just have a philosophical opposition to paying that kind of money for fast food,” he said.

While some places offered pizza slices for $12, there were some cheaper options like $5 spring rolls and $7 hot dogs.

How was the traffic and parking at Mondegreen?

No one reported any major traffic problems getting in and out of the festival — including Nordheimer, who drove in every afternoon and left every night after the music ended.

Although, he admits, the walk from daily parking to the festival entrance was much longer than he expected. On the upside, there was less walking inside the festival grounds as there was only one band performing on a single stage.

While Firefly certainly had its share of traffic nightmares — largely the headline-making, mile-long traffic jam of 2013 — entry and exit from the festival had largely smoothed out over the years as organizers honed their traffic plan. It passed for Mondegreen.

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Outside the festival grounds, Mondegreen had a handful of shuttles that would take fans from the speedway to the north camping area, but there weren’t enough of them with long lines waiting, Lofink reported.

Mondegreen had a lot more pedicabs with cyclists zooming through the streets ferrying festival goers for $15 per person from their campsites to the festival entrance. Good. The length of the walk from the campsites to the festival site was the most heard complaint of the weekend.

How did the cost of Mondegreen compare to Firefly?

It cost $450 for a four-day Mondegreen pass, a big jump from $299 for a 2022 general admission Firefly pass.

Arguably, you’d get more live music at Firefly pound-for-pound. But if you’re a Phish fan, eight sets by your favorite band in four days is worth the cost.

For Nordheimer, it was about the premium he was willing to pay as a casual Phish fan who knew maybe 20 songs from their sets all weekend: “It was a bit of a stretch, but you’d kind of pay that money to see them for four nights anyway , only in a smaller venue.”

Final result: Mondegreen vs Firefly

For Lofink, the choice of which festival was better would depend on which Firefly year he was comparing it to.

“But I really wouldn’t say one was better than the other. Both did a good job and I don’t see much of a difference,” he said, adding that he would do both Mondegreen and Firefly again – if Firefly’s lineup improved. “It basically comes down to what you’re looking for and whether you like Phish.”

Nordheimer agrees – it would depend on which Firefly year for him to return.

“Some of those Firefly years were really good,” said Nordheimer, who added that he would definitely do Mondegreen again. “But when it stopped being good for me, I just stopped going.”

Zenorini said Mondegreen “felt like Firefly but better,” even jokingly posting on his Facebook page after the festival: “Best Firefly yet!!”

He said he would also return for Mondegreen if Phish did it again. As for Firefly: “I would depend on the lineup. I will never rule Firefly out.”

For him, Mondegreen wins the overall battle The Woodlands.

“Firefly was trying to find itself for 10 years, and this festival knew what that was,” Zenorini said. “No matter where this festival goes, the fans really make it what it is from the beginning.”

Do you have an idea for a story? Contact Ryan Cormier of Delaware Online/The News Journal at [email protected] or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier) and X (@ryancormier).