Firefly Music Festival with Nokia, MixRadio & The Foo Fighters

Have you heard of Firefly? I grew up near Annapolis, but this music festival in Delaware had started well after I moved to Colorado. My friends from Nokia Lumia asked me to join them there, allowed me to invite Monika, and introduced me to more of their friends while we all proceeded to try out glamping. No typo there. Glamping. Meaning a fancier version of camping, which suited Monika and me just fine.

A tent with beds, electricity, chairs. The works. Also, quick access to the music area, which is what REALLY made me feel like I was back home – all the stages were tucked into little wooded nooks that blocked the sound from one another. All the stages were different sizes to accommodate the diverse musical acts, so the main issue was: “Who should we see?”

The lineup was insane. Absolutely insane.

We got to see the following all in one weekend:

Foo Fighters • Outkast • Jack Johnson • Imagine Dragons • Beck • The Lumineers • Pretty Lights • Arctic Monkeys • Weezer • Broken Bells • Young The Giant • Childish Gambino • Tegan And Sara • Girl Talk • Cage The Elephant • Portugal The Man • Grouplove • Amos Lee • Third Eye Blind • Airborne Toxic Event • Phantogram • Phosporescent • Walk Off The Earth • American Authors • Smallpools • NoNoNo • Kodaline • The Colourist • Haerts • Royal Teeth • Gregory Alan Isakov • The Unlikely Candidates • New Sweden

All those are bands we actually, literally SAW. Here is a list of the FULL lineup!

The highlight for me was Foo Fighters. I had never seen them but Monika has, many many times. So it was special to see them with her, and hear Dave Grohl talk about his ties to Delaware and Rehoboth Beach. (He has been secretly vacationing there for over a decade. Oops. Outted.)

The other thing the Foo Fighters did (that made me fall in love with them more) is negotiate with the crowd from backstage for how many songs would be in the encore. One? Two? No, no, my throat hurts! Dave swigs a beer while Taylor Hawkins is pushing for FIVE songs. Five songs? OK, but we’re playing all classic rock songs as a band you have never heard of before: “THE HOLY SHITS.”

Seriously. HOLY. SHIT.

The Holy Shits did us the favor of playing: Alice Cooper’s School’s Out, Rolling Stones’ Miss You, Van Halen’s Ain’t Talkin’ Bout Love, Queen & David Bowie’s Under Pressure, and then finished off with their own song, Everlong.

If you need an understanding of why I can’t shut up about the Foo Fighters, check out Monika’s video of All My Life (shot on a Lumia Icon).

Mind. Blown.

OK. So. While hanging with the Nokia folks, we also met the peeps from their music app, MixRadio. In addition to being super nice, I love their service. We all know I am an Rdio gal – but that is because I like to be my own DJ. Not everyone is like me, and I also get bored with my own selections sometimes. MixRadio is like your own personal radio station.

They have “charts” playlists (pop, rock, hip hop, etc) but my favorite section is “moods” – meaning happy, sad, love, chill, dinner, romantic, raging, etc. I pretty much have similarly named playlists inside my Rdio, but trust me – they took me FOR-EV-ER to build. Let MixRadio do the work; they are great DJs. You can also create mixes based on your listening habits – in that Mix Radio learns you like Pandora, except no ads. It’s free if you are are in the app, then $3.99 a month to take music offline or play on your desktop. The app comes pre-loaded on Lumia phones and they recently announced the possibility for iOS and Android down the line as well. Sweet. (Here is the MixRadio Firefly playlist and their X-Games playlist.)

The folks from MixRadio also hooked us up with meet-and-greets during Firefly. We got to see both The Unlikely Candidates and The Colourist play and then tell them how awesome they are in person. The good news is I can stalk TUCband again at Riot Fest in Denver. The Colourist were a little surprised that I knew what their album cover looked like, but hello. That’s what I do. Stalk and admire graphic design.

When I went to X-Games with Nokia, I mentioned all the great people I met and this trip was no exception. I really feel like I found new friends, who – of course – love music as much as we do, so it made the weekend really special. Even though all of them are amazing across all the socials, I will just link to Monika’s twitter list, but especially check them out on Instagram as well.

Other than that, I have to share pics of the atmosphere at Firefly. Yes, it was huge. It was hot, dusty and overwhelming. But I can honestly say, it was one of the best experiences I have had, especially with a brand and I can’t think Nokia enough. If you watch Nokia on social, they act just like they do in person – real and fun. I am proud to be working with them and the good news is I love their product in addition to the people who work there. Win Win.

One last thing. Silent Disco.