Firefly 2016 and who Philly is excited to see this year

Steph DeFeo

Firefly is one of the biggest music festivals in the country. This year, the headliners include Two Door Cinema Club, Kings of Leon, Florence and the Machine, Deadmau5 and Mumford and Sons. The festival spans June 16 to June 19 with supporting acts ranging in genres across the board. We spoke with some Philadelphia natives to see who they’re most excited to see this year.

Mackenzie Rogers, raised in Roxborough and a Musical Theater major at the University of the Arts, is most excited to see Blink-182, Florence and the Machine and Flogging Molly. “There are so many good acts that it’s hard to choose from.”

Temple, has attended the festival before. His favorite memory is from Firefly 2014, when he waited twelve hours to see the Foo Fighters, and ended up front row for Weezer. He even crowdsurfed during their set.

The couple did premiere camping so they were able to arrive earlier than some other attendees and it’s already exceeded her expectations. “It’s so chill,” she said, talking about how everyone was so excited to listen to the Arkells play Motown covers. “It was amazing.”

Glenside native Peter Pritz can’t wait to see Grouplove. “They’re my favorite, I really love them,” he says over a bad phone connection. He’s also excited to see Major Lazer, Two Door Cinema Club, Porter Robinson, Deadmau5 and of course, Blink-182. It’s his second year at Firefly, and arrived Wednesday with friends Joey Fittipaldi and Pat Cannardi; they’re meeting up with a larger group of friends later on.

Peter is currently a Computer Science major at West Chester University with a web development minor. His favorite part is relaxing and chilling with everyone, being able to walk around and enjoy the stands. And of course, the music.

“It’s really good camping out with people and having fun,” he says.

Kaitlyn Rafferty, who has attended Firefly before, has a few must-sees on her list for this year. The 1975, Blink-182, Mumford and Sons, Deadmau5 and Robert Delong are amongst her favorites. She’s originally from New Jersey, but attends the University of the Arts as well, as a Music Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology major. This will be her third year going.

Her favorite memory was crowdsurfing during Matt and Kim’s set last year.

“The people are great,” she says as we talked about some of her favorite things about the event itself. “Our neighbors last year were from Tennessee and we spent the entire weekend with them. We still talk and snapchat maybe once a week.” She loves the people she’s met, the friends that she’s made and the music. “It’s completely worth it, in every way.”

Metro Philadelphia