Coachella Just Bought Delaware's Firefly Music Festival

Article by: Laura Mason|@masonlazarus

Wed July 18, 2018 | 12:20 PM


Coachella's parent company, AEG, just gained a major foothold in the East Coast festival scene. The festival production behemoth announced today that it has purchased the ever-growing, successful Firefly Music Festival.

This news arrives four years after AEG and its subsidiary Goldenvoice, partnered with Red Frog Events to help produce and promote Firefly into what its become today, and thereby becoming its majority owner. "AEG recently acquired Red Frog's remaining shares," reports USA Today. The first move AEG made to take the seven-year-old festival's reputation to the next level was helping land Paul McCartney as the festival's 2015 headliner, which in turn gave Firefly its first 90,000-person crowd.

Firefly Music Festival 2018 Alive Coverage    1 Of 19 (4)

AEG's decision to expand its ownership came after this year's successful Firefly and Red Frog Events' desire to shift its focus to other events and services, according to Delaware Business Now.

Firefly's organizers say the shift in ownership will not be reflected in any major changes to the festival, but that attendees can expect improvements and tweaks in the near future. USA Today also reports that, because Bonnaroo is moving its 2019 event to occur during Father's Day Weekend (which has historically been the weekend Firefly takes place), Firefly will now be held the weekend after, June 20-23, 2019. "Officials are still unsure if the festival will kick off on Thursday or will be reduced to a three-night affair," says the article.

AEG's festival footprint now spans Coachella, Stagecoach, New York's Panorama, as well as Firefly, cementing its status as one of the world's most profitable live music companies.