Firefly Music Festival 2014: Our best photos from the East Coast music fest

Time Out cranked up its best road-trip songs and embarked on a weekend getaway down to Dover, Delaware, for the third installment of the East Coast’s answer to Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza: the Firefly Music Festival. As always, the good vibes were abundant at the Woodlands and they lasted even longer this year, as Firefly tacked on a Thursday teaser to the festivities. We’ve been to music festivals across the land and, to our recollection, we’ve never seen more raucous sing-alongs and intrepid crowd surfers anywhere else.

The reason for the nonstop merriment: Firefly’s truly killer lineup that, in our estimation, one-ups its more established festival breathren in Indio, California; Manchester, Tennessee; and Chicago. Sure, most fests are being treated to the glorious reunion of Atlanta hip-hop duo OutKast—hey ya!—but none are supplementing the lineup with a triumphant turn-of-the-millennium triumvirate of Beck, Weezer and the Foo Fighters (if we want to make it a quartet, Third Eye Blind was on the bill too, reacquainting us with its “Semi-Charmed Life”). Add to the mix a barrage of electric performances from Cage the Elephant, Twenty One Pilots, Pretty Lights, Childish Gambino, Phantogram and Grouplove—and you’ve got yourself quite a stew.

The only downside: dust. Everywhere. But, hey, that’s what happens when you’ve got 80,000 strong dancing in a twiggy forest. We can’t wait to see how Firefly raises the game next year, and we’ll be sure to bring extra bandannas.