Firefly 2024 is mere days away! This email has important information and your directions to the event. READ ALL OF IT.
Before arrival, you should be familiar with the Survival Guide and Firefly Orientation Deck. You may wish to print out or download the map and What/Where/When Guide.
This year we also have online alternatives for the event available on Dust and DoorMouse. Note that Firefly cannot provide technical support for either of these alternatives. Dust has chat and email support on their website and DoorMouse support is available by emailing kas@doormouse.com.
Gate opens Tuesday, 2 July at Noon. No re-entry is allowed, so bring everything you need with you. If you arrive before noon on Tuesday, you will be turned away. (If you are on the authorized Early Arrival list, do not arrive before noon on Monday.)
When you arrive, Gate will check your ID against the ticket list. There are no physical tickets or barcodes to have on your phone—just bring your ID! You will be given a colorful Firefly 2024 wristband. Anyone found on the property without a wristband is trespassing and will be ejected. (Fire spinners can choose to wear the band on their ankle.)
People who do not have an ID or whose name is not on the ticket list will not be allowed to enter.
If you or an accompanied minor have not yet signed a waiver, you will need to sign a waiver at the Gate. Minors get a special wristband.
After you’ve been checked in at Gate you’ll get to see Greeters, who will give you a warm welcome and a brief run-down of important things to know before you head into the woods. If you don't remember your volunteer shifts or want to sign up, please head to the Gnome/Volunteer hut.
There are three onsite parking areas at Firefly: the upper lot, lower lot, and offsite offsite lot across the road. The lower parking lot is located adjacent to Gate check-in and is a grassy hilly field. We ask that all trailers and 4WD/AWD vehicles park in this lot. The upper parking lot has a dirt/gravel surface and is most suitable for utility/box trucks. Please note that all lots can become muddy given enough rain. Again, please note that all lots can become muddy given enough rain.
The Upper and Lower lots are multi-use: not only parking but gear drop, porto maintenance, box trucks, and queues for vehicles with hill access. Cars in Upper and Lower are likely to be double-parked or boxed in. You are encouraged to park in Offsite Parking instead to leave space for these activities!
New: Upper Parking has been improved with an exit out of the back, providing easier one-way traffic through the lot.
The offsite is on a neighbor’s land which is not part of Firefly except for parking, and has a one-lane access road. About half the event will need to park in the offsite lot and walk back across the road to Upper Parking to enter the event.
There’s a lot of cars parking in hayfields: please be patient, pay attention, work with volunteers and other participants, and don’t take shortcuts and get even more stuck.
We continue to provide locally-sourced water from a well on the land, feeding from the local aquifer! It has been tested and certified as completely safe by a licensed installer. It will have plenty of capacity to fill the water needs of the event. Fireflies are encouraged to bring empty containers for their own use, and of course may bring whatever bottled water they wish for redundancy/backup. Please be gentle with the pump. Pumping faster and harder will not get you water faster, it will just put stress on and break the pump.
If you see an emergency that isn't already being dealt with, find someone with a radio, they can get help. People with radios can be found 24/7 at Ranger HQ and Gate.
There are 2 resources to assist you with medical issues:
Can help you figure out if you might have an emergency that should be seen by the medics if you are uncertain.
Can call the medics, provide first aid, and do CPR until medics arrive.
Can connect you to supplies (bandages, over-the-counter medications, etc…) that you might have forgotten at home.
First Aid is located in front of the Ranger Station at Mercurial and Verdant.
You can also ask any volunteer with a walkie-talkie to call us.
Can assist in an emergency (broken bone, fall from a high place, overdose, etc…)
The medics are at Firefly, located behind the Ranger Station at Mercurial and Verdant.
In an emergency, find any volunteer with a walkie-talkie, or find the emergency call box at Upper Parking.
When you call, you will need to tell the medics the injury and the location (use nearby path names, theme camps, art installations, etc…). Keep it brief and simple.
You will also need to wait for the medics at the location to guide them to the injured person. Use your flashlight to help them find you at night.
Try not to leave a person having an emergency alone. Send for help if you can.
Rangers can be reached on Channel 1 from any event radio; there is one at the new Satellite Outpost by Upper Parking. Rangers are able to summon event resources and/or outside agencies to help you.
The event ends Sunday, July 7th at noon. (Sadly, no sleeping in on Sunday.) Please be packed up and off-site by 3pm Sunday (unless you are working a volunteer shift, in which case GTFO time is sundown).
Firefly is a Leave No Trace event. Some of the LNT guidelines for the event have evolved, so please read the LNT Best Practices document.
If you pack it in, pack it out! You must take out of the woods everything that you brought into the woods, including all of your trash—there are no public dumpsters or trash service. Take home all of your personal belongings, trash and recycling. DO NOT DUMP YOUR TRASH AND RECYCLING IN DUMPSTERS NEAR THE EVENT (if you find a dumpster on site, it is *not* for your use)! We need happy neighbors for the future of Firefly.
By composting onsite, the nutrients from your food scraps (if they're on the "Yes" list) will go to the Nuthatch garden instead of in a landfill. Also, you will have less waste — and much less smelly waste — to drive home!
The compost pile is next to the Nuthatch barn, below upper parking. It will be marked with yellow signs.
If you want to compost, bring a vessel to carry your food scraps across the hill. Buckets with lids are best. There will also be some compost buckets available at the lost and found - camps/folks can reserve them by emailing lnt@fireflyartscollective.org.
YES Compost
Fruit and vegetable scraps
Coffee grounds and paper filters
Paper tea bags without staples
Crushed eggshells
Clean, uncoated, finely shredded paper and cardboard
NO Compost
Meat, fish, or bones
Cheese and dairy products
Fats, oils, or grease
Cooked food
Produce stickers
Used toilet paper or tissues
Additionally, think about how to minimize your impact on the environment: leave plants and other natural objects as you find them, respect wildlife, wash off bug spray and other products before going in the stream, pee at least 50 feet away from the stream, and do not poop in the woods. Thanks!
All Firefly event participants are requested to take a COVID test before leaving for the event and stay home if they test positive. Participants who test positive during an event are asked to head home; Firefly will help them find safe transport if needed.
All participants are expected to follow Firefly’s Participant Code of Conduct and Event Recording Guidelines.
Firefly’s Code of Conduct is guided by the 10 Principles of Burning Man and regional events.
All Firefly participants are expected to take personal responsibility for their actions and the effects of those actions on others.
Firefly Arts Collective will respond to any participant behavior that directly endangers its participants or its ability to hold the annual festival and other community events.
Firefly Arts Collective expects that all participants will endeavor, as they are able, to resolve their own issues and conflicts, and to not rely on FAC leadership to address all problems and conflicts. Participants accept that the volunteer resources of FAC are limited, and that the Firefly community contains diverse values and goals.
Firefly Arts Collective leadership commits itself to taking the needs of its community and Firefly participants seriously, to handling reports of issues responsibly, equitably, and in a timely manner, and to making its best effort to resolve matters consistent with our organizational values and community standards.
Firefly Arts Collective welcomes the stranger, and we share an expectation that all participants will work to create a space that is welcoming for everyone.
Photographers and videographers are expected to honor the wishes of the Fireflies they are photographing, in summary:
Do not take pictures in or of areas with “No Photography” signs.
Do not photograph participants wearing red & yellow No Photography wristbands without getting explicit consent
When in doubt, ask before photographing anyone.
Identify and inform people who are pictured before posting photos of them on social media.
Remove or delete pictures of participants if they request you do so.
Firefly is held on private land—please respect the landowners and help discourage gatecrashers. Never publish the event location publicly.
307 Christian Hill Road, Bethel, VT
(approximately 2.5 hours north of Boston)
Find your way to I-89 in Vermont. (The directions are the same whether you are coming northbound or southbound on I-89. From Boston, take I-93 North to get to I-89 North.)
Take exit 3 for VT-107 toward Royalton/VT-14 Bethel.
At the end of the exit ramp, turn right onto Route 107.
After 1.9 miles, turn right onto Christian Hill Road. The turn comes quickly at 50mph, so keep an eye on the right side of the road for a sign with the green letters "NFP". Christian Hill Road is directly after that.
Go 0.3 miles. The turn-in for Firefly will be on your left and marked with colorful signs!
Please consider supporting the local community before you arrive or after you leave. No re-entry is allowed once you have arrived, so grab what you need before you show up! A map of local businesses who know about and welcome Firefly customers, as well as their hours of operation, can be found at
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1Gt03QWHLhJBwJWFyvG0ZpBJkI3Q
Email info@fireflyartscollective.org
… email us soon, because we'll be in the woods and away from email as soon as we can get away with it. See you there!