Ryan Cormier

The News Journal

One of Delaware's major beer-filled music festivals is on the move, but don't worry: Firefly isn't fleeing Dover.

Dogfish Head's annual Analog-A-Go-Go is relocating from the beer company's Milton brewery and Rehoboth Beach brewpub to Bellevue State Park near Wilmington this summer for what is being billed as Dogfish Head's "biggest event ever."

Idaho-bred indie rockers Built to Spill will headline the Sept. 17 festival, which will be officially announced Friday morning.

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"We wanted to move it north. We're a Delaware brewery – not just a Sussex County brewery," Dogfish Head founder and president Sam Calagione told The News Journal ahead of the announcement. "We wanted to do something in our state's biggest county that we could really grow."

The festival will feature a six-act lineup covering everything from rock and rap to pop and jazz, paired with a slew of drinks and food from breweries, distilleries and food trucks from across the state and region.

The other musical acts set for the even include New Orleans-style jazz veterans Preservation Hall Jazz Band, New York rapper and activist Talib Kweli, New York indie pop/rock band Ra Ra Riot, Philadelphia punk band Beach Slang and Newark's own pop/rock act Fiancé, which played Firefly last year.

Tickets go on sale Friday at 9 a.m. Prices are $65-$95, depending on the options you choose. Ticket prices increase on June 1 and then again Aug. 1.

For Firefly fans who yearn for the festival's first year when smaller crowds made the experience more manageable, this one-day fest is for you. Officials hope for a crowd of up to 10,000, which would be a third of Firefly's inaugural crowd.

With a crowd that large, Analog-A-Go-Go would be the biggest music festival in New Castle County, outpacing established annual fests like Wilmington's Clifford Brown Jazz Festival and the Bob Marley-themed People's Festival, which drew about 3,000 last year.

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If it's a success, Calagione says he wants the festival to remain at Bellevue State Park as an annual upstate end-of-summer event.

Not only will Analog-A-Go-Go feature an eclectic mix of national and local acts, but Dogfish's own beers and spirits will be paired with beers from nine other breweries from around the world via the Best Firkin Friends Beer Festival, which will run from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. with 2,000 tickets available, and a Distillery Garden from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. with 500 tickets available. The festival itself will stretch from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.

In addition to fellow Delaware brewers Iron Hill, Dogfish will welcome Allagash Brewing Co. (Portland, Maine), Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (Chico, California), Funky Buddah Brewery (Oakland Park, Florida) and more.

London's Beavertown Brewery, owned by brewer Logan Plant, son of Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant, will also be on site. Both Robert and Logan visited Dogfish Head's brewery and brewpub in 2012. (While Calagione didn't try to get Logan to talk his father into playing the festival, he did confirm Logan will be at the festival pouring Beavertown brews.)

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"This is going to be the only time beer lovers in the Mid-Atlantic can get beers from Funky Buddah, Beavertown or Short's Brewing Company from Michigan," Calagione says. "We're hopeful this will collectively bring out music and beer geeks."

The event will not only be the biggest of its kind ever produced by Dogfish, but it is also the largest in the 39-year history of Bellevue State Park.

The sprawling park's band shell, which hosts local original bands, tribute acts and cover bands in June through August, will serve as the stage for Analog-A-Go-Go, says Alana Iannucci, assistant superintendent of Bellevue State Park.

Iannucci says the park's 40 or so full-time and seasonal employees are "buzzed" about the festival landing in their park, something that has been under discussion for about a year now. She's especially excited about exposing the 328-acre park to batch of potential future visitors.

"One of the biggest draws for us is getting new visitors. We are so close to Philadelphia and in between I-95 and I-495, so we're very accessible," she says. "People drive by us 100 times and a day and no one knows we're here. So to get them in the park to see what we have to offer is going to blow it out of the park for us."

This will not be Analog-A-Go-Go's first go-round.

The festival first launched in 2011 at Dogfish's Milton brewery with 500 attendees drinking rare beers and shopping for vinyl, along with arts, crafts and goodies from regional artisans. It cost only $10 to get in and at night, music fans continued the festival at the Rehoboth Beach brewpub with acts like Antigone Rising and Jon Langford (The Mekons, The Waco Brothers).

By last summer, it's fifth year, the festival drew 1,200 people and some music fans were left pressing their face up against the front window of the 235-person brewpub to catch a glimpse of Built to Spill, who filled the restaurant to capacity for an intimate and memorable rock show.

It became clear to Calagione and his staff that Analog-A-Go-Go had outgrown its home. That's when he huddled with Neal Stewart, Dogfish's vice president of marketing, and Ashley DiMichele, the company's event manager, to plot a new, bigger future for Analog-A-Go-Go.

Miranda Brewer, co-owner of Rainbow Records, attended the first event as a fan before she bought the legendary Newark record shop.

These days, she goes to the festival for work, selling Rainbow's new and used vinyl for the gathered Analog masses. Rainbow and Rehoboth Beach's Gidget's Gadget's Retro Emporium will both be at this year's super-sized Analog-A-Go-Go, along with six other vinyl re-sellers, 16 crafts/vintage goods retailers and 13 food trucks from Delaware and Philadelphia.

"The first year we went it was like six tables under a ledge at the brewery, so it is being expanded massively," Brewer says. "We're super-duper excited as music fans and as business owners."

While Dogfish Head is active in the upstate music scene, regularly donating beers to independent venues like Arden's Gild Hall and sponsoring the music stage at Newark's Grain Craft Bar + Kitchen, Analog-A-Go-Go's move north represents Dogfish's biggest commitment to Northern Delaware yet.

But sorry, Dogfish fans, there are still no plans for a Dogfish Head brewpub or brewery in New Castle County, Calagione says.

"We never say never, but we're not actively working on anything for Wilmington except for this," he says. "It's a massive investment in dollars and resources for us, so this is our big-ass investment for the Wilmington market."

Contact Ryan Cormier of The News Journal at rcormier@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2863. Follow him on Facebook (@ryancormier), Twitter (@ryancormier) and Instagram (@ryancormier).

IF YOU GO

What: Dogfish Head's Analog-A-Go-Go

Acts: Built to Spill, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Talib Kweli, Ra Ra Riot, Beach Slang, Fiancé

When: Saturday, Sept. 17, 1 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Where: Bellevue State Park, 800 Carr Rd., Bellevue

Cost: If purchased by May 31, $65 (general admission), $80 (general admission plus beer festival or distillery garden) or $95 (general admission, beer festival and distillery garden). Tickets increase in price on June 1 and then again August 1.

Tickets: On sale at analogagogo.com starting Friday at 9 a.m.

BREWERIES

Allagash Brewing Co. (Portland, Maine), Beavertown Brewery (London), Burley Oak Brewing Co. (Berlin, Maryland), Dogfish Head Craft Brewery (Milton), Funky Buddah Brewery (Oakland Park, Florida), Iron Hill Brewery (Newark), Samuel Adams (Boston), Short's Brewing Co. (Bellaire, Michigan), Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (Chico, California) and Stoudts Brewing Co. (Adamstown, Pennsylvania).

VINYL VENDORS

Carolina Soul Records (Durham, North Carolina), Gidget’s Gadgets Retro Emporium (Rehoboth Beach), Harley Lyles (Greensboro, North Carolina), HPRS Records (Milltown, New Jersey), Rainbow Records (Newark), Rasslin Records, Solid Sender Records (Farmingdale, New York) and Paul Aaronson (New York).

FOOD TRUCKS

The Brunch Box (Hockessin), The Cow and the Curd (Philadelphia), HubBub Coffee (Philadelphia), I Don’t Give a Fork (Newark), Kapow (Wilmington), Local 215 (Philadelphia), Mojo Loco (Wilmington), Outlandish (Newark), The Plum Pit (Claymont), Taco Reho (Rehoboth Beach), The Wandering Chef (Newark), Wildwich (Newark) and Zogg’s (Rehoboth Beach).