Fans at PMF2009

I love music festivals, both as a music fan and as a music photographer. You get a chance to hear lots of different musicians, meet people, other photographers, fans, and musicians, and be surrounded by fellow music nutters for several days. What makes a great festival is not only the music, but also the fans.

It was cold. It rained a little bit too, right when the gates opened. Colder than I expected. Usually everyone is sweating but this day everyone was bundled up in hoodies.

What’s fun about festivals, is that there are also young kids there. My own actually attended PMF2007 when he was 8 months old. Granted, he didn’t spend much time there, only a couple hours a day, but my husband would bring him to visit me and they would grab a bite to eat and hang out a little.

Festivals bring out a variety of people and the general vibe at PMF is mellow and fun. many chillax on the lawn and just hang out, enjoying the music.

Of Course, not everyone is mello and chilaxin’. Some are pumped up and wild and having a great time.

OK, now there’s a bit of a story about the next fans. These three guys were having a great time at the barrier at Built To Spill. They were lots of fun. Anyway, the next morning (or was it that night? I don’t remember now as it all rolls together) I get on the train and who is there? These guys. They immediately recognize me and we chat. They seemed like nice guys and we talked about what bands they were looking forward to and all that. Anyway, throughout the day, I see them around in the crowds usually near the barrier. Well, Saturday night at the Black Lips set (Balance Stage) t was crazy and if it wasn’t for an awesome security force, there would have been a riot and injuries (I’ll talk about that in another post). So, as people are getting “handled” by security, guess who I see? My buddy in the blue shirt. So I go over to make sure he’s ok (by this point security was being pretty rough, but for good reason). He gives me a hug and tells me “They pounded me to the ground!” No shit! You climbed over the barrier trying to riot! OK, so he got caught up in the mayhem. It happens. The next night, at Flaming Lips, guess who I see come over the barrier again? Yep. My buddy in the blue shirt. It made me laugh. he’s a serial-barrier-jumper. I’m sure I’m the only one who finds that somewhat amusing.