I Shed A Tear At Dreamville Festival.
“No such thing as a life that’s better than yours,” and that is true.
The grass was never greener, and when I finally got to step on the other side my idea of how we consume music broadened and helped me to delevop a stronger appreciation for the physical things that bring us closer to the sounds we all know and love.
My first time experiencing music live on a massive scale was at Tyler, The Creator’s Greensboro show for his 2019 IGOR tour. A fully curated environment I was submerged in his album from the moment I walked through the metal scanner. As I entered the arena I was greeted with merchandise tables filled with clothing and novelty items. The tables sat beside the concession stands that led to the stage and seats. In this single room everything that I could need to maximize my experience was at my fingertips.
Even down to the show itself. If a particular song required a single spotlight, that is what we got. Tyler’s choices for the stage set up, lighting, and special effects were all intentional and specific to the album. This experience and the many that followed hyper focused in on one artist or project and the show was the spectacle. This is all I knew about live music until I was presented with opportunity to go to my first music festival this past weekend.
The second annual Dreamville Festival and the first after the pandemic began I was excited to hit the campus grounds, camera in hand ready to capture this newfound territory.
The first day was a learning experience. I thought I was prepared but my sore feet, aching back and inability to pay attention to the later performers proved otherwise.
I wasn’t allowed in the photo pit so I shifted my muse from the performers to all the other things that made Dreamville.
Unlike album tours where the show itself drives the memories you make, I learned that festivals were much different.
Though the performers serenaded us with their many hits, they all performed on the same stage with minimal effects, because the show was not curated specifically to them.
Attendees would need more than just a 20 minute set to curate a full experience.
This years festival was covered with flowers that immersed us into the spring season we had all hoped for last winter.
As we entered I seen workers in sync in their unconventional assembly line adding the finishing touches to the campsite.
People from all around gathered at the various props and displays to grab pictures.
As we wondered around exploring, we simultaneously listened to North Carolina Central University’s band marching through the festival getting their piece of the action.
This spectacle was like nothing I had ever experienced.
I was in this place where I had the opportunity choose how I wanted to be entertained. One of those choices happened to be watching some of my favorite artist perform. This idea that I could see Rico Nasty, Wale and T-Pain all in matter of hours was so amazing to me.
But even Ari Lennox’s adlibs plus Larry June’s smooth mannerisms couldn’t fully contributed to why Dreamville is what is.
This festival is adored by so many because:
It’s in Raleigh. Not New York or LA or Miami or any other major U.S. city. (The capital of North Carolina has a festival and that’s a huge win for us.)
It’s a collective effort.
A combination of the fans, the amazing food, and the ferris wheel helped me enjoy the almost 9 hours at the festival on a single day, when I got tired and couldn’t focus solely on the music anymore.
This festival gave us a playground to connect with our favorite artist and enjoy ourselves, in a safe regulated environment.
It was a shared physical experience. Something this pandemic took away from us at one point.
The first day was tough for me in regards to the strength of my content. I had no idea what I wanted to shoot or the goal of taking these photos. The lighting also sucked bad because the sun was bright and shined directly over us, creating unflattering shadows.
Some of the photos I thought I was going to really like didn’t make this photo set because the shadows were too harsh or the photo was way to over or under exposed.
I asked myself, how would my photos be any different than every other photographer out there? Would they even be good?
Instead of dwelling on it I just shot the things that caught my eye, and when I looked over what I had going into the second day I had an epiphany.
This was my angle.
It gave me my “why.”
My goal for these photos was to completely submerge the viewer in the middle of Dreamville from the perspective of a cross faded 21 year old.
When the last firework has been lit and the mic drops the physical things that we saw and touched will hold the memories and remind us of the sounds that filled our ears and warmed our hearts.
These are my favorite photos from the weekend.
