2. Being one of the few adults allowed into the Underage Festival.
Lowlight: 1. I obviously looked like a pretty sorry case if security were being nice to me - believe me, these guys are made of granite. Soft hearted does not come into it.
2. Not being asked my age for the Underage festival- I obviously look well past it as well as a sorry case.
Fill in: A series of one day festivals - Underage, Field Day and Apple Cart all with their own distinct character. Not least Underage which meant adults had to wear a special band. I wasn't asked my age at the box office, so still getting over the shock that now I'm not even asked if I'm over 18 out of politeness. In fact the pert girl behind the media desk took one look at me and I swear she was considering giving me two Adult wrist bands as I was about twice the age of the oldest person in the vicinity. So, moving swift on, it was a case of getting as many bands as possible into the bag without passing out - three days of wall to wall bands heaven.
UNDERAGE
FIELD DAY
APPLE CART (more to come)
Tech Spec: Guide to getting as many bands as possible in a day.
As well as your normal gig equipment you will need: Good pair of shoes/boots. Rain poncho. Raincoats for cameras. Rucksack for spare equipment. Pen and paper or electronic notebook. Money for food. Tissues for toilet paper. Jeans/long hard wearing trousers (not shorts or skirt), layers of clothing (vest/t-shirt, long sleeve card/top, thermal jacket - put extra clothing in rucksack - you will need it in the late evening). Business cards. A small bottle of water. If you can get running order and site map from festival website beforehand then do steps 1 and 2 at home.
1. On arrival go to press office and get the running order and a site map. Try to get there at least an hour before your first 'absolute must get' band is on, preferably two. (It can take an hour to get your passes, then another trying to find out procedures for photos and then it is nice to have a dry run in the pit before-hand).
2. Re-write all the bands in chronological order - in a table with time in 1st column, band name in 2nd and stage in third - if times clash, write in your preference first. Ring all your 'must get' bands . Then mark all the band it is feasible to do with the list as it stands with a star). Plan which bands are possible to do taking into account whether photographers need to be escorted to stage, whether you can by pass the escort meeting place by meeting them at entrance of pit, how far it is between stages etc. If you are really keen to cram them in, then you can just allow one or two songs for each band instead of three, however some stages may not let you leave the pit until the end of three songs.
3. Do a tour of the site taking note of rough time it takes to get from one stage to another, how to get into the photo pit, how crowded thoroughfares are likely to get, where food stalls are and where the shortest queues for toilets are (usually backstage but not always).
4. You are ready to start. Take a note of the time, and look at the times of the bands on in the next hour and your wish list and go to first band taking note of the next band on list and whether it is a tricky change over.
5. After shooting you first band, re-asses the situation. Keep this up til you finish. Throughout the day make adjustments to the list according to the following:
a. Whether stages are running late/early (this WILL happen)
b. Whether you can get into pit after band has started (if you are nice to security they may let you - also some stages may let you shoot for longer than three songs)
c. Whether acts are cancelled or change stages (give yourself time to visit the press office occasionally to check this)
d. Whether it is raining (will be harder to walk in mud, but less crowded).
e. How busy it is - it can take twice as long to push through a busy area
f. Whether it is an easy act or hard act to shoot (a motionless singer songwriter could be done in 1/2 a song whereas a full on all singing dancing twelve piece jazz orchestra may need all three songs to shoot)
g. Whether you can get decent shot from crowd - early in day it is possible to get to front of pit without too much trouble.
h. Whether you need to eat or go to the loo. In my youth I used to go the whole of Glastonbury on one bottle of water and a cornish pasty a day but when I collapsed of heat exhaustion at said festival in 2009, Keith has insisted I have a breakfast and sit down for ten minutes during day to eat something. Of course this inevitably means going to the loo - another wasted ten minutes but it has to be done.
i. Whether you have collapsed of heat exhaustion…..
You will start off very busy as the sets are shorter at the start of the day, but the less experienced acts are usually easier to shoot and are in daylight so the lighting is easier, so one or two songs is usually sufficient to get a stock shot. As the day goes on the sets get longer so you have more time in between. 6pm - 7pm is the best time to try and get a bite to eat. After 8pm you will probably be hanging around a bit between bands bit it is a nice time to get some general festival shots. Good luck and enjoy!
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