If you don’t want to read everything below, that’s ok, images are at the end of the post.
Here we go! The blog is back…. Honestly, I really missed writing these blogs, even though my website really doesn’t get any traffic and no one really reads this stuff.
What to Expect:
Well…. not quite sure.. I’m sure you’re going to see a lot more Music stuff because that has been a huge focus for me over the past 5 years, but I will say, the music world has changed, from my perspective at least, since the world shut down. Rumour had it that Live Nation could possible be axing freelance photographers or at least limiting their access to shows… after the stupid C19 scandal, I have not been able to land one concert through them, when before, I was getting approved for almost every show I applied to.. maybe it was all just a coincidence, who knows. I have also noticed that Venues I was constantly getting approved for also fell off and stopped responding to email.. such is life.. C19 changed the world in a way I never thought would be possible, but here we are.
I am very thankful, however, for wicked venues and festivals that are holding true and still granting access to those who love live music and who work their asses off to capture the live acts the best they can and provide quality work.. festivals like ROCK THE PARK in London, Ontario. Rock The Park has been a staple in my life, not just as a photographer, it actually took me 6 years of hard work and writing emails year after year to gain access, and it finally happened 6 years ago, but it also was/is a staple for me as a fan of live music.. I’ve been going to RTP for as long as I can remember. Harris Park is where Rock The Park is held, it’s a lovely little park on the outskirts of downtown London tucked away beside the Thames River and amongst some trees and tall apartment buildings. This festival has been working their asses off to bring in HUGE and amazing bands for years. If you go check out their website www.rockthepark.ca you can see the incredible bands they have brought through year after year.. big acts like: Ice Cube, Mumford & Sons, The Glorious Sons, Ludacris, JaRule, The Tragically Hip, Journey, Our Lady Peace, Alice Cooper, and many many more… This years line up is wild as well: Nickelback, The Glorious Sons, Tea Party, Tyler Childers, NAS, Lil Jon, Neil Young with Crazy Horse and more! I am very thankful to be accepted to Photograph this event, not as an official photographer but as my own outlet and lover of live music.
This post will be to focus on Last years ROCK THE PARK. Let me tell you, it was a wild time, it always is! let me first start out by saying, the people who put RTP together work so hard.. its months of gruelling work to get these bands in, working schedules and budgets, getting a huge amount of volunteers together to make it all come together.
2023 Line up was pretty stacked:
Ludacris, Ja Rule, Cypress Hill, Papa Roach, Mumford & Sons, Vance Joy, Volbeat, Halestrom, Chingy, Billy Talent, Alexisonfire, Silverstein, The Trews, The Dirt Nil, T.I., Bahamas, Default, Ashanti, MYA. I have to let you know.. I did NOT get to attend all of it which made me so upset because the night I really want, the bands I grew up going to see and listening to, the main night my heart lived for I had to miss due to car trouble…. it killed me, and that night was Billy Talent, Alexisonfire, Silverstein, The Dirt Nil. I spent months pumped to have them on the bill and get to photograph them after all these years and I missed out.
None the less, the nights I did get to photograph some of it and it was a blast as always. There’s something about being out in that hot July sun sweating to death, legs shaking from the long days and all the squats you end up doing trying to stay out of fans line of sight and get good angles that just makes life feel so damn good. Those moments I’m in “The Pit” as well call it ( That area between the fans and the stage where security is ) is when I feel like a really full time photographer, just working hard to get those shots and make the bands look great on stage, capturing the emotion, the movement, waiting for the right moment to get that shot that makes you smile when you know you’ve captured it…. accomplished, amazed, and living in the moment.. that’s what it’s all about.
