Photography & The Festival Culture: An Aficionado's Commentary

2018 opened its arms to a surge of music festivals and independent publications. The festival season's expanded from summer to year-round and Lollapalooza, for the first time in years, still has single days available. Differentiation in experience is crucial to crowd satisfaction and in turn, the festival's future. With media prevalent in concerts now more than ever, read our take on photography and the festival culture below.

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From promotion companies, festivals, and bands photographing and even live-streaming shows, the amount of technology being used for entertainment content in ways of advertisement and press has enlarged exponentially. An aspect of both the festival experience and online content that clashes with bands and businesses is cell phone usage by consumers at music festivals. Taking in personal experiences, articles, comment sections, and opinions I’ve heard from festival goers in general, it appears that the topic of digital media, enjoyment, and rights are more apparent and important to both the performers and consumers today.

Having had begun to attend concerts at a young age when there were no smart phones, it was rare to see a camera in your sight. As the years passed by with phones being enhanced by technology and social media platforms expanding, it’s impossible to have a clear line of vision to the band without someone else’s or even your own phone in the way. I’m not sure if it’s disappointing or a general standard to expect preteen or teen festival attendees to record an entire show. At well-known festivals, the barricades are swarmed with photographers or camera crews recording for their promotion companies, an upcoming music video for the band, or for the festival itself. The underlying issues of cell phone and media usage clashing between businesses and festival goers include the rights of the music and band, the service the customer paid for, and what it means to truly experience a music festival for the consumer.

Rights to publication and freedom of expression are two different concepts that face each other head on in the festival culture. The press working a show through freelance or a promotion company underwent an application process in order to photograph a band and/or festival. They had to submit their portfolios to the band’s manager or marketing director of the festival/hall and in turn be approved to have rights to take photographs, record, and release online content of the band and/or festival. Ranging from behind the scenes photos and interviews, onstage photography, the filming of the festival for livestreaming, documentation for future music videos, or partnership with a company, press produces clear and exceptional media for the artist, festival, venue, or business. All in all, they went through a process in order to ensure they have rights to publish media of the band and/or festival for paid work. Nowadays, everyone in the crowd is pulling out their phones, livestreaming entire shows via Facebook, putting the longest stories ever on Snapchat, publishing photos or videos on Instagram, and so much more. Those defending themselves of recording entire shows almost always state that it’s their freedom to do as they wish since they bought the ticket for themselves and no one else. If part of the festival’s management team, I would be worrisome of what the artist wants in terms of media as well as the reactions from the concert attendees. Then, the question begins to be if there is sentiment behind the content or if festival goers are publishing on all social platforms to prove to everyone that they were there.

Image via Reddit

The amount of enjoyment derived from the experience of a music festival varies individual to individual. A plethora of articles have been published about bands smashing phones, iPads, throwing selfie sticks, and asking the crowd to put their phones away during the show. Most performers have said that the phones and technologies used to photograph are distracting and take away from the experience for the recorder and those not recording. Most festivals or venues have banned professional photography and recording devices from entering the perimeter unless if they are press and yet, so many people record the show with their phone lights flashing obscenely. As management, I would have to have extensive knowledge of property damaged by the artists, what the artists want, and what the consumer wants. Some technologies have even been created that obstruct phones from recording or opening the camera option on their phones. Those in the crowd do not really appreciate the “fan” in the front that blocks everyone’s view with a phone the size of a brick.

An interesting note on this subject is the usage of phones at shows of certain genres. Punk festivals have almost no phone usage whatsoever as most in the crowd are moshing, yelling, and dancing along to every song. Jazz and classical shows also have little to no phone usage as attendees play close attention to the musicians’ gestures and the beautiful music being created. At any mainstream or Pop festival event, the crowd is not even composed of people anymore - it’s just phones everywhere. The appreciation of the music festival experience is unique to everyone. If the music has assertive or aggressive expressions, it’s more likely the crowd interacts with one another through moshing, yelling, and singing along. If the music is complex, the crowd is more likely to analyze in attempt to understand the piece. If the music does not evoke a desired feeling of expression or analyzation, it seems that it’s more likely to be photographed or recorded as the festival goer could take their devices out at any time. To put it in simpler terms, you’ll see everyone’s phones out at a Kanye West show and will see little to no phones at Shame. Sometimes having so many people using social media is a form of free advertisement, which is great, while at other times it ruins the experience of interacting with the band or even the purpose of music festivals, as some frown upon excessive phone usage.

Technology is a large part of everyone’s day to day lives and it’s been showing its role in today’s music festival culture. More and more technologies are being developed and implanted to stop festival goers from recording and taking photographs. Those that overindulged in technology have negatively impacted those that wanted to take only one picture of their favorite band. Some say it’s a split between the older and younger generations while I’d like to state it’s a split between music appreciation and festival culture. The goodwill of a music festival will be impacted by documentaries, rules, and implementations on media, which could split or go one of both ways - prohibiting excessive cell phone use and emphasizing the immersion of the concert experience, leaving music appreciators glad and upsetting the young festival culture.

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Stay tuned with Decibelle by following us on Instagram here! All posts by Alicia Maciel, a band friend-fan-helper.