The older I get, the less inclined I'm up to go to large music festivals like Coachella. I'm just not fond of dealing with being inside the massive crowd that's packed in like sardines in a can so I could see whichever artist I wanted to see. Coachella is also out in Palm Springs and it can get rather hot there during the festival.
San Francisco offers a similar music festival but on a smaller scale (but still big mind you) called Outside Lands. My first time hearing about it was about a year ago from a friend who had rave reviews about it so when time came around in 2014 to attend, I thought, "what the hell?" I also love San Francisco so if the festival was a bust in my eyes, I could always venture out into the city to do some street photography and become more acquainted with the city.
Luckily for me, Outside Lands was more than what I had expected it to be and I had a great time. The one thing that I didn't like about Outside Lands, and any music festival at that, is their nonsensical rule about bringing in "professional" camera equipment. I didn't bring my digital camera for this trip (not my style), and I thought I would get in without any hassle with my simple film SLR because it didn't look "professional" and it was, well, film. Who still uses film right? On the first day of the three day festival, security didn't allow me entry. They're excuse was "no professional camera equipment." I told them it was a film camera. "The lens couldn't be less than two inches." Huh?! Frustrated with trying to reason with them, I ended up going back to my friend's car to leave it there which annoyed me.
On the second day, it was decided that we would try to hide the camera in my friend's bag, underneath a blanket and the scheme worked flawlessly. I was worried about the possibility of my camera being confiscated by security inside festival grounds if they saw it but my worries were found to be unreasonable because there were countless people inside the festival that had "professional" DSLRs that weren't even a part of any press/media.
This photo was taken on the second day of the festival at the main stage during a switch in performers and just before Haim were set to perform.
Music festivals are weird events. You have a large group of people who will go to a particular stage to see an artist, get all into the performance and once the show is over, they leave for another stage while the next large group of fans seamlessly flows in to catch the next artist. It's like literally watching a moving current comprised of human bodies.
"Waiting for Haim" / 35mm Efke KB100 / August 2014