Camp Flog Gnaw Through My Camera Lens
by Rose Goetsch
Watching Wednesday Campanella, having never heard of her before. She stood on a red ladder in the middle of the crowd, the sleeves on her shirt extending a foot past her hands, flailing her arms around. Let me just say we couldn’t take our eyes off her.
Easily my favorite weekend of the year. I love music festivals, but this was more than that. Reflecting on it now, I can see what made it so incredible. It was the people, the atmosphere, and the all around good feeling I had from noon on Saturday when I walked through the long security line, to Sunday night when we drove away. From when I was eating vegan ramen to when I was watching Tyler, the Creator perform, there was a smile on my face. There was always something to do, never boring. When we weren’t watching someone incredible perform, we were eating great food or riding classic carnival rides.
That’s why I think describing it as a “concert” is an extreme understatement. Even “music festival” doesn’t suffice. Tyler, the Creator is a true artist, and the carnival is physical proof of that. His personality is reflected in his art, and his art was reflected in Camp Flog Gnaw. Here are my favorite film pictures I took while there.
At the very center of the grounds was a huge ferris wheel, completed with a giant Golf logo in the center. If I had to describe all of Camp Flog Gnaw in two words, it would be “ferris wheel”, because watching it spin round and round reminded me of a beating heart. It seemed that if the wheel had stopped moving, everything else would as well.
This was taken in front of a small stage in the middle of the grounds, that just cycled through DJ’s every two hours. So, if there was any time in between sets, we would come here and dance. It almost reminded me of a high school dance, besides the fact that nothing was censored, and it was of course 100 times better than any dance I’ve ever been to.
This was taken after we stopped in the big yellow tent that was selling golf merch (which I unfortunately didn’t think to get a picture of). We had gotten some fries and lemonade and were looking for a place to waste time. A fire truck was pulled up onto the grounds for an unknown reason, so as we were sitting down I had to squat and capture this moment of my beautiful friends against the vibrant red of the truck.
So, that concludes my very short recap of the best weekend, with the best friends, eating the best food, and listening to the best music. I can't even begin to describe the experience of watching Tyler, the Creator, Lana Del Rey, and A$AP Rocky perform live, but perhaps that’s another story for another time.