24 March 2018
Limp Bizkit
Download Festival

A-List festivals can be interesting, exciting, unpredictable and squashy.

The squash

When headline artists perform, the photographers cram around the singer (or whoever is the highest-profile person on stage), creating something akin to a shit-storm in a sardine can as everyone jostles and vies for pretty much the same shot.

Mixing it up

"First three songs no flash" is the norm for these events. There are only so many photographs worth taking before you find yourself reshooting all, but the same thing for anyone given set, and I have a short attention span, so (for better or worse) mixing things up is a must.

Time to move

Limp Bizkit's set was brilliant.

After one song, I headed out of the pit and up through the D-Ring. The aim was to get some shots of the crowd losing their shit, the stage and of the festival experience.

Up the guts of the D-Ring for Limp Bizkit, Download (Melb) 2018

Music fans, Limp Bizkit set, Download (Melb) 2018

Unexpected encounters

So I'm up the middle – out of the pit and the squash – happy taking photos of the crowd when someone taps my shoulder. It's a security guard. "Watch out behind you ok".

I glance down and then back.

We both grin.

Fred Durst, Limp Bizkit, Download (Melb) 2018

When the planets align

Being in the “up end” of the D-Ring barrier alone and unexpectedly tapped on the shoulder by a security guard who was to give me a heads-up that I might want to move over for Fred Durst, who all but climbed over the top of me to get up close and into the Download Festival crowd was nothing short of a great alignment of the planets, and, confirmation that there is indeed a lens god.

This goes down as one of my all-time favourite festival experiences.

Hey, behind you

The squash

Mixing it up

Time to move

Unexpected encounters

When the planets align

Guiding hands

Off ya go …