A Look Back: Music and Community at Revelry 2015

You know that game “Never Have I Ever?” Where you put down a finger for every time you’ve done something someone hasn’t? I’m really good at that game. That isn’t to say I’ve never done anything. I’ve kissed girls and gone streaking. I just haven’t done a lot of things most college students do. Like have a family pet…or attend music festivals. But I got a chance this year when Illumination asked me to be their press representative at Revelry.So, armed with my phone and the digital camera my roommate uses for birding, I went to Revelry. I got there at 6:45 PM, grouped up with all the other undergraduate press personnel, and waited for the Chainsmokers to start.For those of you unfamiliar with the Chainsmokers, if you’ve ever heard the song “Selfie” before, you have them to thank for it. I knew nothing about the group at the time (still don’t), but within minutes I was standing less than five feet from them, between the fenced off crowd and the stage. To call it surreal would be putting it mildly.When you see footage of music festivals there’s that typical camera pan across the screaming faces of half drunk fans waving their arms like eager students dying to answer unasked questions. The camera captures the performers doing their best to answer these questions without calling on any brownnoser in particular, then the shot cuts back to the fans, reciting what they so needed to share. I never saw the man behind the camera, the one there to share it with the rest of the world. Suddenly that man was me. Me and 20 other students with much better cameras.Of course the first thing I did was stand where I wasn’t supposed to stand, on the fence in front of the crowd, and take pictures of them jumping up and down as if the camera could capture motion without blurs, as if they were saying “Pick me! Pick me!” And why not them? Who else was I going to take a picture of? The performers hadn’t arrived yet.When they did, it was in typical performance style. Drew Taggart shouted “Are you ready Madison,” while the other, Alex Pall, brandished an axe before the audience.  The crowd roared their assent and the show began, with loud Electronic Dance Music, trippy visuals and camera-breaking bright lights.People seemed excited, but reserved. I watched a fellow member of the press high five Taggart as the performer returned from crowd surfing. As Taggart took back to the stage, the press member attempted to share the glory of the high five with the crowd. No takers. Like me, the crowd seemed to be here less for the music and more for the experience. Or to keep their best spots for the later show.Chance the Rapper is, in the words of a good friend, “an on the rise, Chicago native all around artist, and so much more than just a rapper.” I’d heard a few of his songs at the occasional party, but his music was nothing I’d spent time listening to. I waited dutifully with the crowd and other press members to show up. My camera, which worked decently in daylight, was capturing less and less coherent images as the sun went down.Chance brought the light back, flashing deep red and harsh white as he made his entrance. The enthusiasm left out of The Chainsmoker’s crowd seemed to be directly injected into this audience. I took up position in a tree by the stage and snapped what I could of the performer and his crowd. And they really were his, responding as he called, shouting when he asked after their well being, even swearing when he invited them to.Then, in what seemed like moments, I was turned out of the press area and into the crowd.  Our time was up and my time as the photographer was over. I stuck around a little longer, taking pictures from library mall as Chance brought Arthur the Aardvark back into our lives and drew enthusiasm from the crowd like I’d never seen before.So I’ve finally done it. And I’d do it again. Revelry was certainly worth the experience and, had I planned ahead, I would’ve found that ticket money well spent. Yeah, I may not be able to say, “never have I ever been to a music festival”, I may not be able to say, “never have I ever had press access to a show”, and I may not be able to say, “never have I ever enjoyed Chance the rapper in his element”. But I’m really okay with putting those fingers down.