Not gonna lie, it was pretty easy to decide which set I’d focus on from my blissfully chaotic weekend at Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival – Tyler The Creator’s annual 2 day festival at Exposition Park in LA. Fun fact, I didn’t even know I’d be attending this one until about a week before. The line up came out months before the fest and was basically just a quick pull of all the artists in my Apple Music library, so it was never a question of whether I wanted to go – it was the standard last minute media approvals (my fav aspect of this whole concert photographer thing) that had me doubting whether it would happen. I’d fully given up hope when I got the notice I was all set on the list, and needless to say it was a no brainer to just figure it the hell out and make sure I got myself there. I think I physically sat down for a max total of 45 minutes that weekend, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
Anyways, to get to the real point of this all, BROCKHAMPTON’s set was an easy highlight of the weekend for me. I’d seen them about a month and a half prior in Toronto, where fans had been lining up around the block of the venue since early that morning. The venue was a 1,500 person cap, and they’ll be playing a sold out 3,500 cap venue this coming Feb – only 5 months later – just to give you an idea at the rate of which they’re blowing tf up. And I get it. The energy those guys have on stage is incomparable to anything I’ve seen, not to mention the fact I wasn’t even a little bit annoyed when they repeated their encore track “STAR” 4 or 5 times in a row to finish off their show – tbh it was pretty GD amazing. Even when they did get off the stage the fans were cheering for more. The best part was when they gave ALL fans (not VIPs) the chance to hang around after the show and wait in a line to meet them and grab a quick photo. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Danforth stay open past 11pm curfew but even though the bouncers were trying to get them to take the photos quickly and have the fans file out so they could shut down, they were laughing and having a good time throughout the impromptu meet and greet. BROCKHAMPTON just seems to have that kind of impact on people. So, when I rolled to the main stage at Camp Flog 10 mins early for their 5pm set and saw a handful of golf carts that somehow got on to the stage I was even more stoked. I won’t say much more about their performance because honestly you should see it for yourself when they come back to Toronto on February 8th. I mean, they’re calling it the “Love Your Parents Tour” – how can you miss that.
Photos of BROCKHAMPTON at Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival 2017 are below. For the full photo set of the carnival head over to Blare Magazine here for day one, and here for day two.
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