Last weekend I attended Camp Flog Gnaw Music Festival while in Los Angeles for a wedding. Camp Flog Gnaw is a rap and electronica festival created by Tyler, the Creator and his squad Odd Future. It was the third year of the festival, the first time it was a 2-day event, and it sold out this year. At Camp Flog Gnaw I saw many artists such as Death Grips, Kaytranada, Chance the Rapper, Tokimonsta, Erykah Badu, Pretty Lights, EarlWolf, and A$AP Mob.
Attending Music Festivals may not seem like a cultural event but I would like to again stress that VJing is the route I wish to take with EDP and I feel as though the more I can expose myself to different aesthetics I’ll be better equipped to create. Music Festivals give you a spectrum of talent with a whole range of stylistic design to fit their particular vibe. One can compare and contrast what they liked and didn’t like about the various concert visuals experienced throughout the weekend. For example, Tokimonsta had very interesting visuals but the transitions between them were awkward. A$AP Mob (A$AP Rocky and Co) however had consistent transitions, utilizing glitch art. This is a transition I find most appealing as it keeps your attention. Kaytranada utilized cartoon-y animations as well as soft, retro video footage of women on the beach. Though the vibes were completely different, the transitions weren’t awkward as he used color flares to move from clip to clip. I found myself encaptured with Flog Gnaw’s surprise show mostly do the introduction footage of zipping and unzipping DNA. I felt that more shows should create anticipation with long, hyper-stylized introductory videos as it brought a huge audience and hyped it up without the artist wasting energy. I left Los Angeles with a notebook full of ideas and I can’t wait for the snow to stick so I can get some dreamy, layered footage to accompany the soundtrack to my winter.