Artsfest 08 Rant...

I found myself at the mainstage photo pit at Artsfest this Sunday, looking forward to an evening of live music entertainment. This is by no means a review or overview of the event but instead a few thoughts based on last night.
I'd like to start by saying a massive thank you to the great crowd who were all very up for it and most of the bands who put on a great show.
However, why on earth was half the crowd in the photo pit? Whoever was in charge of designating photo passes on Sunday has alot to answer for. The pit was filled with people who really shouldn't have been there, making my job (and other photographers who were working for local press) extremely difficult.
I constantly found myself having to work around 15 year olds holding their mobile phones in the way of each shot. Most "photographers" I spoke to were not there on behalf of a magazine or press. For this I blame a Flickr group that sent in atleast 20 "photographers" to shoot the event, with no intention of the photos being used for press. Surely, the pit could and should have been reserved for photographers whos photos will be used commercially to promote the event. At times, I was tempted to just leave the pit and shoot from the crowd as I would have had more room to move.
The proof is in the pudding - I walked straight up to security and asked where and if I can get a photo pass, within 5 minutes I had full access backstage to the whole event with no evidence of working for local press, hence why there was SO many amateur photographers in the pit, and, even worse... people who just got in there to watch! I saw one girl just leaning up against the stage with no sense or purpose. I spoke to a handful of the headlining bands after their sets, and every band seemed frustrated and frankly pissed off with the sheer amount of photographers. I quote one band saying "It's like being at a f***ing Canon convention" - I'm sorry but in future, please allow the photographers who ARE there to shoot for local press and magazines to be prioritised over amateur photographers.
Second part of this rant is to The Levellers, or more so - your ignorant and rude technical crew on stage. Throughout the day, the photographers had been allowed on stage to shoot the band. This obviously goes back to my previous rant about photographers access and who security and admin had been allowing into the photo pit. During The Levellers set, I, along with every other photographer that night, spent two minutes getting a few shots from behind the band looking over the crowd. I was stood on the very far left hand side of the stage, far away from any action and creating absolutely no disturbance to The Levellers performance, when I was greeted by the grunting technical total twat who introduced himself with "OI F***ING S**T, F*** OFF". Hit by the sheer rudeness, I moved straight of his way and continued to shoot, along with two other photographers who were on stage at the time (Nothing was said to them). Out of his way, he then whistled and told me to leave the stage. I'd like to add that I was IN NO WAY disrupting or disturbing him or The Levellers from their performance and I was a good 3 metres from him when this happened. As a polite, respectful person, I left the stage at his command and even apologised for any inconvenience. At this point he shrugged me away and threw his hand in a "Just leave" gesture.
Never have I had to put up with such total rudeness from someone who was clearly just having a bad night. 20 minutes later I was back down at the pit and I could still see him shaking his head in disapproval of something else.
So, thanks to you, The Levellers set was totally hindered. In future, I'd like you to remember that some of the photographers that night were there to review you and actually publicise and promote the band you work for. Thankfully, The Levellers put on an entertaining show, as I said, this isn't a review, just an opinion on a poorly operated (from a press point of view) and ignorant technical crew that work with the Levellers.
I look forward to reviewing this, I'll make sure the technical crew get a copy.

Fool.