Sunday, Riot Fest, Day 3, Noon
by Christoper Andrew
This is why I’m here… This is punk rock. This is the Bronx, lead singer Matt Caughthran in the pit, with Sean McKeough one of the festival owners guarding his mic cable, and me in there, with a very expensive rental camera, kicking up dust, screaming at the top of my lungs.
This moment takes me back through the past ten years of shooting Riot Fest, to a night at the Double Door, where The Bronx headlined a Riot Fest show, before we ever went outdoors, when the festival was just a series of shows at five different venues over six nights in Chicago… This moment reminds me that this festival gets put on by a family, a small, dedicated family, with our differences, and our missteps, our growing pains, all the ups and downs of any family, but for 10 years I’ve been filming this festival, and it’s bands like the Bronx, on a Sunday morning, with half the family gathered round, that remind me what it’s all about.
I’m reminded what it means to be part of something. Something important, something that bring people together, as Caughthran said to the crowd “Today is a blessed day, this weekend is a blessed weekend, so many great bands, some many great friends, so many great people… It feels good to be alive”
This was my Riot Fest 2016 moment.
Video Shot by Matt Hoodhood, Joe Esquivel, Dan Curtis, Rothwell Polk, Sebastian Hagan, George Mulcahy, and Christopher Andrew
Edited by Christopher Andrew
Cobra Productions, Stoptime Live, Riot Fest, 09.20.16
All Photos by Christopher Andrew
