Working Levitate was a real treat for me, as it’s easily the largest festival I’ve ever worked and had me directing video for some of the largest acts I’ve ever worked with. Once again working through Klondike Sound, the KSC crew was actually providing audio for the two secondary stages and a different company brought in the PA for the very large main stage.
Familiar faces at this point, I was working with Kevin on shading and Tracey and Cedric on cameras. Nate was on from JX2 to manage Andy’s LED wall, which they once again provided. The budget for video was cut very last minute leading up to the event, so we unexpectedly had to deal with one fewer camera operator than expected (missed you, Willy), no box lens for our primary camera, and no platform for cameras at FOH. This was all pretty disappointing and made directing much more challenging, but we made do with what we had and put on a great show regardless.
The headliners for each of the three nights were Mt. Joy, Lake Street Dive, and Sublime (touring with Bradley’s kid), who were all great in their own unique way. Mt. Joy rocked was harder than I expected, including a sit-in from Goose’s Rick Mitarotonda (fresh off a second stage set earlier in the day with Orebolo) and an incredible stretched out cover of Fire on the Mountain. I’ve seen Lake Street Dive live a couple times as a patron, so it was a real treat to work with their infectious energy.
Directing video for Sublime felt like a lifetime achievement sort of thing; their music was a huge part of my childhood, whether I was playing it way too loudly through my iPod earbuds while skateboarding or riding up to Northampton with Dan Frye in his dad’s old pickup truck to catch Badfish pay tribute to the music. Even in the trailer a hundred feet behind the stage, the low end from the subs was so much that I had to put sandbags on top of racks of gear to stop things from vibrating and shaking. This was a fun experience and it was really easy to direct music I know so well, even though I haven’t listened much to Sublime in over a decade.
Other standout acts that I was excited to direct were G. Love and Special Sauce (another childhood fave) and Cory Wong. Robbie Wulfsohn from Ripe sat in with Cory Henry, which was really neat as well. Highlight of the weekend may have been meeting Coco and Molly, the dogs that famously tour with Stick Figure.
I was initially upset to learn that Orebolo, Daniel Donato, and Neal Francis were all relegated to second stage, but long set changeovers for the main stage meant I was able to catch the bulk of each of their sets. This was a nice bonus, and the first time I was able to do this for the entire festival run. Morgan even came out the first day and I was able to spend most of the Orebolo and Neal Francis sets with her.
Levitate was a lot of work and also a lot of fun. I’m happy that it’s the end of a back-to-back-to-back three week run because I didn’t have much to give at the end of it, but it was exhilirating and fulfilling nonetheless.