Tight In the Photo Pit: Riptide Festival ‘19

Review by Danielle Brianne Smith, Photos by Carianne Older

I’m here with the infamous @peggyshootsfilm, patiently waiting in the Media tent with our friends Steph and Ashley. Or, as I like to call them in my head, @stephestrada & @ohcanario.

We head to Silver Sun Pickups. The crowd is tense with anticipation, and then explodes into dance and joy with a funky baseline and catchy chorus, “Doesn’t matter what you know, you just know.” Brian Aubert does a great job performing, and the band sounds great live. It’s tight in the photo pit, three songs, and gone... back into the wild, wild Riptide Music Festival.

Onto see K.Flay... we’re at the cool stage that kind of makes a T shape & extends into the crowd... I love that — who doesn’t want to be close to their favorite performer? Wow, K. is rocking it. The whole set, every song, is amazing; from the lyrics to the energy being amplified into the audience, and the unique, fun alternative vibes. If you get a chance to see K.Flay perform in person, you won’t regret it.

Now, for the moment we’ve all been waiting for — the performance of our millennial dreams. The one, the only, The 1975. There we are in the photo pit; me, Peggy, and Steph. I ask them, “What song do you think they’re gonna open up with?”. They make their guesses, and I make mine (I think they’re going to open up with People). It’s the most recent of their releases and probably the most intense of their songs. I could only think, if I were a performer, that would be the song I’d open with.

A few minutes pass - we’re patiently waiting in our little spots in the photo pit, waiting to see our Lord, our Savior, Matty Healy, to come down and bless us with his dreamy vocals and oh-so-dramatic facial cues that we die for. The lights dim and we hear the intro to People, with that drum beat and distorted electric guitar. We’re trying so hard not to fangirl, because we are Professionals, but the song is so catchy, and the crowd is enthralled, and we all start singing... “People like people, want alive people, young surprise people, stop fucking with the kiiiiiiiddssssss!”. Best song to open up with. We lived our dreams during that performance, singing along to all our favorite songs like Chocolate, Love It If We Made It, Somebody Else, and Give Yourself a Try.

The 1975 killed their performance. We’ll be talking about it for weeks - maybe even decades.