Vancouver Soapbox Race

Today was the first annual Vancouver Red Bull Soapbox Race and I was sent by the Ubyssey newspaper to take some shots of the event. The clear skies and the heat prompted thousands of Vancouverites to swarm 4th Avenue in their beach attire, taking advantage of the last remnants of summer. It was a day for inventiveness and imagination, as 50 teams of soapbox racers displayed their creations on the pit lane, and then raced them downhill on a course with some fun obstacles.

Star Wars?
Batman
Team Steam
BC's Premier Gordon Campbell.
Here is the online slideshow! . Thanks to the Ubyssey's Photo Editor Goh Iromoto for making it possible!

Funny fact: the painfully 80s band Whitesnake participated with their own soapbox and finished in third place!

Folk Music Festival, part 3

On Sunday, I decided to put the lens cap on my camera for a while and become a true festival-goer. The first thing I discovered were the dozens of hoola-hoops scattered around the lawns at Jericho Park, waiting for a moving waist to give them a shake. I stepped over a purple one and suddenly became one of the hundreds, maybe thousands of curious festival-goers that enjoyed an instant flashback to childhood on that sunny Sunday at Jericho.

After a quick escape to eat an organic lentil wrap (veeery Vancouver), I went back to the main stage area and realized I was the only person without a blanket to mark his territory on the grass. The blanket situation requires a full post by itself, but I will just say that it looked like an unspoken "who brought the most exotic blanket to the park" contest. After a full ten minutes of trying to penetrate the blanket crowd and stepping on them all (accompanied by the classic "sorry, excuse me, sorry again, oh oops, coming through, hi sorry..."), I finally found a miniature blanketless square of grass and sat to enjoy the music of Bachir Attar and the Master Musicians of Jajouka.

As the sun was setting, I walked back to the media tent to meet the festival volunteer that would escort me to the back of the main stage in order to shoot the closing act of the festival. I knew it would be an important band, but I read the name of the performer and it didn't ring any bells. That explains why, when I entered the backstage area and saw Michael Franti calmly dribbling his soccer ball, I just said "excuse me" and walked past him.

Ten minutes later, I found myself mesmerized by Michael Franti. Watching him appear on stage was shocking and his music had a je ne sais quoi that left me in awe. I was paralyzed. I spent a whole song simply looking at him jump around the stage and absorbing his energy. Seeing a performer on stage makes us forget that they also walk as humans...on normal ground. To our eyes, they belong on stage, with lights and microphones and a fake background. But this man that had been so calmly playing with his soccer ball on the grass behind the stage, suddenly appeared before my eyes as the cause of all the shouts and the crowd's sudden hysteria. Anyway... here are the pics I shot after I got out of the trance:

Folk Music Festival, part 2

On Saturday I arrived just in time to see the master himself, Martin Sexton. There are only three letters that can describe this man: WOW. He injected the Jericho lawns with a spiritual energy that sent an extended cue for collective goosebumps. His voice reminded me of Ray Charles and Paul Simon, mixed with Dave Matthews on his better days (oh, sacrilegious comparison, I know). After him, I managed to get an escort to go on stage again and shoot the amazing set of Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet featuring Béla Fleck. Yes, I repeat, Béla Fleck, the banjo sensei that won 4 Grammys and was the only performer whose music I had on my iTunes! The main stage was suddenly turned into a display of virtuosismo by the banjos and the two violins that accompanied them. She delighted the audience with a song in Chinese and a story about her love for the time she spent recording there. Fleck was wearing a wicked pair of sunglasses that had some sort of foldable metallic window with a question mark and made it almost impossible to get a photo without a crazy glare.

The last act of last night was Spirit of the West, a band that had a truly personal connection with the audience. After 25 years of performing together, this Vancouver band is a favorite of the local crowd...some of their songs tell elaborate tales of North Van and sound like a Broadway musical. I wouldn't say I loved their songs, but it was impossible to keep still while listening to them. In what sounded like the celtic folk equivalent to a motivational poster, I was soon shaking my body to a fiddle and a mandolin! I hereby share my photos of this second night:

(click to enlarge)

Folk Music Festival

This weekend is very special for me. I'm covering the Vancouver Folk Music Festival for The Ubyssey newspaper! My assignment is to take photographs and write an article giving my opinion about the festival. I must say that I'm far from being a folk music connoisseur, but it's been a fantastic experience so far. On Friday I saw Aimee Mann, for whom I had great expectations (she won a Grammy for the Magnolia soundtrack), but she was dull on stage and sounded very monotonous. After her concert, I decided to try and see if I could get a press pass to take some shots of the closing act from the stage (it never hurts to ask). The media relations people were delighted to escort me to the stage corridor and soon after I was frantically taking pictures of Ozomatli!

Their show was so charged with energy that it made everybody in the audience stand from their portable chairs (yes, Vancouverites come very prepared to beachside festivals...with enormous organic cotton blankets from some country they can't pronounce and the most professional foldable chairs that make a Tesla engine look simple). It was very pleasing to see the large crowd singing, or at least trying to sing in Spanish and loving every second of Ozomatli's eclectic mix of Mexican folk and hip hop. As always, Ozomatli ended their concert by jumping off stage with large drums and doing a sort of carnival parade around the field. Here are some photos I took on this first day:

(click to enlarge)