Spinner Profile: The Festival Guy!
No worries if you missed any festivals this year – Tucker Gumber, aka The Festival Guy, was there in full force, taking Spins and blogging along the way. He's becoming a major blogger in the festival world, and we're stoked to view his Spins and interview him here! Follow Tucker on Twitter @TheFestivalGuy.
OK, we have to ask, how many festivals did you go to this year?
I absolutely lived my dream this year and made it to 15 festivals between March and September. This included South By South West and Burning Man which were each a week long so the total was 50 festival days over a 180 day stretch.
Did you live out of your car the whole time? If so, any advice?
I did live out of my car the whole time. In between festivals I would stay with friends in different parts of California. I think my best advice to someone else who wants to travel for an extended amount of time is to enjoy the journey. There will be more ups and downs than you experience in normal life, but if you have the right attitude about it, you will be able to handle anything.
Now that festival season is over (or is it?)... what are you going to do?
I have a couple more festivals up my sleeve this year. When I go to the festivals, I look for problems that festival goers are faced with. This off season I am going to do my best to solve some of these problems in hopes to improve festivals for everyone next year.
What was your favorite festival this year?
Burning Man is my favorite but it is not a festival, so I guess my favorite would be... um... Coachella.... no wait, Electric Forest... Snowball... SXSW... no, Lightning in a Bottle. That's too hard. Next question.
OK, what is going on with that amazing stage in your Bamboo Day Spin? What kind of shows were on it?
The Bamboo stage is a stage at a festival called Lightning in a Bottle held in Irvine, California. There were mainly electronic artists that played there. It was one of my favorite stages of the year.
You have a Niagara Falls Spin! Were you there while traveling between festivals? Any good stories from your trip?
I was traveling cross country in July. I went from LA to Michigan for Electric Forest, to Wisconsin for Summer Fest, New York for Camp Bisco, and finally Delaware for Firefly. Niagara Falls happened to be on the way to Albany and a festival called Camp Bisco and the stop ended up being one of the highlights of the trip. It is absolutely amazing.
Where is the Do Lab Spin? It looks pretty hot there -- was the temperature comparable to Burning Man?
The Do Lab is an event production company that puts on Lightning in a Bottle and hosts the stage seen here at a festival called Coachella. Everything the Do Lab touches turns to gold.
Do you have any tips or tricks for taking good Spins?
I try to get good lighting. It's not easy at festivals, but I always try to get the Spin when the bright lights are up.
In a lot of your festival Spins, it looks like people are wearing pretty creative clothing. Which festival had the most elaborate costumes? Do they all have costumes, or is that just Burning Man?
One of my favorite parts of festivals is dressing up. You find dressing up at more of the Burner type festivals because it's more of a lifestyle than the bigger festivals like Coachella or Outside Lands.
How was that Little Dragon show? The stage looks amazing!
Little dragon puts on an amazing show. This was taken at Hard Summer in Los Angeles.
This Spin captured one of the highlights of my life. Burning Man was during the blue moon, which means there are two full moons in one month. On the night of the full blue moon, the moon was still up and bright as the sun was coming up. It was so beautiful it was hard to decide which direction to look at. Thankfully, I had SpinCam to capture the moment!
Go HERE to experience more of Tucker's festival Spins!
