Last Fling - Part 1

Last year during the Last Fling Festival I was posting updates every day on my blog.  And I think I was the only person doing that.  This year everyone was posting photos back and forth on Facebook, Twitter, and such.  So I didn't feel a need to stay up all night sorting through my images.  But now that I have had some time, I thought I'd share a couple of them with you.

I was honored to emcee the Bed Races this year, but unfortunately that meant that I couldn't photograph it as well.  So, sorry, no good bed racing photos from me this time.  Next year I think I'll still be in charge of the event, but hand off the emceeing duties to someone else.  I missed being at the finish line with my camera, especially since this was a year of close calls and crashes.

Blues Legend Buddy Guy opened the show for us on Friday night.  And wow, what a show!  I think some musicians are content to coast on their 'legend' title.  But Buddy was amazing.  He even went down into the crowd at one point and was singing down there.  It was easily the best Friday night act I can remember.  And backstage he was great to work with. Everyone really liked him.  

 Seventh Heaven put on another enthusiastic performance.  I enjoyed the set that they played at Ribfest, and I'm glad we had them at the Fling.

The most notable thing about Collective Soul was their stage lighting.  It was powerful and vivid, and occasionally aimed right at the crowd.  Instead of fighting it, I would wait for the right moment to get some good lens flare.  It became less about getting good shots of the singer, but instead capturing some emotional action shots.

And how could we say goodbye to summer festivals without... PIE!

I took over 3,100 images during the four day festival.  A number of them will be in the next issue of Naperville Magazine.  And the Jaycees will use some of them to promote next year's event.