Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival
Yesterday, my wife and I attended the annual Wildflower! Arts & Music Festival in Richardson, TX for the first time. According to their website, for over 31 years, Richardson has hosted this event featuring past performers including “the Fitz and the Tantrums, Judah & the Lion, Grand Funk Railroad, The Guess Who, Neon Trees, Quiet Riot, The Jacksons, and many more.”
Meredith Crawford & the Mean Streak
In addition to the main stage, the venue hosts 5 other stages scattered about in and among the art booths and food vendors. While munching on some great gyros, we had the pleasure of listening to some fantastic music by Meredith Crawford & the Mean Streak:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxZngRCqvvg
For some reason, in almost everything I found online, Meredith Crawford’s vocals are lost behind the band, which is very unfortunate because she has a great voice. The link above is the only recording I found that seems to be mixed properly and does her justice.
I’m sure there were lots of other great bands, but we got there with just enough time to listen to Meredith Crawford and then move to the Methodist Richardson Amphitheater Stage to watch the headline performances for the remainder of the evening.
The Romantics
First up were The Romantics, the 70’s and 80’s band known for songs like “Talking in Your Sleep” and “What I Like About You.“ Minus a few technical glitches, it was a great show.
The Little River Band
After the Romantics, the Little River Band performed a number of their hits from their Greatest Hits album.
The Little River Band, who also had their start in the ’70s, put on a great show.
As the evening progressed, more and more people streamed in making for tight spaces, and more than one heated argument over claimed territory and personal space. As many people you see in the photos above, there were just as many or more behind us.
Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
When 10 pm rolled around, it was finally time for the headline performance, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, who, performed some of their greatest hits, their new single, “If You’re Blue,” and songs from their new EP titled Mindsets. A few of their new songs were performed live for the first time! And, of course, Joan Jett did not disappoint.
My wife and I came to the Wildflower! AMF for an evening out, and received much more than we expected. I’d love to say we came to see the performers mentioned above, but we didn’t. We came to get out of the house, spend time together, and live a life beyond work and home. We had a great time, ate good food, experienced great live performances, and stepped out of our usual routine. Sometimes that means you have to deal with rude, drunk people who are looking for a fight and think much more of themselves than anyone else, but life is taking the bad along with the good.
Oh, and I snapped this BTS shot of the camera and media switcher crew too:
Banning Cameras
All photos were taken with my Pixel 7 and edited in Lightroom, which brings me to a topic that, on the one hand, I understand, but on the other, continues to aggravate me. In the current reality of everyone and their sister owning a smartphone that is capable of taking photos, and recording both audio and video, why do venues continue to ban similarly capable devices in any other form? I understand that major bands like Joan Jett and Little River want/need to control how their music is disseminated but newer smartphones take photos and record audio and video much better than 5 to 10-year-old DSLRs. Smartphones are so ubiquitous, restricting their use cannot be enforced.
In order to bring a camera with either a fixed or interchangeable lens into the venue, you had to get approved for a media pass and then that approval is only given if you are a member of a major media outlet. For one thing, the lesser well-known performers like Meredith Crawford & the Mean Streak, really need the publicity that fans taking photos and videos provide. For another, if you go back and take a look at the smartphone photos above, you can see that they are full of other people taking photos and videos of the event with their phones, many of whom will post these online on social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, and others. When I bought my Pixel 7, I deliberately did not spend the extra money to buy the Pro version with the better camera because I honestly do not like smartphone photos. However, as this continues to be the trend, I may invest in a photo-centric smartphone and related accessories to get around this bias against real cameras. If you hold up a smartphone, no one cares. When you hold up a camera, people jump out of their skin and start getting defensive.
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