Day three of the Gathering was a super weird one for me and we are gonna have to get into it a bit. I had to run some errands in the morning and while I was in a shopping center parking lot I got a call about a family emergency. Things are mostly okay now but that shit set me off a bit. On my way back to the hotel I noticed my tire air pressure was low. It was low to begin with when I picked up the rental car but I wasn’t too worried about it, but now it was quite a bit lower. I pulled into a gas station and found a nail in the tire. I called roadside assistance and then put some air in it and returned the rental car. By the time I got back to the hotel it was already 5pm.
At some point during all that bullshit I got a text from one of the crew from Channel 5. If you somehow don’t know who they are, they are a YouTube show run by a guy named Andrew Callaghan who came to prominence for his interviews during the BLM protests in 2020. I was randomly in one of his earlier “All Gas No Breaks” videos back in early 2019, so I got to see the progression of the channel. Most recently he made news for interviewing Hunter Biden. I am a big fan of Channel 5 because I see a lot of my own work in it. They cover subcultures and people on the margins in a way that doesn’t feel exploitive and honestly I am jealous of it. I wish I still had it in me to be out there searching for the next crazy thing instead of going to my 15th Gathering.
All that being said, recently Channel 5 used one of my photo in one of their videos without permission or credit or payment. I was pretty pissed off about it, especially because of my admiration for their work. When I recognized Sidam, another Channel 5 correspondent on day 2 of the Gathering I struck up a conversation with him and his crew and ended up giving them some tips for their coverage. I knew their video was going to be seen by millions and I want it to correctly represent the Gathering. So when they reached out the next day to ask for an interview I said yes.
By the time I finally got to the Gathering it was 6pm. I was in a horrible mood because of the family emergency and the popped tire, but I was also getting stressed out about talking to Andrew about using my photo. I was just going through what I was going to say, or if I should even say anything. I knew if I didn’t say anything I would spend all interview thinking about it so I decided I needed to confront him. When I met him I told him I needed to talk to him before we did the interview. It honestly was a pretty stressful conversation. I could tell he was a bit nervous about the confrontation, but he didn’t back down from his position that it was fair use. In the end we just moved on and I just was glad to get it off my chest.
While I still don’t agree that it’s fair use (that’s a much longer conversation), any issues I had with Andrew quickly vanished. We ended up talking for about an hour and I felt like by the end we were friends. That’s the sign of a great interviewer. He made me comfortable enough to say some shit I probably shouldn’t have said, but I do somewhat trust him not to fuck me with the interview. Maybe they won’t even use any of it. I have no idea. But I am once again a fan of that guy and as far as I am concerned the beef is squashed… At least until I see their juggalo video. Honestly I see so much of him in myself, I just wish I still had that drive, that courage and half his talent. I really liked his crew as well. One of his filmographers just happened to sit next to me on my connecting flight and we spent the whole time talking and honestly feel like I am gonna be friends with that guy now. Really good dude.
Okay, that is way too much about Channel 5 but that was most of the day, up until the bands started playing. I got to photograph Gwar again which is always fun. They brought out fake Elon Musk and cut his head off to open the set which was perfect. I think last time I saw them was right before the 2016 election and they brought out Trump and Hillary and murdered both of them. Good times. Just a side note, the first time I saw Gwar was when my friends PCP Roadblock opened for them at the 9:30 club in DC probably in like 2002. The crowd absolutely hated them which they just ate up and played even worse to piss off the crowd. At some point sprinklers were set off in their dressing room and it flooded the soundboard and one of the bouncers cut the fuel line in their van and I believe the owner came down just to spray them with a hose in the middle of winter. What a weird memory that was unlocked.
After Gwar was Tech N9ne who is a Gathering regularly and is always great. Bonus Tech N9ne story. I was at this pool party at the Roosevelt Hotel in LA a decade or so ago and someone came up to me and told me there was a juggalo at the party and I had to go photograph him. When I went to see it was Tech N9ne in his face paint. Turns out he had done Kimmel or something that night and came to the party directly. Amazingly he knew who I was and the guy with him told me that whenever they used to go to the Gathering they check my Twitter to see what the festival was like. I was honored. Lastly the night was headlined by my old pal Ouija Macc. I really do love that guy even though I don’t actually listen to his music. People always ask me if I am a juggalo and I tell them I am “juggalo adjacent” because I don’t think you can really be a juggalo if you don’t listen to the music, but like I am happy to rep Ouija and his label Chapter 17 anytime.
After that I went to this “stunt show” which was kinda a clusterfuck. Most people were there to see the wrestling match that followed and you couldn’t really see anything because there were so many photographers. I just sat back because I didn’t want to be in people’s way. I ended up taking photos of a guy getting hit in the nuts twice with a bowling ball but that was about it.
My night ended with quick visit to my buddy Clownvis’ party where he had a bunch of juggalettes dancing around on stage. One of the juggalettes I have become friends with over the years got set on fire which made for some insane photos. There are actually a few of them that are really too NSFW for work for this post, but I am gonna upload them with all the other miscellaneous NSFW shots to Girls of DBB tomorrow.
Okay that’s it, sorry this is 1300 words but honestly I had to talk about some of this shit for my mental health. When I started this blog in 2001 it was pretty much a diary and once in a while I still gotta get my thoughts down on paper even if no one gives a fuck and just wants to see crazy photos.
Now go look at over 100 photos from day three of the 25th annual Gathering of the Juggalos!
