All Things Go DC Day 1… The Fun is Just Getting Started
BY LIZ BAUMMERArguably one of the best, if not THE best (but maybe I’m biased lol) weekends of the year has officially come and gone. And as sad as it is that we’ll have to wait another 362 days to do it all again, we have so much to debrief now that I’ve gotten to catch up on some much needed sleep.
Friday was the perfect start to a festival in my opinion. I personally loved that Friday was a shortened day with doors at 3:00pm and performances starting at 4:00pm. This gave fans ample time to travel to the festival the same day as opposed to rushing down in the morning. For me, it was nice to ease into a long weekend with 8 hours of coverage as opposed to the usual 12 lol.
In maybe my proudest achievement of the weekend… *drum roll please*... I was able to successfully photograph all 9 artists on the schedule on Friday. My legs did indeed suffer; HOWEVER, I’ll do anything for our Out Jamz peeps to get that peak festival experience!
The day started out with Caroline Kingsbury who was probably my favorite new-to-me artist of Friday’s lineup. I personally fell in love with her visuals. She was so much fun to capture on stage and very much gave Cyndi Lauper vibes. We’ve been in contact with her team, and I’m hopeful we’ll be seeing more coverage of her on Out Jamz soon! After that came Sunday (1994), a band that initially I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to catch due to the time overlap, but I am so glad I literally RAN over the hill between stages to make it. The photos of Sunday (1994) are some of my favorites of the entire weekend as the wardrobe choices were stunning. Numerous other photographers commented that Paige Turner looked ethereal and like a princess twirling in her dress. I have already added several of their songs to my new music playlist, and I would not be surprised if they start creeping up in the rankings on my Spotify Wrapped. The third artist I was able to catch was Lucius and this was by far one of the most unique and impressive acts I have ever captured. Even now, I still find myself thinking about their synchronicity and showmanship as they played the drums simultaneously while also singing flawlessly.
Next was one of my personal highlights from the entire weekend, Joy Oladokun. Not only was Joy one of the most down to earth, funniest acts when she was talking on stage; her vocals were also breathtaking. Her music felt like a great choice for an almost golden hour set in the Chrysalis (aka my favorite stage of all time). And to top it off, Liam Gillin - Out Jamz’s founder and fearless leader, was working as Oladokun’s photographer for the weekend, so he and I got to share the photo pit for the first time ever! We’ve spoken endlessly about finally meeting in person, so this very much was a dream come true! I’ll have lots more to say in our full weekend recap that touches on all the reasons ATG really is one of my favorite weekends of all time. After Joy Oladokun, I got to listen to catch the first two songs from Sharon Van Etten & The Attachment Theory. I really loved their style of music with notes of indie rock and alternative music. The fans were definitely loving this set with the pit in the Pavilion absolutely packed.
As we were moving later into the night, The Beaches took over the Chrysalis stage. I gotta say The Chrysalis crowd was in for a treat with The Beaches being followed by The Last Dinner Party (but I’ll get to that more in a second). I LOVE The Beaches’s style of music. I began listening to them more last year around ATG 2024 as they came up in my suggested artists on Spotify. It was so cool to now see them live, and I got to hear my favorite song, Blame Brett! The fans were really REALLY loud for their set with the enthusiasm through the roof. At this point the hill for the Chrysalis was packed all the way to the top with people as far as the eye could see.
The Chrysalis was already packed, the Pavilion was just as full with the crowd waiting for The Marías. This was really the first set of the day where we got to see massive stage production. I am a big fan of cool stage designs so I was absolutely delighted. Plus I was able to snag a great spot in the photo pit front and center to get a photo of the iconic silhouette moment. In all honesty, this set really took my breath away. It is indisputable that The Marías are musically talented, but the visuals they created rocked me to my core. The lighting was sharp and richly colored in a way that made the band appear otherworldly and with the multi-teared stage design there was something new to look at every way you looked. Overall, The Marías have my vote for one of the most visually stunning sets of the entire weekend.
At this point, the sun had gone down and we were seeing the Chrysalis lit up in the dark for the first time of the weekend. I don’t think it is ever a sight I will get particularly used to. One of the reasons the Chrysalis is my favorite stage of all time is the way its vibe changes so drastically from day to night. Not only is it stunningly unique visually, but the Chrysalis in the day feels natural, perfectly in place with the woods around it. At night, it lights the trees with stunning displays of colors, lasers, and atmospheric haze. From the photo pit, the tricks of the light make it seem like the hill could go on forever, and like the sea of people endlessly stretches farther than you can see.
The perfect act to take on the Chrysalis in the dark was most certainly The Last Dinner Party. I personally loved their lighting, shades of blue, purple, and red during the first three songs. They also used plenty of atmospheric haze. Those two are a special combination because when those lights mix with the atmospheric haze, the light scattered creating what visually looks like a colored cloud floating up the hill, hovering just over the fans’ heads. There’s nothing quite like it. Another highlight of The Last Dinner Party’s set was how into it the fans were. My personal favorite was the fan who had their friend on FaceTime so that they could also enjoy the performance. They were also holding the phone in a way so that the FaceTime screen was facing the stage. It was really fun to watch the friend on FaceTime and the fan in person make the exact same facial expressions and cheer together even though geographically they were actually far apart.
The last act of the night was a particularly full circle moment for me. Two years ago, Noah Kahan played Merriweather Post Pavilion on tour. At the time, I was just getting back into concert photography after a hiatus due to covid. I didn’t have a publication, and I was wildly unconnected. I was so sad that I couldn’t get into the pit for that show, and even sadder that I didn’t just impulsively buy tickets and decide to go for fun. Last year, I - on behalf of Out Jamz - was rejected from his show in Pittsburgh… this moment at All Things Go felt like a long time coming.
Noah Kahan’s music sat with me in a, and then subsequently helped pull me out of a, really dark place at one point in my life - an experience that I think many of his fans can relate to. And you could feel an energy of hope and gratitude throughout the entire venue when he played. Many laughs and many tears… I may or may not have teared up in the photo pit… were shared throughout the venue. So many of his songs are so deeply emotional and hold so much individual meaning to each fan that there is a palpable feeling in the air when he plays. I’ve spent a long time trying to accurately put into words exactly how it feels, but nothing I write seems to do it justice. It’s like the whole venue vibrates but not in like a high energy, loud base way (although he does definitely have some high energy songs) but in an emotional way that makes it feel like you’re simultaneously the only one there and like the 20,000 other people are the closest people you have ever known.
Overall, All Things Go DC Day 1 was, as expected, a raging success. The first time the festival has ever began on a Friday, it was beautiful to see how the expansion has led to an additional great day of music at Merriweather Post Pavilion.
