Breakaway Music Festival: Nashville

Foot in the Door

The only way of getting a DSLR camera into a festival grounds is with the right credentials. Progressing through the application process requires employment from an official publisher. I had not been given such an opportunity until shooting at Breakaway: Nashville. I didn’t even have a portfolio prior to applying for the event. From 2015-2018. I used a basic strategy to get my camera in. I could find cheap artist and guest passes through some of my old contacts. Regarding my previous post about Bonnaroo, I used the same strategy.

Frequently, such passes allow you to skip all lines and have special entrances. Every now and then, festivals will feed these passes through a VIP line. Nonetheless, the same product results. Security assumes when seeing the artist pass that you have the right to be there. This charade works especially well if you say, “Oh, I’m the personal photographer for this artist.” Just act like you belong. This also works with gaining access to The Pit with a camera.

Within three years, I implemented this strategy with about fifteen festivals. This method had about a 90% success rate. It wasn’t until October of 2018 that I finally had the opportunity to do work through a professional medium. I can attribute my success with the application process to a close friend from Belmont, Jack Ohle. He put in a good word for me with the CEO of Breakaway’s Prime Social Group, Adam Lynn.

Initial Offical Content

DJ Diesel B2B NGHTMRE

I was ecstatic to be a part of the Breakaway: Nashville team. To emphasize my excitement, several of my photographer buddies were on the media team, as well. When I arrived with my friend Andy Knight, Shaquille O’Neal, AKA DJ Diesel, was turning the tables with an EDM artist known as NGHTMRE. At first, I thought this was a joke. I quickly realized that the two DJ’s were a good pair after taking in the music and observing the electrified crowd. NGHTMRE was scheduled for Saturday evening, but the duo did well on opening day. Likewise, DJ Diesel absolutely killed it the following day with NGHTMRE.

Quinn XCII

I accumulated a plethora of content on the first night of the event. The first artist I captured on day one was Quinn XCII. Quinn became popular through many songs he featured on. Songs such as “Kings of Summer” by Ayokay and “The City” by Louis the Child. Mikael Temrowski, Quinn, truly knows how to put on a show. His authentic stage presence, coupled with his incredible voice (similar to the artist Blackbear), made for a great way to start the evening.

Lil’ Pump

Lil’ Pump has 19,000,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and 18,000,000 followers on Instagram. This dude is listened to globally. Nonetheless, I really don’t understand the hype. Lil’ Pump’s set was very unimpressive. Remind me to skip his show at my next festival.

GRiZ

GRiZ is one of my favorite artists, hands down. He was initially known for his collaborations with Bassnectar, Big Gigantic, Gramatik, and Pretty Lights. Shortly thereafter, his music blew up. Today, his music is essentially a mixture of electro-soul/funk EDM tracks accompanied by the saxophone. Grant (GRiZ) knows how to woo the crowd and put on a killer show. His Breakaway: Nashville setlist consisted of many of his old and new songs. This was a refreshing surprise. Although I am a GRiZ fanatic, his 2016/2017 setlist was getting a little aged. His set was definitely one of my favorites that weekend.

Lil’ Skies

I hate to generalize all the “Lil’s” out there, but there’s a lot. To put it in perspective, Spotify now offers more than 8,000 artists that have “Lil” at the beginning of their name. THAT IS INSANE. Nonetheless, Lil’ Skies (pictured below) surprised the hell out of me. With every banger he played, the crowd collectively intensified. The crowd of 15,000 people screamed the lyrics of “Red Roses” with all their heart. By the end of his set, I was a massive fan. By the end of the night, I had 20 tracks of his on my phone.

Reflecting on Breakaway: Nashville

Shooting media for Prime Social’s event is something I am truly thankful for. I had the opportunity to finally get my foot in the door. Considering this was my first time legally in The Pit, the whole experience was an eye-opener. I was extremely glad that the whole weekend I had 5 fully charged batteries and 2 120 GB 4k SD cards. In the past, I often would realize I was missing one, or the other. At that point, it is too late to fix the mistake. Fortunately, I came prepared and got thousands of pictures and 110 GB of footage! Breakaway: Nashville was an experience of a lifetime and I highly recommend getting your admission for this year’s event!\