JOINING THE KREWE - BUKU NEW ORLEANS
My first time in New Orleans was to cover this year’s BUKU music festival. If you have been on the fence about going let me tell you, make the jump because I thoroughly enjoyed both days so much! The atmosphere was so much different than what I was used to - the only other music festivals I had been to were Warped Tour, SXSW, and South By So What. From the moment you walked through the gates to the venue you could hear the music travelling from the many different stage setups.
Walking onto the festival grounds I made it just in time to catch Excision’s set. I was a little sad they scheduled him during the day, it felt like his visual effects got robbed by the sunlight - but it didn’t stop me or anyone else from enjoying his dope performance. From there I rushed over to catch some of Denzel Curry’s set. I was excited to see him because the first time I found out about his music he was doing a live session with Rage Against The Machine and his live performance had so much energy. It was hard to keep up with him in front of the barrier as he bounced around and worked every inch of the stage. The crowd was wild beginning to end.
The next artist on my list to see was Kevin Gates but his set wasn’t for another hour. So I killed a little time at the From First To Last DJ set and it felt like I was at an Emo Nite event. Honestly, they played all of the classics and it felt like I was 16 again. When they were finished I made my way through the crowd to see Kevin Gates on the Power Plant stage. He definitely had a more chill set than the other acts I watched on day one but that didn’t make it any less enjoyable. He had the crowd spouting off all his lyrics and that’s always an incredible thing to witness. I had to leave early to catch Mayday Parade at the Ballroom Stage and made my way back through packed crowd. The Ballroom was packed so I already knew the set was going to be insane. They had a crazy light setup and made sure to be up and personal with the crowd. I got to feel like a kid again for the third time that day.
Everyone I had seen up to that point had very energetic and amazing sets but just when I thought it couldn’t get any better I was ale to catch TOKiMONSTA and RL Grime. Both sets were so astonishing with visuals and mixes. I’d definitely have to say RL Grime was the most enjoyable, not only did he have dope visuals but he had tons of pyrotechnics. It would be an understatement to say his set didn’t low my mind. He definitely had the biggest crowd I encountered from day one and got some of my favorite photos from the day.
Lincoln is a freelance photographer and musician in the DFW area. He has four years of experience - his work now mainly revolves around portraits and live music, though he is always open and enjoys exploring photography in any aspect.