The Electric Watermelon Man

Being a festival photographer is a fun job, but it requires a great deal of endurance and hustle. In addition to hauling around a rather heavy cache of gear, one has to boogie from one stage to the next in order to be there at the start of the scheduled set and get in the 3 songs worth of allotted shooting  before being evicted from the pit. This cycle goes on all day, and if a festival has three or more stages, you've got to be on point to capture all of the music.

Such was the case at day 1 of Bottle Rock in Napa, where I first ran into the watermelon man while zipping from one stage to the other. Having quickly perused the food selections from some of Napa's elite restaurants as I made my way from one stage to another (this festival is a foodie's wet dream-but you better bring some cash), I was looking for quick sustenance.The watermelon man caught my attention because the sign on his mobile cart said $1 a slice, an extraordinary value in this venue.

The electric watermelon man with another energized customer

I was in a bit of a hurry, but I briefly engaged him by innocently asking, "Is your watermelon good?" He stared at me for a moment, then said, "Do you think I'd sell shit?" Not knowing the guy, but assuming the fruit was ok, I shook my head no and continued to head towards shooting Karl Denson's Tiny Universe without purchasing a slice, because I didn't want to risk having sticky hands during the shoot and truth be told, I thought the fella was initially a little curt.
However the $1 price was too tempting, and after the shoot, I found him in the middle of the Tiny Universe crowd and bought a slice, enjoying the juicy revival that it provided me while dancing to more of  the set. He walked up to me as I did this and said, "Good stuff, huh?"

Tiny Universe guitarist D.J. Williams

Day 2 started off well because I got to shoot a great young Sacramento band called Autumn Sky for the first time. As the day wore on, I successfully shot Third Eye Blind, Cracker and Tea Leaf Green, and interviewed the festival owners at a press conference. But I still had Weezer, Outkast, De La Soul and Heart to shoot and I was running out of gas as I finished shooting Robert Earl Keen.
To stave off fatigue, I secured my camera gear and decided to try and regroup with a walk. Suddenly, there he was on the walking path-the watermelon man, ready with a fat wedge of heart-filled rind. I gratefully handed over a buck and wandered off with my reward.
At this point, I realized I had wandered into the silent disco area, because I could clearly hear and see Keen from a near distance, yet people were dancing in quiet bliss all around me. For those of you who aren't familiar, the silent disco is a festival area where participants put on wireless headphones and dance silently (except for the beats in their head) to the music of a nearby dj who is broadcasting the signal. It's like a sea of funky, twitchy mimes.Having never tried this (and being a little skeptical about the hipster taint of it all), I slipped on the headphones with one hand while holding the sticky watermelon in the other.
 I was immediately experienced this seismic mental shift where Middle-Eastern beats were bouncing around in my head and I realized my feet had suddenly started involuntarily shuffling and bouncing as me and the watermelon slice got it on to the beat. I could sense my blood vessels dilating and my heart starting to pump more rapidly, as a new watermelon spirit emerged in me. Cosmic rejuvenation! The Karpousi (Kar-poo-zee) as watermelon is called in Greek, was kicking in.
 After indulging in another couple of songs, I handed back the head phones, and bounded like Tigger over to the nearby Robert Earl Keen's set, dancing and hopping all the way. I decided to share this new energy I was feeling along the way and suddenly, a few bored, beautiful women, who were standing with guys that were trying too hard to look cool, were dancing along and a chain reaction of "happy feet" broke out as the great Keen (such a fitting name for the amazing songwriter!) kicked his band into high gear. Needless to say, he had the whole crowd at his mercy for the rest of his set. I'd like to say I had something to do with that, but by that time I was heading off to go shoot Weezer, wondering "what was in that watermelon?"

Robert Earl Keen

Silent disco kids-I was one of THEM!