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Lovedrop Festival
Official Photographer
Photographing a Festival: Behind the Scenes at Love Drop Festival
Arriving at the festival (and the Sock Fighting Championships)
Friday came around quickly.
After a slightly stressful morning packing and a four-hour drive, we arrived later than planned and immediately started bumping into friends in the campsite.
Our daughter ran happily off to the kids’ field with some little pals while we tried to decide whether to pitch our tent… or head straight into the festival.
Because the Sock Fighting Championships were about to start.
Naturally, the tent could wait.
I grabbed my camera and headed straight into the action, immediately crawling around on the floor capturing this utterly ridiculous competition. There was so much happening that despite only just arriving, I already felt like I was behind on photographing everything.
Meanwhile Nick was happily catching up with friends we hadn’t seen in ages.
The Mustard Mansion situation
By dusk we realised we probably should set up the tent before darkness arrived.
Our tent is enormous. It’s a blow-up tent and technically easy to set up… but it’s absolutely massive.
We lovingly call it The Mustard Mansion.
Once the tent was up we cooked some food, got our daughter Fern settled for the night and suddenly realised how tired we were.
Friday night at the festival seemed fairly chilled, so we headed to bed around midnight.
I love festivals. Always have, always will.
From my very first venture to V97 in Temple Newsom, Leeds, with a gang of school friends and my mum and stepdad in tow… to Exit Festival on the banks of the Danube in Serbia… to a four-day New Year’s Eve festival on top of a mountain on Koh Tao in Thailand.
I’ve done the lot.
I’m old enough to have climbed the fence to get into Glastonbury just before they built the big metal one. I’ve worked festivals too – for other people and for myself. I’ve run clothes stalls, worked food stands, created festival décor and even DJ’d.
But there was one thing I’d never done until last summer.
Professionally photograph a festival.
Getting the opportunity to photograph Love Drop Festival
So when Alex and Rosey – the lovely couple who run Love Drop Festival – put a call out on Facebook for a paid festival photographer, I jumped at the chance.
Not only would I get paid, but my family and I were also invited along to the private boutique festival itself, tucked away in the rolling hills of Shropshire.
Although we live in Leeds, we have a big gang of Shropshire friends, which is how I met Alex and Rosey in the first place.
It sounded like the perfect combination of work, creativity and festival fun.
Missing the headline act (oops)
I slept like an absolute log.
When I woke up at 9am and checked my phone, there were several missed calls from Alex and a message sent at 12:20am asking where I was.
The headline act had been playing.
They wanted photos of the whole thing.
The band was called Dog Show. Earlier in the day I had wondered why there was a dog show happening in the middle of the night… but hadn’t thought much more about it.
Turns out it wasn’t a dog competition.
It was an utterly bonkers headline performance that everyone had been excited to see!
Everyone except us… because we were fast asleep.
I started Saturday feeling incredibly guilty and slightly embarrassed that I’d missed such a big moment. It felt like a lot of pressure being the only photographer.
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Photographing fancy dress and festival magic
So I grabbed my camera and headed straight down to the main tent where a yoga session was just starting.
The rest of Saturday turned out to be glorious.
The sun came out and it was fancy dress day, with the theme Curious Creatures. Festival-goers absolutely did not disappoint.
The costumes were colourful, elaborate and wonderfully ridiculous.
There was a big fancy dress parade and I got right down to the front to photograph it. Alex and I also organised a huge group photo which I’m particularly proud of – everyone looked so vibrant, sparkly and joyful.
During the editing process I even added the Love Drop logo drifting through the clouds above the crowd.
When the dancefloor is too packed for a camera
By Saturday afternoon I’d been wandering around photographing everyone for about six hours with my very heavy camera.
So I popped it back at the tent while we grabbed some food and had a little early evening dance.
Once the disco tent really got going, I thought it was time to start photographing again. But when I reached the dancefloor I realised it was absolutely rammed.
Hot. Steamy. Sweaty.
There was no way I could safely use my big SLR camera in that crowd, so I switched tactics and grabbed my phone and gimbal instead to capture video content.
Sometimes when you're photographing a festival you simply have to adapt to the moment.
A slower Sunday at the festival
Sunday had a much calmer energy - as they often do at festivals.
There were crafting workshops, kids’ activities and plenty of relaxed moments happening around the site.
It was lovely to capture a different side of the festival before we packed up and headed back to Yorkshire later that afternoon.
Yes, this is me!
Behind the Camera (and often in fancy dress too! )
Festivals have always been part of my life, so photographing one felt strangely natural — even if I did spend some of the time behind the camera and some of it fully embracing the fancy dress chaos.
(Insert your fancy dress photo here)
Because honestly, if you're going to spend a weekend photographing a festival, you might as well join in the fun too.
What I learned about photographing festivals
Photographing a festival is very different from photographing almost anything else.
You have to move quickly.
You have to adapt constantly.
And you have to accept that you can’t capture everything.
But what you do capture are the moments that matter.
The laughter.
The colour.
The costumes.
The chaos.
The joy of people being completely themselves.
And that’s exactly what festivals are all about.
Would I photograph a festival again?
Absolutely.
Although I might set a few more alarms next time.
Planning a festival or creative event?
If you're organising a festival, community event or creative gathering and want vibrant, personality-filled photography that captures the real atmosphere of the day, I'd love to hear from you.
From colourful costumes and big group moments to those spontaneous little bits of magic that happen when everyone relaxes and enjoys themselves — that's the good stuff.
You can explore more of my photography on my website or get in touch to chat about your event.
