Just as a bit of a precursor to this blog, I want to outline the main things that I learned at this year's Bamboozle festival:

1) Juggalos really do exist. And they're creepy as hell. Whoever decided that Insane Clown Posse needed to play a festival comprised mostly of 16-year-old girls is either a) a pervert or b) has no idea what a "target demographic" is and why they should at least KIND OF stick to it.

2) There are actually people in Jersey who look, talk, and act like the goons on Jersey Shore.

3) It is possible to watch A Day to Remember, Lil' Wayne, and Wolfgang Gartner live in immediate succession.

4) New Jersey has the worst freeway system I have ever encountered.

5) Working events means eating a lot of pizza. However, after three days of consuming nothing but Papa Johns, should the opportunity to eat authentic New York pizza present itself, YOU TAKE THE OFFER. Case in point:


Vodka and margherita pizza slices. I got drunk off their names alone.

Alright, so most of you probably have no idea that I attended Bamboozle at the beginning of the month--and that's okay, because I was there to work at the Zumiez tent and make people play stupid games for awesome knick knacks. Man, people LOVE free knick knacks. They also like to pretend they are stealing said free knick knacks. Who the hell steals free things? Apparently people in New Jersey do. No offense if you live in NJ--the people in question were definitely under 15 years old and couldn't stop talking about how drunk they were. Cool!

In all seriousness, Bamboozle was amazing. I was there for work, so I couldn't take live photos of the bands--or even watch most of the artists who played during the day--but I was able to watch the headliners every night since people stopped going to the tents at around 10. The bands I saw include A Day to Remember, Lil' Wayne, Wolfgang Gartner, 30 Seconds to Mars, Thrice, Gatsbys American Dream, a few minutes of New Found Glory, and two songs of Insane Clown Posse. That's right, I saw ICP in real life. They catapulted open 2 liters of their root beer into the crowd for the entirety of their set, and their backup dancers were dancing dead people. Not quite my cup of tea. At all. In fact, I think I'd rather watch a three-toed sloth run a full marathon than watch ICP again. And the juggalos. Oh the juggalos. A few found the Zumiez tent and took some photos in our photo booth, but I can't bring myself to look them up. Just trust me on this one.

For my next act, I will attempt to tell stories using images from the weekend. First, an airplane wing! (Oooh, ahhh!)



K that was boring. Moving right along.

I saw the wonderful Megan Thompson for the first time since last year's Warped Tour, so naturally I had to put on a funny hat and pull her into our photo booth. I also met Adam Elmakias, who I have been following for a while (literally. BWAHAHA), and I made him take unflattering pictures with me as well. Oh, and he makes these awesome lens bracelets for both Canon and Nikon enthusiasts. Check 'em out!





I also met Tom Falcone, who was too busy mingling with his famous friends to take a photo booth picture with me. BOO. Instead, I snapped this lovely little number while I was jump roping:



For whatever reason, this next photo kind of symbolizes the calm before the storm. Maybe it's because 10 hours later there were 20,000 people in front of this stage:



We became good friends with the Glamour Kills Clothing crew over the weekend (their tent was right next to ours), and it all started with a killer jump rope/double dutch session. Those dudes and gals are rad.









Forever the Sickest Kids did a short signing at our tent on Sunday afternoon, and there were over 200 kids who waited in line for WAY too long to meet them.



That's pretty much all the interesting/relevant photos I took at the festival, but we also went to New York for a couple of hours on Monday before our flight. Glamour Kills invited us to come check out their office, and then they took us to eat THE BEST PIZZA EVER!! (See: above for said pizza.)





New friends!



That's all for now. I'm trying to get back into the swing of blogging excessively, and I'd say this is a decent start.

Comments? Questions?! Leave 'em below!