Live at Squamish 2012: the Mega Photo post

This past weekend was the third installment of the Live at Squamish music festival. For the second year in a row, I attended to shoot photos of all the bands that made the trek up the Sea to Sky highway.

But I almost didn’t get there…despite heading up early, there was a huge accident on the highway that shut it down (the only route to Squamish) for hours. Many bands were also stuck in the parking lot on one of the most beautiful stretches of BC Highway.

Fortunately, we finally were able to get to Squamish just as the first acts were starting to hit the stage. With three stages and concurrent bands playing it was hard to be everywhere I wanted to be but I made it work.

Here’s the highlights from the two day festival (in no particular order):

Chromeo

I put my GoPro on the hotshoe of my DSLR to give you an idea of my view from the photo pit. You can hear the DSLR shutter going off like popcorn. This clip features the opening song from Chromeo’s performance. You should get an idea of the chaotic lighting conditions I was shooting in.

The Sheepdogs (from backstage):

I played around with the Tiny Planet iPhone app from backstage with the Sheepdogs & the Airborne Toxic Event:

Lights

L.P.

The Tragically Hip

The Airborne Toxic Event

Mother Mother

Mark Farina

A completely unexpected treat (and my personal favorite act this year) was the Motown Tribute to Nickelback:

What started out as a mashup video on Youtube ended up with their first live show ever happening at Squamish. Such a high energy show!

Once they got going, the crowd really got into it! They definitely outed a lot of closet Nickelback fans.

You’d never know this was their first gig…I only wish I shot video of it!

Even Tamara Stanners from The Peak got into it after introducing them on stage:

I found them checking out the other bands after their killer set:

Here’s an embedded slideshow of all the photos I shot this year:

and this is a little timelapse of the drive up the Sea to Sky Highway, complete with 2 hour delay due to the highway closure.

Special thanks to Honda Canada for the use of the Ridgeline for the weekend!