Fest for Tigers: part one

"William Daywalt, a UMBC student, is tossed around the crowd during The Calling’s performance at Tigerfest at Towson University, Saturday, April 27. Daywalt was among the many students that attended Tigerfest and was not from Towson. The Roots performed at the end of Tigerfest. The band played an hour-and-a-half-long set, which they finished up with their song “The Seed 2.0.”"

Well, I was pleasantly surprised with Tigerfest and the weather Saturday.

After shooting a couple morning and afternoon assignments, I arrived at Towson University around 4 p.m. to cover the annual Tigerfest concert and festival.

Something changed from last year. There were a lot more people and more rowdiness to the students and visitors.

Nursing a fresh sunburn, mild dehydration, due to lack of fluids, and an empty stomach I walked around scouting out subjects.

The first subject I scouted out was the pit beef stand. The sandwich, ice-cold drink and Advil were much needed. Too bad the pounding in my head didn't stop until I got home.

As I pushed through the day and around Burdick Field nearly 20 times, I tried to find the story of the event. As I previously mentioned, it's typically a very tame event.

People lying on the grass, others playing on the inflatable entertainments, students dancing to the music, etc.

Conversely, this year was dissimilar. I don't know if it was the summer like weather with no rain, the main performances to come or what seemed to be less strict rules.

People were clearly having an excellent time. Some decided to bear it all by not wearing any clothing, while some chose to lose it all on Burdick by proving they drank too much.

Throughout the afternoon and evening, I saw at least two naked people, three pukers and a dozen or so passed out.

The funny thing is when I jokingly asked their buddies if those passed out had too much to drink; their response was always the same, "Nah, man. He (or she) is always like that. They are just tired."

Right. I didn't care either way, and I relayed that to them each time, but I still found it very comical. One guy even regained conciseness after his friend told him I took his picture and he then proceeded to beg me not to publish his photo. Twice in 30 minutes.

All in all, I enjoyed myself. I told all my photographers that they were not scheduled to shoot, but I highly recommended them to show up and shoot as much as possible.

The seven page (mostly) photo spread looked great; a nice contrast of images. We all captured the day differently, but it came together to tell the entire story in the end. I am glad everyone showed up to make pictures. It was a long day of editing down 5,000 images Sunday.

Tuesday I'll talk more on the crowds and performances. Stay tuned.