Gone are the days when photographers could effortlessly make music festivals their muse.
Festival photography has been a substantial niche for a while. There are plenty of artists who hire photographers to visually capture their performance, and later use the pictures for marketing. This won’t be possible anymore, at least at Insomniac events. The company behind EDC and Nocturnal Wonderland has set new and seemingly brutal policies for photographers at their forthcoming events and festivals.
Personal photographers (paid or unpaid) will no longer be allowed to accompany artists; instead, the festivalβs official team of photographers will provide services on a tier-based system. There is a free tier, which guarantees the artist three to five photographs of their set in the span of ten minutes when the photographer is present. Also, these images cannot be used for marketing. The paid packages range fromΒ $500-$2000.
Photo by Tim P. Whitby/Getty Images
Not only does this seem like too much work, even for Insomniac, it’s a lot of money for an average artist (who is not a Kanye or Skrillex) to spend on the photography of an individual event. Let us know your thoughts on this, folks. Do keep tabs on The Sherp for more news.