Words by Amanda Ratcliffe - AKA amandashootsbands

Straight from the mouth of Mr. Mark de Jong himself, I learned that this was the 24th Parachute Music Festival, and it is growing larger every year it’s held at the Mystery Creek venue in Hamilton. After a quick wander around the numerous camping areas on site, it is made pretty clear of just how popular this event has become, not only to your usual festival loving teens, but families with young children, right through to grandparents. This kind of atmosphere brings plenty of respect toward others, and a pleasant and peaceful vibe like no other festival I’ve ever been to in New Zealand.

Shooting such an event is almost a luxury with an array of great stages inside and out, along with stalls and delicious food caravans - which are an absolute must not only for photos, but also for the many a hungry tum tum! But as much as I’d like to continue to talk about the food side of things, I do have a mix bag of onstage highlights from this year’s event, so lets get into it!

First was the gorgeous Lisa Crawley who performed a string of her hit songs to a bunch of fans at the Deluxe stage. Later in her performance she was joined by a couple of real life bananas who danced in the background as she sung. Pretty cute! And speaking of cute, she also mentioned cats and how she was moving to Melbourne on the coming Monday to live and that she was taking her cat with her. Anyone who loves animals that much is darn right fabulous if you ask me!

Zero T made me smile at the Massive stage when they opened one of their songs with “Have you ever wanted to just punch someone in the face?”. Why yes, Zero T I have...In fact that very morning I experienced that exact urge when I went out to my car on the street to drive out to the festival only to find that some little piece of work had not only jumped on my bonnet, but also my roof - leaving my car so dented I couldn’t even drive it... WHO DOES THAT?! I need Zero T on my side to hunt them down to do similar damage to their faces...

Of course Ruby Frost was a favourite of mine with her beaming smile and fabulous tunes. I’m sure they must have pumped up the base for her cover of Massive Attack’s Tear Drop too – sounded amazeballs for sure. It’s always awesome to see how humble she is toward her fans, and makes me proud to be a New Zealander.

John Key popped by for a visit on the Saturday morning, and after greeting the crowds, he treated a rather long line of folk to a sausage sizzle! Firstly, I love a good sausage, but that’s not the only reason I enjoyed this so much. It was more for the fact that I’ve always seen Mr. Key’s BBQ’s in pictures, but I’ve never seen it with my own lion-peepers! Cheers John!

Massad brought with him two treats - Girl Next Door star and internet sensation Jamie Curry, along with some neat balloons and sparkly confetti action at the end of the set! Definitely made shooting exciting, and the crowd loved it too! It must also be mentioned that he had the ladies swooning over him as he bounced side to side around the stage being sure to reach out to every one of them. Heartthrob!!!

The young and old alike were amped at the Deluxe stage to hear that Brooke Duff was filming her next video there while performing live. She even opened with a brilliant cover of Lorde’s Team, and I must say it was so nice to see someone smiling as they sung that song. Ten billion times better than the original if you ask me – nice work Ms. Duff! Looking forward to seeing that new video clip for sure!

I also got quite into Erwin McManus who spoke about humans being put here to achieve great things in their lives and that we have the power to ‘craft our lives into a work of art’. I always love this style of seminar, and find them highly motivational. It’s also exciting thinking about how many people left feeling as though they actually can achieve their dreams.  Just get out there and do it, rather than thinking about it...God loves a trier after all... ;)

I caught a moment of Mark de Jong and Gungor’s discussion titled ‘Is Christian music dead?’ which was another interesting topic, where both parties felt very strongly about the fact that music is music, and cannot be created or owned by a belief, faith or religion.

MxPx brought back memories from my teens as they graced the main stage later in the evening with a rip-roaring performance.  There was plenty of guitar flipping action from front man Mike Herrera as he jumped around the stage like a 20 something year old. Whatever he ate for breakfast, I want some! Perhaps he was fueled on John Key’s sausage from the morning...

Man! Writing about these adventures and meats has sure made me hungry. Might be time to fill my belly, but not before telling you all to check out Parachute next year - it really is an awesome experience, and even though I haven’t done the camping part myself, it does look über fun!  Happy days!

Amanda x

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