Words and Photos by Judy Won

I woke up early in the morning to make my way to Dallas for So What!? Music Festival. The 3-hour drive was fairly short compared to my cross country road trip from Columbus, OH to Austin, TX earlier last week. During the car ride, I found myself hoping that the festival would be well worth the extra drive; it was. This was my second time attending So What!? Music Festival, first time being in 2014. I felt like this festival was a play on SXSW in Austin, but with heavier and more pop punk musicians. As of the last few years, the festival used to run 3 days long, with this year being the first year of being only two days.

The first day consisted of a throwback/pop punk vibe with bands like New Found Glory, Bayside, Neck Deep, State Champs and Real Friends. There were also a few other bands I saw earlier in the week at another festival: Blessthefall, Citizen, Emery, Miss May I, Sirens & Sailors and Slaves. The day kind of started off slow; the stadium wasn’t nearly as packed as it could have been, people seemed like they still needed a few more hours to really wake up and the ATM lines stretched across the baseball fields multiple times throughout the day.

The stages are set up in a rectangle like manner, with the two main stages back to back with the smaller, side stage on the side of the building. The festival seemed to be going smoothly with quick load ins and set changes.  I found myself checking out a lot of musicians that I’ve never heard of before at the third stage. Texas seems to have a knack for being the home of passionate musicians.  While I stated earlier that day one seemed to be mostly pop punk, there was still enough variety in talent throughout the day to cater to anyone’s music taste.

New Found Glory was definitely my favorite set I shot all day, as front man Jordan Pundik decided to bring up a fan who had been standing against the barricade all day to see the pop punk gods, sporting his “My Friends Over You” shirt. After he was brought up on stage, guitarist Chad Gilbert pulled him aside and told him that NFG would play any song for him that they hadn’t already preformed or planned on playing later on in their set. He rubbed his hand on his chin and took a solid minute or two to think about this though decision; the power to have his favorite band play any song of his choosing. After some time pondering on this decision, he asked if they would play their cover of “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion.

I think it’s safe to say that everyone was caught off guard, as everyone let out a laugh to this request. Gilbert joking told the fan that out of all the songs they had written, he went with a Celine Dion cover. But the fan had a good response; all of his favorite songs had already been performed that night or was going to be performed later on.

Bands photographed on Day 1: New Found Glory, State Champs, Real Friends, Blessthefall, and Miss May I.

It’s safe to say that Day 2 had the heavy hitters of the festival lineup. I believe that I can safety say that a majority of the festival goers were in Dallas this weekend to see Underoath. Almost all of the people against the barricade at the beginning of the day were also there for the end of the day as Saosin with Antony Green and Underoath’s sets approached. Today’s day wasn’t as pop punk as the previous day, but had a more diverse heavy scene with The Devil Wears Prada, Beartooth, Born of Osiris and Fit For a King to name a few.

While I photographed a lot more bands today than the day before, every photographer’s goal was to photograph Underoath at the end of the night. Unfortunately for many, that did not happen.  About 10 minutes before Underoath was ready to go on, press of So What got an email stating that Underoath did not want any photographers asides from festival staff in the pit, and if anyone was caught trying to photograph them in the pit without the proper credentials, they would be thrown out. I, like a majority of my photographer cohorts, made the trek to Dallas for this weekend festival in hopes of photographing Underoath. Thankfully, I had made life long friendships at this festival two years ago with staff members and musicians alike, so I talked to the proper staff members and was able to get the “god pass” to photograph Underoath. Thank you Daniel Defonce of Third String Media for making that happen. It’s safe to say that Underoath’s set was the most intricate and well put for the entire festival, with beautiful lights and crisp sound.

Bands photographed on day 2: Underoath, The Devil Wears Prada, Saosin, Beartooth, Dance Gavin Dance, Silverstein, The Word Alive, Born of Osiris, Fit for a King, I See Stars and ’68.