I'll start with a jeer to myself for taking so long to write this!
CHEERS:
Glenn, Jenn and the crew for putting on this amazing festival every year and all the hard work they do!
My awesome roomies, Taylor, London and Dewey!
Dewey, for driving the whole way down from Texas to Atlanta and getting us there in plenty of time to get checked into the hotel and get me to Uproar Festival so I could see Fozzy before going to Nightwish/Kamelot Wed. Also for getting up and getting me to the venue when I needed to be there, late night munchie runs and driving most of the way back too.
To Glenn for making sure I got to shoot Nightwish/Kamelot on Wed! Nightwish's management got a bit stingy with photo passes and a lot of photographers didn't get to shoot them. Glenn had previously OK'd me for the show and when I found out I wasn't on the list he took care of it despite having a hundred other things to do.
To all my fellow photographers. It was a pleasure to share the pit with you again. Not sure who the problem guy was. Guess I got lucky and missed him.
Seeing all of my extended metal ProgPower family! I only wish I had even more time to spend with you!
All the Birthday wishes. Special thanks to my fellow 9/11 Birthday Bobbie for making and sharing cupcakes to cellebrate, Su for my own Birthday baggie of Vodka Gummis, Jim "Poppa Pepper" for his bag of Pepper Powder and Leah for the awesome Randy Rhoades magazine! All of you made this Birthday extra special!
Sitting around in the Courtyard, singing Dio, Pink Floyd, The Beatles and Led Zeppelin songs with Urban Breed, a guy with an acoustic guitar and a bunch of other friends. Priceless!
The awesome Jon Oliva workshop! So entertaining and the songs in between recording were pure gold! Especially "When the Crowds Are Gone"
To Nightwish for the touching tribute to Marc Brueland. As someone who was there for PPUSA IV, I'm not ashamed to admit to shedding a few tears.
All of the bands were so accessible and all of them put on amazing shows! Serenity really stole the show and totally deserved that standing ovation! Other favorites were Pretty Maids, Sinbreed, Mystic Prophecy, Epica and Symphony X.
To Clementine for being so sweet and approachable that I took multiple photos with her. All of Serenity really seemed to go above and beyond and really embraced the spirit of the fest.
To Floor Jansen for also going above and beyond for the fans. After MaYaN's signing session, the band did group photos with fans. Floor knew that there were quite a few fans there that really wanted to get photos with just her, so after everyone finished the group photos, she stayed extra to take solo photos with everyone too. Total class act!
To Bacon Dave for the Pizza!
To Vespucci's for the awesome food and changing their hours to cater to us. To The Varsity for being so awesome! To Krystal's for being open all night and those little burgers having the magic power to prevent hangovers!
Knowing there WILL be a ProgPower next year!
JEERS
Time for going by way too fast!
Missing the first few minutes of the Jon Oliva workshop thanks to heavy traffic. I missed seeing how he did the drums.
Somehow I missed out on the metal cupcakes.
Didn't make it to The Vortex this year.
People who can't hold their alcohol and the Police shutting down the after party
The Alabama Police for pulling us over on the way home and all the heavy rain we had to go through going home
The long wait until next year!