On November 9th, popular music festival, Camp Flog Gnaw, returned to Dodgers stadium. This is the eight year the festival has been held and it’s creator, popular artist, Tyler the Creator, continues to keep audience members entertained. Being one of the most popular contemporary music festivals, the lineup was naturally very strong featuring artists such as SZA, DaBaby, and Brockhampton.

 

This year Flog Gnaw opened a third stage, the Gnaw Stage, and a variety of other attractions. With roughly 50,000 attendees, the festival made many improvements from last year. Camp Flog Gnaw partnered with Postmates, a online delivery service, to allow attendees to order and pickup food instead of waiting in long lines. Audience members say they saw a big improvement in performance energy  due to the cutdown of extravagant set designs which allow artists more space to choreograph and jump around. Despite these improvements, many say the festival suffered obvious “growing pains” as technical difficulties and disorganization happened on multiple occasions over the two days.

 

On day two of the festival, one of the most popular artists of modern pop culture was booed off the stage. Lineup flyers and media posts kept the second days headliner secret. Many audience members predicted the secret artist to be everyone from Frank Ocean to Beyoncé. Chants from the crowd made it obvious they wanted Frank Ocean to appear but when Drake walked out with the mic he was met with instant disappointment. Despite Drake’s worldwide music success, he could not please the crowd who had their mind so set on contemporary artist Frank Ocean. After performing a few songs, Drake rushed off stage, cutting his act short by 15 minutes after seeing the crowds lack of excitement. Although audience members left the festival a little confused, the festival will surely continue to make improvements and draw music lovers from all over the world.

 

Kate Gallaway, SM senior, attended Camp Flog Gnaw this year. “Personally, I thought the festival was good because I wouldn’t pay to see each individual artist, but seeing them all at one place was very coinvent,” said Gallaway. “Overall, I thought the festival was really unorganized because the security was very lenient and schedules for performers weren’t followed. When Drake got booed off the stage, I just felt like it was a representation of the people there. No one was grateful for the artist but also the festival should have known their audience better and booked acts people actually wanted to see.”