photos by Nick Ghobashi, Tom Fields and Dakota Fine
words by Dakota with excerpts from Amanda Pittman
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To be completely honest, I hadn't really ever heard of Best Friend's Day until about a week before the Eighth anniversary of this shindig kicked off. But it didn't take me long, judging by the character of the event, and the fact that it was taking place in Richmond, Virginia, to realize that it was going to be photo gold.
By all accounts Saturday at Lake Hadad (a man-made lake, that more closely resembles a swimming pool to be honest) was the cherry on top, what with the naked rope swing and the epic torrential downpour. However, yours truly was in attendance for Sunday's festivities and although I missed the actual "Nacho Jump" (bikers jumping over and into an absolutely massive pile of nachos), I still managed to see a whole hell of a lot of partying... oh, and I caught a little legendary hardcore band from Richmond called "Asshole Parade," ever heard of 'em?
So yeah, tread carefully if you are at work, because some of the images directly below are TOTALLY NOT SAFE FOR WORK (NSFW). Which, is pretty much how we at BYT like to roll, but we also want you to keep your job if you've got one. So stop perusing the internet and get to work, or rather, next year make it down to Best Friend's Day so that you don't get stuck again drooling over the pictures and scratching your head why you've never heard of this festival before.
Amanda Pittman, Richmond resident and VCU alumn sent me these choice words to describe Best Friend's Day:
A year ago I was anything but happy to be in Richmond. I couldn’t deal with the lack of Brit-pop and the massive amounts of Metal, Hardcore, and the like. And their idea of a dance party was not my idea of a dance party. Well, the year is over and so is the initial culture shock. I will never be a fan of Gwar or Iron Maiden but they both hail from Richmond and went to VCU and have had a larger influence than say, Jason Mraz or Carbon Leaf on the music scene.
This year was the eighth annual version of this event, which was started by a small group of friends who invited their friends to Richmond from everywhere else. It has since grown to a three or four day event with various activities and line-ups at local venues and parks. This year it was four days and from what I’ve heard had upwards of two thousand people in attendance.
First up, we have some scandalous shots from Nick Ghobashi (avert thine virgin eyes!):
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In reference to Saturday's festivities at Lake Hadad, more from Amanda:
Bands played under the pavilions and people crowded under for shelter, but after about half an hour when it hadn'’t stop raining, and instead actually only began to rain harder, people started dancing in the rain and sliding in the mud, all while shouting “HAPPY BEST FRIENDS DAY!” to the nearest strangers.
There were two “lakes,” one for paddle boating or kayaking, the other for rope swings, floating trampolines and slides. The latter was more popular. Lines were about twenty people long for both rope swings. But anyone that would go off naked could skip the line. Richmond appreciates nudity. And rope swings. It took a bit, but after too many dudes felt the need to drop trow, girls finally joined in the fun. It was when girls joined that the security stopped caring, but would politely ask them to put their clothes back on, to which most obliged.
Next up, we have some awesome photos from Tom Fields, many taken with a Holga (!!!):
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Nachos galore, tons of bikes, and hardcore bands, what more could a crust-punk ask for? Vegan mayonaise, maybe.
I had a lot of fun. Thanks to the organizers and my friend Raychel Black for driving me down to Richmond. And to Richmond, BYT shall be back! This I promise you... keep up the good work (and by good work I mean debaucherous and seedy fun) and I for one, will be marking my calendar year after year.
FINALLY, some photos from yours truly...
Previously in Tangents:
- 12/28: Terrible Boyfriend/ Girlfriend Generator.
- 11/2: PHOTOS: TAXLO Halloween (feat. Chain Gang of 1974)
- 10/10: #OccupyWallStreet
- 8/10: PHOTOS: Lawn Mover Racing, Eastern Seaboard Regionals @ Bowles Farm
- 7/26: Special List: Things the BYGays Want Now That We Can Marry In DC (and NY!)
- 7/20: PHOTOS: Artscape
- 7/19: Miho Hatori's Guide to New York City
- 4/11: Cirque Du Soleil: Totem (A Review)
- 12/29: War, Reenacted
- 12/29: What in Hell is Slaughterama?!?
God loves a cheerful giver.
godiloveBESTFRIENDSDAY!
Holy Crap. I didn't even consider going because the name is so gay. Lesson learned.
Michael, even the gays think your snarky comments are too gay by half. And your insistent use of the word "gay" in your comments as a substitute for "lame" underscores a failure in vocabulary and possibly, based on sociological studies, a small penis.
looks like my own personal version of hell (i am not judging anyone who enjoys this) BUT SERIOUSLY OH-SO-EPIC it is amazing
whenever people say things like "blahblahblah hipsters are so judgmental and boring blah blah blah" ill just show them this picture
which will be tattooed on my ass hopefully so they will get the point right away
Jeremy, why are you advocating offending the disabled?
That picture is horrifically awesome.
The dude with the cans taped together is playing "Wizard Stick" First person to drink his or her height in cans is the winner. It's prejudiced against tall people.
Wow. Group swimming, Rope swing, live band, half-pipe? Oh, and naked girls? Does it get better?
Only when documented with a Holga.
Michael - touche.
notice it says fuck yea on Miles' arm that he's chugging the wizard staff with?
Jesus, I am so sad that I missed this. Fucking GWAR showed up. Why are people in Richmond so cool?
svetlana, there was definitely some form of mob mentality in effect. but i have yet to meet anyone who has ever not enjoyed BFD.
richmond may not have infinite dance parties, having two epic weekends a year is fine with me, this is one the other is slaughterama.
Dakota, NEXT YEAR.
Jeff, GWAR is from Richmond and you could probably get at least one of them to go to anything where they're allowed to be jackasses. When they played at that national ths year the entire venue, THE ENTIRE VENUE, had to be covered in plastic before the performance as not to damage anything.
IRON MAIDEN is from richmond VA?!!!?????? haha, i hope she was joking
I meant Lamb of God. Sorry. It all sounds the same to me.
bfd is the best holiday ever!!
more pics from the weekend at pukepartyblog.com
I am well aware that GWAR is from Richmond. And yes, I know I can get them to go to something to be a jackass. It's already in the works, yo.
oh course it is! i would expect nothing less from you, jeff!
Diamanda is like 11 or something?..
getting smutty, eh? I don't dislike this, actually.
I want to marry so many of those guys
Dakotaaaa so glad you woke me up and we went, the pics are gorgeous
they are all taken, Libbs. Attached to someone, at the very least.
Goddamnit, that looks fun. I was horribly misinformed as to what "Best Friends Day" was. Oh well. Great shots, Dakota.
i've wondered for awhile now why dc and richmond kids dont mingle as much as vb/norfolk and richmond kids do. all the old hc kids know each other, but in the last 5 years richmond got crustier as dc got swankier. i prefer the middle road and think the mix would work (?). lets see some dc x richmond events up here
Bobby - also can't discount the traffic factor. Used to take me less than an hour and a half to get from DC proper to Richmond proper, now, due to assbags moving out to Fredricksburg and elsewhere and commuting into DC it takes 2+ hours at almost any time of day or week and that's without a wreck.
there's that stickyrice connection, actually.
minus all the pics of the fat girls getting naked, this infuriates me.
My mind was just blown, I take back everything bad I ever said about Richmond.
I don't see a single fat one, shitpipe. It is the tats that spoil the impression.
Wooooe! lots of pictures of people drinking god! amazing! fuck me I must be fucking fucked for not thinking this is the raddest event in all of everness. oh and Jeremy. GAY
i had no idea...really i was horrified, intrigued, horrified again, turned on, and disgusted before i even knew what i was looking at. i'm thinking road trip next year for sure...
good to see the get loose crew wrecking.
hands down this was the best BFD yet. you take awesome photos.
check out more best friends day photos here at my flickr!!!!! http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomfields/
ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
This is, uh... Pretty gross.
Why is BYT so enamored with public displays of nudity? It's not cool; it's actually quite tacky, and uncivilized.
Who ever said that you're supposed to act civilized all the time?
Great photographic coverage from three stylistically contrasting photographers. Thanks for capturing the moments I don't remember! I'm half glad and half upset my drunken mug didn't make it up here!
PS: hey J: our civilization is an unsustainable illusion and the protocol associated with it is inhuman and synthetic. So yeah, go be civilized.
Haha, Hadad's on BFD is wild N' crazy for sure, but there are other events that could use much better coverage. You should investigate deeper into the independent local music scene. It's not all crust-punk and metal, y'know.
That very evening there was a Southside house show that pulled in 200 - 300 people. There were rappers, Dj's, experimental/electronic bands, indie/rock, etc. Cops came, but gave up, and some guy got a BJ from another guy on the street. I'm not saying that last part was cool, but it's definitely photo worthy.
wow BFD has really turned into a complete smorgasbord of grossness. It's really lost sight of what made it an awesome event to begin with, I bet none of those people will remember meeting each other next year, making the whole idea of best friends day pointless. BFD 4 was the last good one, ever.
"Photo Gold" - girlfriend, Terry Richardson beat you to this years ago. So go jump on some other bandwagon that's 8 years old. D-bag.
I am going to laugh my ass off when some sues the shit out of you for publishing pictures of them naked and drunk as shit.
Yup: I completely disagree. I was filming during BFD 6,7, and 8. At Hadads during BFD7, I followed around a guy who was tripping on acid and wanting to be an interviewer for the video. Hilarious, no doubt. It kinda came to an abrupt end after he met a chick, and I thought nothing of it.
This year, I was at Hadads once again. Near the end of the day, I saw the guy, and went up to talk. The man couldn't stop thanking me. Turns out I was the reason he not only got laid that day during BFD7, but they've now been dating for a year now and couldn't be happier.
If that's not the beauty of BFD, I don't know what is.
BTW, if you want to see footage of BFD 6 and 7, check out this:
If you want to see footage from this year's event, stay tuned on htttp://rvamag.com! We're putting together a DVD to sell in October.
http://azaleafaye.wordpress.com/2009/09/04/best-friends-day-8-video-diary/
Here's My BFD Ocho! Video Diary
6 years ago I actually worked with some of the very talented young people who started best friends day. They came to Richmond with great ideas and have made a positive impact on this community. However, judging from the photos I think BFD has taken a huge down turn from the great event it started out to be.
um thank you for capturing the awsomeness that is me rope swinging naked!!!
HAPPPY BEST FRIENDS DAY
best thunderstorm of my fucking life.