Edge Fest from a Thousand Feet Up

By Jonathan McNamara

Don’t get me wrong. I love music. When I woke up this morning (read: rolled out of bed and grasped toward the coffee machine) I could not wait to see Gogol Bordello.

So when I make this next statement, please know that I don’t make it lightly:

Everything I experienced today at Edgefest 2008 pales in comparison to the helicopter flight I took to snap aerial photos of the grounds at Schnepf farms.

Carrie Schnepf picked me up in a gator which she uses to speed across the massive farm. We barreled down several dirt roads before coming to a clearing where a tiny helicopter (with no doors) and its lovely pilot Kate were waiting for me.

Moments later we were in the air.

“Do you want to go higher?” Kate asked.

“Hell yes!”

We circled the concert twice from several hundred feet in the air. I heard the tail end of NOFX echoing across the Arizonan sky as Kate lead us back into the horizon.

“Wanna go around again,” she asked.

Yes. Hell Yes.