Words & Images: Andrew Bender
All Good Music Festival – Masontown, West Virginia; July 8-11
Prelude – Wed. 7/7/2010:
On Wednesday, I find myself sitting at work, watching the clock, and counting the minutes until I’m on the road from my home base in Detroit to the mountains of West Virginia. My traveling companion – who also happens to be my wife – and I are driving tonight half way, meeting up with some friends from Michigan who have to work late, and cruising up on Thursday morning for what I hear is the inevitable wait in the car to get in.

I’ve never been to All Good before, and most of what I have to go on I’ve gleaned from prior years’ reviews, and talking to friends and family that have been in years past. As a photographer, I have to look after my gear, but when a close friend of mine who’s been at All Good for the past few year said that it was the only festival he’d been to where you should be concerned about people stealing from unoccupied tents and campsites, I got a little extra sketched out.
I’m definitely of the ‘do unto others . . . ‘ or ‘do what you want as long as it doesn’t mess with others’ school of thought, and it was hard to imagine a scene like that. Festivals are one of my all-time favorite means to cut loose, get loose, dance, drink, party, make new friends, and let it all hang out. Maybe as I get older I get a little more uptight. I’ve always been more responsible than many of my friends – going to a few shows rather than the whole tour, or only going to one or two summer music and camping festivals a year.
READ ON for more from Andrew on All Good 2010…