The Gathering of the Juggalos

After the first mini leg of mini tour, we had another day off. Again, mostly spent driving, with a stop in Chicago for some deep dish pizza. We also stopped at a place just outside of Gary, IN we’ve been to many many many many times that have “Galactic Burritos” (galaktoboureko, a Greek custard dessert).  Eventually, we made it to Thornville, OH a.k.a. The Gathering of the Juggalos! For those of you who don’t know, OED was invited to play this year, which is what this mini summer tour was scheduled around. For those of you that don’t know what The Gathering is, I’ll just refer you here.

We got in around 4am, and the people in charge of where the artist vehicles park were asleep, so they had us pull up along a fence just outside the artist area. 9-something they came and woke us up and had us move somewhere into the artist area. Then later, after we had fully woken up, we backed in side stage where we could load out directly onto the stage. Surprisingly, they let us park there all night. Asking Alexandria’s crew actually worked around us, and we could watch the whole night’s worth of shows from side stage if we wanted to.

They fit so many tents in such a small space

We had our merch spot starting at noon, but I don’t think we got there and set up until more like 2. With the exception of a couple of quick breaks and getting to watch part of OED's set, I spent all day/night at the merch booth until we left, sometime around 1:30am. Festivals are crazy!  It was a lot of fun though.

We weren’t sure what to expect going into it, and there seemed to be a lot of people trying to psych us out wondering why OED was playing The Gathering, and telling us to be careful. We went into it with a positive attitude and planning to do our best, and we had no issues. Some things were thrown during their set, including an attempt at an entire trash can, but that just kind of seems to be the thing Juggalos do. They throw things, they're rowdy. And actually, from where I was standing, people seemed to be upset at the people throwing because it was distracting them from the show. I didn't see their set, but I heard way more things were thrown at Asking Alexandria, and they may have even hit some of the members. I’m pretty sure we’ve been initiated into the family though. During the end of the set, since she couldn’t go into the crowd and play, Kim leaned back over the guard rail, where she (and her guitar) were given a Faygo shower. After the drum dive, the crowd started chanting “Fam-i-ly” and “One of us.” Kim did her “Everyone follow me” thing, and walked them all up the hill back to the merch tent. She was there for about 2 hours signing autographs before the crowd dwindled down and she left to change her clothes.

There were people I knew that were there! Aaron came just for OED’s set and to hang out/observe The Gathering. Matty, the bassist and merch moose from Psychostick, was there. Whitney Peyton played the night before and was still hanging around. I heard her and her manager were hanging out side stage, but her posse Sticky and Supreem came by the table and hung out. There were also a few other OED fans that were there for The Gathering.

Bubbles!!! (Photo by Aaron Plank)

I went in trying not to pretend to be one of them. I didn’t want to offend them by dressing like them or doing my make-up like them if I wasn’t one of them. But by the end of the night, I felt totally comfortable saying “Whoop whoop” back to people. (I even occasionally still say it, much to the dismay of the rest of the crew.) And, despite everything you hear about The Gathering, I was only hit on twice, offered free beer once, and offered "substances" on a couple of occasions. I'd say we had a pretty good first Gathering!