The other night me and my pal were out and about after a few drinks, looking for some rooftops in York. It was still pretty early, and town was full of pissheads stumbling about and old bill looking out for them. Not an ideal situation for us to fulfil our primary activity, namely a favourite rooftop from which one can access a shop's staff toilets, steal all the bogrolls, and throw them at unsuspecting victims on the ground. We decided to have a crack at another local one I'd been eyeing up, which meant taking a route either around the museum gardens and down the river, or simply hopping the fence and crossing the gardens.
Of course, we chose the latter option, and soon found ourselves distracted from our mission by flashing lights and the sound of radios and voices across the gardens. Then a big old amphitheatre popped up in front of us out of nowhere. Inside, a good ten to fifteen people were moving around, shifting large stage props, testing the sound system, and moving scaffolding about. With all the stage lights on and constantly changing, this seemed like a perfect evening's activity - a casual infiltration if you will.
It wasn't quite that straightforward. Sure enough, we got all up in that scaffolding and 'backstage' nice and easy, but the number of workers meant it was hard to get to any position where I could get a decent shot, and the stage lights had us scurrying back into cover a couple of times by suddenly changing direction and casting our shadows into relief. Eventually we heard one of the workers mention something about a break. "A bloody break, they'll be working on this thing for the rest of the night!". Then I promptly realised the real significance of the worker's statement, specifically that these guys all take their break at the same time. In the same instant I noticed that for the first time that night all was quiet. That is, until we dashed like men possessed up the noisy metal stairs and ran around the arena madly getting our photos.
'York Mystery Plays' - supposedly the North's largest outdoor amphitheater this summer, a massive achievement, we're all real proud here in York.
Cheap Fujifilm 35mm as always.
Of course, we chose the latter option, and soon found ourselves distracted from our mission by flashing lights and the sound of radios and voices across the gardens. Then a big old amphitheatre popped up in front of us out of nowhere. Inside, a good ten to fifteen people were moving around, shifting large stage props, testing the sound system, and moving scaffolding about. With all the stage lights on and constantly changing, this seemed like a perfect evening's activity - a casual infiltration if you will.
It wasn't quite that straightforward. Sure enough, we got all up in that scaffolding and 'backstage' nice and easy, but the number of workers meant it was hard to get to any position where I could get a decent shot, and the stage lights had us scurrying back into cover a couple of times by suddenly changing direction and casting our shadows into relief. Eventually we heard one of the workers mention something about a break. "A bloody break, they'll be working on this thing for the rest of the night!". Then I promptly realised the real significance of the worker's statement, specifically that these guys all take their break at the same time. In the same instant I noticed that for the first time that night all was quiet. That is, until we dashed like men possessed up the noisy metal stairs and ran around the arena madly getting our photos.
'York Mystery Plays' - supposedly the North's largest outdoor amphitheater this summer, a massive achievement, we're all real proud here in York.
Cheap Fujifilm 35mm as always.
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