Interesting doesn't start to explain my experience at this years Seattle Wekfest. I fully enjoyed myself and ended up with some incredible content. But as you've probably heard before, its all about the journey and in this case I'd have to agree.
I had made the decision early that I wanted to travel to a few out-of-state shows this year. What I didn't do early enough was book my fights. Which is where the journey aspect of this event comes in. I ended up having to book my tickets last minute, which forced me to have to land and get my return fight in Portland, approximately 3 hours away from Seattle. So far it doesn't sound too bad, right? Well here comes the fun part. My flight landed at midnight and after all was done I finally go in my rental car by about 1am. So I proceeded to drive towards Seattle and after about 2 hours it was time to take a nap in the car. I woke up about 3 hours later grabbed an energy drink and headed the rest or the way to Seattle.
Now here is where I got lucky, I wanted to shoot the roll-in's but I didn't have a media pass and I had never been to Seattle, so I had no idea where anything was. I started driving around the convention center and was very lucky to spot a couple modified cars that were headed to Wekfest, so I followed them. They led me down a couple side streets that had an underground service ramp which is where all the cars were entering to get into the show. So for the next couple hours I shot in one of the coolest areas. With graffiti backdropped walls, a slight rain (which it did the entire time), underground tunnel and roads that disappeared around corners on both ends the vibe was just perfect.
So I settled in a went to work
Since it was getting close the entry time I bailed on the roll-in's and went to find parking. Again I scored as I came across a bunch of RHD drive cars from Canada and a handful of other fun cars.
I staged myself so that I could be first in line to get my wristband and then once again so I could be the first to enter, which I was happy I did since there had to have been 500-1000 people in line by the time the opened the door.
With the show now open it was time to get as much clean content as I could before the mob of people all made it in. Thankfully the venue inside was very large and they had the cars laid out so that there was ample room.
I spent the next couple hours just vibin' to my music and checking out all the cool cars.
One of the things I liked best was a lot of the cars I hadn't seen before or hadn't seen in person. Because we were so close to Canada there was a ton of RHD GTR's, Honda's and etc. that I don't get to see in the States.
There were some really impressive builds and some engine swaps I had never seen before. It was cool to see how different the builds were and how extreme some of the owners go with their cars.
I saw everything from a RHD ITR that had been converted to AWD to a new GR86 with a 2j swap. The NSX with the trunk mounted turbo was very cool and I always love seeing the GTR's
Towards the end of the show I finally got tired, I had initially wanted to shoot the cars rolling out but in the end just didn't have enough energy. I walked around for a little bit shooting some b-roll as I had been told to do from some friends to help tell the story (they were right, it really helped complete the Vid) and then it was time to head to the hotel for another quick nap before driving back to the airport to catch my stupidly early flight.
Seattle didn't disappoint as it rained the entire time I was there and waiting until I was about 10mins outside the city to stop raining. Next time I will have to spend a couple days so I can enjoy everything else Seattle has to offer.
Everything Else, Enjoy!!
