Lines of college-aged people waited in queues while hudling together for warmth during long stretches of time in the evening cold of late April, many with only undershirts and shorts on, at Western Connecticut State University’s O’Neill Center on the westside campus in anticipation for Dayglow.
Dayglow is a world-wide tour that bills themselves as “The World’s Largest Paint Party.” They say they fuse high-energy music, art, dance and paint.
In my research about Dayglow, their use of paint cannons really reminded me of an Americanized version of the Hindu festival, Holi.
Because of deadline pressures, I missed the paint cannons, which happened later, and was only able to witness 15 minutes of the performance at the beginning of the night, featuring the DJ Apollo V, but those 15 minutes seemed very full of energy that I could understand why people would wait a long time in the cold to attend.
It is also telling that 34 people went to Danbury Hospital that night for mostly alcohol-related problems. Although, Dayglow doesn’t provide alcohol at their events.
I agree with my photo editor who saw these photos as something that speaks to our time. In this moment in time this is how people celebrated life.
When I left the scene I saw that people were still braving the cold in lines just as long as when I first arrived.
