Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival Review

If this is the only sentence you'll read in the entire blog, the takeaway is that Camp Flog Gnaw is the best music festival on the face of the Earth. Hands down.

Recently, I've been pushing myself to indulge in more musical and entertainment performances regardless of whether I know anybody going. I'm going if I like the lineup and am not on the verge of being evicted. A few weeks before the festival, one of my friends mentioned she was going to, so we met up in LA, but it was sheer luck. Looking back, I'm glad I had her and her friend to go with because it would have been super overwhelming by myself.

Despite never having been to California and never attending a music festival by myself, I couldn't help but impulsively buy a roundtrip flight from New York to Los Angeles and copping a resale VIP ticket from Stubhub after viewing the lineup.

If you're unfamiliar with Camp Flog Gnaw, it's a music festival curated by Tyler, the Creator, formerly known as OFWGKTA Carnival. The first annual festival was in 2012 and happened every year except 2020-2022. This year's festival was the first year since 2019, and it was impeccable.

The line up consisted a range of hip-hop, rap and alternative artist such as Rex Orange County, d4vd, BADBADNOTGOOD, Willow Smith, Lil Yachty, Dominic Fike, Earl Sweatshirt, Kevin Abstract, Pink Pantheress, Balming Tiger, Kali Uchis, beabadoobee, Toro y Moi, Clipse, redveil, Cuco, Turnstile, Maxo Kream, Ravyn Lanae, Fana Hues, Khamari, Syd, Julie, Mike G, Left, Brain, Teezo Touchdown, AG Club, Baby Rose, Domo Genesis, SPINALL, Ice Spice, Maxo, Paris Texas, Liv.e and Daisy World.

The headliners for the festival were SZA, The Hillbillies (Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem), and, of course, Tyler, the Creator.

When this lineup was released, anybody who didn't already have a ticket for the festival was scrambling, including myself. I saw marketing for Camp Flog Gnaw before the line was released, but I was skeptical about buying a ticket to an event where I was curious about who would be there. I understand now that I should never question Tyler Gregory Okonma.

That the festival sold out before the lineup was released told me everything I needed to know.

The event occurred at the Dodger Stadium parking lot in Los Angeles. It was set up like a carnival, with about 15-20 rides, including two Ferris wheels, skyline swings, Tilt a Whorl, and that ride from Diary of a Wimpy Kid (if you know, you know). There were carnival games with exclusive Odd Future and Le Fleur merchandise and souvenirs; there was even a Converse booth where people could design their Odd Future-inspired shoes, which was such a nice touch.

The merchandise for this year's festival was a solid 8/10. I spent $90 each on two hoodies. One was a brown festival hoodie with the lineup on the back, and the other was an orange Save the Bees hoodie with a Flower Boy-inspired design. If I saved more for the festival, I would have bought artist-specific merch, but $200 was more than enough. 

But some of the prices were insane; there was this Hillbillies jersey that was like $400.

Now, onto the Day 1 performances. I arrived at the festival at 3 p.m. On Saturday, November 11th. The first set I made it to was Paris, Texas. I didn't know who they were before the festival, but those boys had fantastic energy on stage. Next was Ravyn Lenae, who has impressive live vocals; I also didn't know much about her before the festival.

I missed Clipse and BADBADNOTGOOD because of the scheduling of the sets and the fact that the stages were lightyears away from one another, which sucked, but it made me prioritize the artists I wanted to see the most. I will keep that in mind for next year, though.

The first artist I was pressed to see was Kali Uchis, whose set was at 5:30. Because of her outfit choice, there's been significant speculation that she's pregnant, but the dress was just really cute and not form-fitting—but thinking about it after the fact she probably is pregnant. Anyway, her performance disappointed me because the only songs she sang that I loved were See You Again, Loner and Moonlight. My favorite album of hers is Por Vida, so I wanted to hear Sycamore Tree, Lottery, Rush, Call Me, and, of course, Loner, but I was a bit too ambitious with those requests, considering that album is almost nine years old. But she didn't sing After the Storm, Flight 22, Telepitia, Your Teeth in My Neck, or any other big hits from Isolation. Most of her set's songs were Spanish songs from her Latin albums. It's still an excellent set, but I was expecting more.

I also need clarification as to why Tyler, the Creator, didn't come out and sing See You Again with her since she's the featured artist on that song, but apparently, that's not a thing at festivals like I thought. Broccoli City spoiled me because the artists at that festival were popping up at each other sets consistently. But she did bring our Omar Apollo for about 2 minutes, which was a cute cameo.

After her set, my friends and I rushed to Ice Spice's set, a must-see. This was my second time seeing her in concert. She sang Princess Diana, Deli, Boy's A Liar, In Ha Mood, and Much. It was a fun little set to go to where we stayed in the back of the crowd so we could dance and move around but also so we could move fast enough for the headliners for the day, which were Tyler and The Hillbillies.  

Now Tyler's Set was so fucking cool. The stage was set up like an abandoned junkyard, and he performed on a tour of old cars with a giant crane claw above him. He started his set with LEMONHEAD, WUSYANAME, and Bordeom. Once again, I was confused because he didn't bring out Rex Orange County for Bordem, which made me sad. After all, they have four songs together they could have tapped into.

But Bordeom was such a vibe because he did what he usually does at his concerts during this song, where he had the crowd sing "cause boredom got a new best friend" and try to be louder than the rest of the crowd. I think it's hilarious when he berates his fans because we eat that shit up.

The next song was 911/ Mr. Lonely, one of my favorite songs from Flower Boy, so of course, I'm lit. This was the point in the set where I was questioning the people around me because they were not really that into the songs he was singing, and it wasn't like he was singing unpopular songs. He did Who Dat Boy, which got everyone hype because Tyler loves to bring A$AP Rocky out for his sets during Camp Flog Gnaw, and that's what a lot of people were expecting this year. But all I could do was laugh when Tyler shrugged his shoulders when it got to A$ AP's part and said, "Yeah, sing that part; my nigga's at home taking care of kids."

Tyler finished the verse, and then he asked the audience if he could do some of his old shit and if we would know the lyrics. I screamed loud as fuck when the beat dropped, and he went, "G-G-G-Golden rubbers in these denim pockets." She is my favorite song from Goblin, and Frank Ocean is my favorite artist. I was on cloud fucking nine, bruh. I screamed that song with every fiber in me. Then he did IFHY, and the real fans got their time to shine. If you still need to see the music video for this, check it out. It's weird, but I like it.

After he finished Tamale, he played See You Again with the alternate intro, which was so fucking magical live. I listen to a lot of his alternate music samples on YouTube, and seeing him dance around on top of a makeshift car to the intro was the highlight of the set. Actually, it's tied with hearing him rap She, but still an amazing performance overall.

He ended the set with DOGTOOTH, Earfquake, and his favorite song, NEW MAGIC WAND. During NEW MAGIC WAND, he was walking around with a flame thrower, which was very Tyler of him. It was a perfect ending to a perfect set. Songs I wish he would have performed were November, SAFARI, 2SEATER, DEATHCAMP, and SWEET/ I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE. Many people were confused why he didn't do I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO DANCE, but he probably wanted to do mostly hype songs, which is understandable.

 The last set of the day was The Hillbillies. I totally underestimated this set, but I stood corrected because Kendrick and Baby Keem were the only artists to perform all the songs; I hoped they would. Kendrick played ELEMENT, Backseat Freestyle, HUMBLE, Alright, Bitch, Don't Kill My Vibe, DNA, Swimming Pools, M.A.AD City, and, of course, The Hillbillies and Family Ties. 

The only song he played from Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers was N95.

On the 2nd day of the festival, my friends and I arrived pretty early. We got there at the start of Khamari's set. We got on the VIP Ferris Wheel and had a fantastic view of the Flog stage during his performance, and it was perfect. It was a smaller crowd, but he did not disappoint, especially during These Four Walls, which is my favorite song of his.

We took the next few hours to take advantage of the short merchandise lines and play carnival games with exclusive Fleur and Golf merch and collectibles. We also could take quality pictures of some of the attractions without mounds of people walking in the frame.

 At 4 p.m., Willow Smith came on the Camp Stage, and I'm telling y'all, I didn't know how much I needed to see her live until that day. It was perfect. Her live vocals are slept on. She started with Transparency, and after that, she did. Maybe it's my fault.

She brought out Jaden and sang Summertime in Paris. My jaw was left open for a solid minute. It was such a perfect experience. It can be challenging to put it into words. The sun was setting, and both of them had such good chemistry on stage; the crowd's hands were in the air. I was content. Now, do I wish they would have sung 'B' – yes. But I am grateful.

Will Smith was also in the back of the crowd, which was pretty cool. Her last few songs were her most famous:  Meet Me At Our Spot and Wait A Minute. Overall, I will have to get tickets for her next tour because I fell utterly in love with Willow all over again at this festival.

I found it so strange how many of the crowd (or at least the people I was near) didn't know Meet Me At Our Spot or Wait A Minute. A lot of people were standing in the audience not even vibing to the set.

I wish she would have done more stuff from Lately, I Feel Everything, but this set was still in my top 5 from the festival.

Next, we went to the Flog stage and saw PinkPantheress. Before coming to the festival, I kept seeing this online about how she keeps her purse on while she's performing, and at first, I thought it was odd, but after seeing her, it fits her aesthetic. She looks like she is just popping by to sing a couple of songs, but this isn't her last spot for the night.

She started with Break It Off, Pain, and Boy's a Liar.

The festival was super packed at this point in the day, and the PinkPanteress set was quite crowded. She noted a few times during her performances how enormous the crowd was, and she even stopped mid-lyric and said, "I'm sorry, I've caught a bit of stage fright." How adorable!?

D4vd's set was very cute. I mentioned in a different vlog how he opened for Sza, and I was stuck in the merch line and didn't get to see him, but I was happy to catch a glimpse of his performance today. He did Here With Me and Sleep Well. I'm pretty sure he ended with Romantic Homicide, but I didn't get to hear it before leaving for Lil' Yatchy's set.

Yatchy will forever and always be such a great performer. I missed his set's first couple of songs, but my friends told me that he gave a disclaimer at the beginning that he would not be performing any songs from Let's Start Here. This is fair, considering she exclusively performs it with his band, and none of them attended the festival. Plus, he had been touring that album for the last several months and was STILL on tour for it during Flog Gnaw, so it was probably a good break for him to perform all his old shit and his most famous tunes for 45 minutes.

I pulled up to the stage right when he was performing in Minnesota, and after that, he did my fav iSpy. I have a bucket list wish to get in the moshpit at one of Yatchy's concerts, but I was so happy my friends and I were towards the back with a lot of space to jump around without being pushed because Yatchy was pulling out all the good songs.

He did One Night, Broccoli, and, of course, one of the top-streamed songs of 2023, Strike (Holster). One day, I will learn to upload videos here so y'all can see my misbehavior during his set. I can blame a lot of my voice being gone to Strike alone. 

After Yachty's set, I rushed to pick up my festival merch and caught some Syd.

The Festival gods were on my side because Syd was singing my favorite song, "You're the One" by Kayantrada, at the exact time I was stopping by her set.

I'm sad I didn't make it to BADBADNOTGOOD, DAISY WORLD, or Cuco's sets. The last two sets I made it to were Rex Orange County and SZA.

I've been trying to see Rex Orange County in concert since 2017, and I am so happy that dream finally came true. He hasn't been on tour since Pony, and then the Sexual Assault allegations really took a toll on his popularity.

His set for Flog Gnaw mainly was from his most recent album, Who Cares? He started with Keep It Up. Next, he played Television/So Far So Good. I am 16 years old. I am so excited to see Rex sing this live. I was going ballistic in the crowd. It was insane. Then he did 10/10, Amazing, The Shade, and Untitled. Untitled almost sent me into tears for real. He played Corduroy Dreams, If You Want It, Never Enough, Sunflower, and Best Friend, and ended with Pluto Projector. This was an amazing performance; I wish the crowd would have interacted more with Rex. He deadass asked us to put our phones down for just one song and dance, have a good time, and be in the moment because most of the set people were standing there.

 He did play one new song that he says will be on his next project, so I'm excited to see when he's releasing new music.

She did an altered/shorter version of her SOS tour set for the festival. She sang the intro song, which I’m not sure what the name is; then she did Love Galore, Broken Clocks, Ghost in the Machine, Blind, Anything, Drew Barrymore and Rich Babydaddy, and Snooze.

She tried to end her set with Good Days, but at 11:00 p.m., they cut her mic because of the Los Angeles city ordinance.