Young, fun and… indie? Nostalgic photos of 00s festival kids

As a teenager, Sam Kilcoyne was sick of missing out on live music, with the majority of festivals and gigs exclusively for over 18s. Driven by his FOMO, aged 14, Kilcoyne started putting on live music events for teenagers in Elephant and Castle. It was a huge success: before long he’d organised a day festival for teens aged between 14 and 18 at Victoria Park. He called it ‘Underage’.

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas, a New Zealand-born photographer, had moved to Shoreditch in 2004, poised and ready to capture the heyday of indie sleaze. Sympathetic to teenagers and understanding of their angst, she attended Underage in 2007 and 2008 armed with an old Nikon camera, and shot a series of photographs which capture the spirit of teenagedom in the late 2000s: one photo sees a barefoot girl cradling a fake Chanel bag, a thick elastic belt clinched round her waist; another shows a young Florence Welch, on the cusp of international fame, smudged, silvery eyeshadow haphazardly daubed across her eyelids.

It looks like a simpler time – prelapsarian, almost – before social media and smartphones changed everything. “Every generation looks back and thinks that their era was more pure and free and it’s no different now,” Thomas says.

Here, we talk to her about what it was like to capture Underage Festival on film and the unique cultural zeitgeist of the late 2000s.

What period do the images here span?

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas: These photos were all taken at the Underage Festival, in east London, during the first two years of the festival, 2007 and 2008. Everything is shot on 35mm film, a mixture of colour and black and white, on an old Nikon with 50mm portrait lens. I was shooting the teenagers and any musicians that I found backstage, because I didn’t own a long lens there wasn’t really any point shooting the performances. I’m going back and looking at these images after not seeing many of them for over 15 years because I’m working on a project called ‘We Are Your Friends’, which is portraits shot mainly in east London during the mid 2000s. It’s interesting seeing the images again and noticing new things as my perspective has shifted since I shot them. I can look at them as images, rather than putting my own taste and preferences into the edit.

Can you tell us more about these particular portraits?

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas: The archive project I’m working on is a wider selection of portraits, these images are just from the festival though. I had already shot the Underage club night that the festival grew out of and the founder Sam Kilcoyne, so I had a connection to some of the people in the photos. I wasn’t a total outsider but I was in my twenties rather than a teenager myself. I feel hugely sympathetic to teenagers – I would have felt this back when I was shooting the images. Adults tend to romanticise the teenage years, but they aren’t an easy time. You are dealing with body changes, sexuality and romantic upheavals, the pressure that comes with leaving school or university and not having a choice about engaging in capitalism, so I feel teenagers deal with a lot. They are often seeing the injustices of the world for the first time and this can be really painful. I was an angsty teen myself so I have sympathy for anyone going through those heavier emotions.

What kind of crowd did it attract?

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas: London teenagers mainly, officially it was for 14 to 18 year olds. To attend as an adult you had to either be friends with the organisers or part of the media covering the festival and even then it would have been fairly limited. I remember thinking the atmosphere was really nice as you could only find alcohol in very limited places, so there wasn’t that loud aggressive vibe that can come with booze. The atmosphere was more dreamy and upbeat and innocent.

What was going on culturally at the time? Who or what do you remember as being the biggest bands, trends, or scene at the time?

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas: I vividly remember that the indoor smoking ban came into effect in 2007. I would have been furiously smoking indoors at The Griffin pub the night before it came into place – we were genuinely sad that we couldn’t smoke and drink inside anymore, prior to the ban I would have never joined the dancefloor at a club without a cig in my hand. I was in my twenties but I was still a bit of a teenager myself in some ways. I had to Google what were the bands of the time, as apart from the people that I shot I don’t really remember! I think the Arctic Monkeys had just arrived and everyone was obsessed with them. ‘Umbrella’ by Rhianna came out in 2007 and that was massive all summer. It was right before and during the financial crash that took place in 2008 and I think I was vaguely aware of it but as I didn’t have any money anyway I don’t think it would have made much difference to my life. Amy Winehouse would have also been huge, I remember she was covered relentlessly in the press and London had a bunch of new free newspapers and she was constantly on the cover with her bloodstained ballet shoes. Amy would have been one of the biggest cultural icons of the time.

How would you describe the atmosphere?

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas: I remember feeling really happy just to be there. As a photographer it was really a dream to be allowed to take photos. Your teenage years are when you start finding your identity and expressing that in what you wear [...] clothing becomes a way of identifying with a certain tribe or subculture. I found the different looks worn by the teenagers inspiring visually. It was a very joyful atmosphere, plus we were surrounded by trees on a sunny day, listening to live music, and there’s something very primal about that, I think. That is what really makes humans happy – listening to music as part of a community in nature. It was so great that Sam created this space for teenagers to do that without feeling unsafe.

What were some of the most hedonistic or depraved sights you witnessed?

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas: I didn’t see anything like that! That was part of why it was such a lovely experience: the rest of my life at that time was generally quite hedonistic, so these festivals were a chance to have a purer experience. I can’t speak for anyone else attending but I found the experience refreshingly wholesome.

How would you describe the style and fashions?

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas: From looking at the photos from the festival it seems that black tights were big for summer, fabric sneakers, either Converse or these ones you could buy off Brick Lane for a fiver, and Chanel-esque quilted handbags for the girls. The festival goers that I shot all had a style that would have drawn me to walk over and ask to take their photo. I went for looks that I felt were expressing the wearer’s individuality, on a low budget. A lot of the boys were wearing hats and scarves, at the time it would have been thanks to the influence of Pete Doherty and the bands that came after him, but seeing them now it’s making me think of the 1930s depression era. It seems like most past decade’s vintage were up for grabs – there are 1950s looks, 70s, 80s, it just depends which look represents the music and style that you’re personally into and what looks cool. I like the unexpected combinations, the 80s striped Princess Diana dress with the glitter eye makeup for example.

Are there any particularly enduring stories or memories attached to any of the images?

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas: I was really into the band Ipso Facto and one of my favourite moments would have been shooting them in the backstage area in front of some purple crushed velvet with a young Florence. The second year I attended I mainly shot female artists and teenagers. I think there’s something special about photographing teenagers, youth is so highly prized in our society and also not really understood, so to be let into their world if only temporarily is a huge honour.

What do you feel are the differences between these festivals in 2007 and 2008 and festivals these days?

Rebecca Zephyr Thomas: Social media and smartphones for sure! Every generation looks back and thinks that their era was more pure and free and it’s no different now. When you go to see live music today the phone is ruling. I shot at Childish Gambino’s Pharos festival a few years ago and he banned mobile phones from his performance. His performances were like a religious experience, he is hugely talented, but not having phones must have also added to the atmosphere of connection. I still love shooting fans and artists backstage, and am back doing that on the same camera I used for these shots. Shooting on film gives you a pause between taking the photo and seeing the result and I think people treat the experiences differently, as we are so over saturated with imagery all the time. However, the human urge to connect, listen to music and let go of society’s expectations hasn’t changed and I feel that we need this more than ever.

Join Dazed Club and be part of our world! You get exclusive access to events, parties, festivals and our editors, as well as a free subscription to Dazed for a year. Join for £5/month today.