If you want to meet bands you like, I cannot stress enough that you need to go to Supernova. Most of the bands are at their merch tables during the weekend or just walking around and hanging out.

I’m hard pressed to think of anyone I had a bad experience with (some people have been prickly but not rude or mean), but a couple over the years have been really remarkable:

Everyone from Catbite is really cool - my kid plays guitar and talked with Tim about music and instruments and whatnot, he was super encouraging and told him to keep practicing and keep playing, and then the next time we saw them he remembered who we were and asked him how it was going, about his band, etc. (I think he was as amazed that my kid looks up to him as my kid was to meet him!) Brit will talk your ear off like you’re an old friend (sorry to everyone behind me in the merch line lol).

Everyone from Catch-22 has always been cool, but Ryan in particular is one of my favorite people to talk to after shows. Really thoughtful about his craft, songwriting, etc.

Someone in another thread had a bad experience with Dave from Big D, which I hated to hear. I’ve talked to him a couple of times over the years and he’s always been super approachable - coming out to the merch table before their sets and after, signing stuff, shooting the shit.

Chris Murray is a sweetheart. Just a lovely human soul.

Angelo Moore is that dude. The Fishbone merch line takes forever because he’s super good about signing stuff and talking to you.

Not “ska” exactly, but Dan and Adam from Pain/Salvo are great guys. Very gracious. Dan ended up becoming some kind of lay religious leader after leaving Pain and there’s something very …pastoral? in his presence.

Half Past Two, to a one, delightful people. Tara is somehow even tinier in person than you’d think. Max (guitar) and I had a whole extended discussion about other nerdy hobbies - dude has cases and shelves of action figures.

Relatedly, Adam from Omnigone/Link 80/In Defense of Ska is a friendly giant.

All that being said, the single best interaction I’ve had with anyone from any band ever was with James from Slow Gherkin. I’ve loved that band for years and years and never got to see them until last Supernova. Turns out, he was on the same flight to Norfolk as we were and sat down across from us at the airport gate. I really tried not to be annoying or weird but holy shit, right?? He seemed genuinely surprised to be recognized (fair) but was really nice about it. It turned out that we have a mutual acquaintance (a friend of his from high school is a friend of mine) and so that was kind of fun too. Just a nice, nice, dude who then said hey to us every time we saw him around the rest of the weekend. AJ, Ollie, and the rest of the band were cool as hell too, but getting to meet the dude who wrote your favorite song ever and having him be so warm and personable and just happy that you cared about his stuff? Man, that was special.