THE AR T S
Festivals: the other side of the curtain
A critical examination of the issues related to the festival scene, its community, and moving forward.
by Baron de Merxhausen
T
his piece comes from a position of hope and defence, experience and disappointment, and an
eager desire for change. It was written partly in response to
Jules Sutherland’s excellent and intimate piece on festivals last month. While hers was very much an experiential and social piece, mine is more critical of broader issues related to the scene, and is strident in its opinion. I have been working in the festival and
party scene since I was very young and for well over a decade now. I have worn numerous hats, so to speak (or gloves as it were), from waste management to serving alcohol to operations and communications, to working in a harm reduction capacity, supporting people having challenging experiences, to teaching and production, and finally coordination and organisation. It is from this position that I have seen
and experienced the profound positive impact festivals can have on people’s lives and the even greater benefit they could provide our society in the future. I want to talk to some of the issues that face the festival scene.
PERCEPTION OF HARM There are perceptions among the broader community that differs from the reality of the festival scene. There is a perception that festival organisers make lots of money at the expense of the community. This may be true for large
36 MAY 2017
commercially sponsored, metropolitan- based events that operate licensed bars. However, regionally-based festivals have significant overheads, sponsorship isn’t sought, and there are fiscal and social benefits experienced by the local regional communities who host them.
The festival scene is also often
criticised due to the perception that they promote drugs. The perception is that the presence of drugs equals a dangerous environment, and this perception leads to a spectrum of behaviour such as (at worst) an outright dismissal of a celebration and the rejection of permit applications, or (at best) a paternal reaction – you need to be saved from yourselves so we’re going to sit here and watch you to make sure you’re safe. This is far from ideal. Even the best outcome here is
enormously burdensome, and I do not agree with officials that it is entirely benign. There are authorities and other organisations that directly benefit from the increased scrutiny of events that time-and-time again are shown to be about as safe as any public event can get. Inciting safety fears provides user-pays services, like policing, with leverage to inflate their fees. The vast majority of incidents at
festivals are very minor and mostly result from a lack of shoes and sunscreen – sprains, cuts, sunburn,
etc.The other difficulties for the general festival goer
that require care are those related to something I have a more intimate relationship with, mostly alcohol and other drugs. As a harm reduction worker for some years, our most common issue was drunkenness, a more socially accepted but fairly dangerous and damaging form of overdose. The additional layer of protection
provided by a harm reduction service has an incredible impact on a community’s safety, and it is amplified further by the most significant protective factor in any group environment: the attitudes of shared care and consideration that the community provides. It’s why people receive such rapid care in the festival context, and more importantly, why they don’t need emergency care in the first place – people are looking out for each other. That community spirit of care is increasingly rare in an urban environment, where alienation and isolation can be common traits, and where we assume that institutions and services are an effective replacement for being interested in someone’s well-being.
A TOXIC DIALOGUE A wise friend once said to me that toxicity is simply a matter of dosage, and any biochemist will confirm the truth in that, so providing drug education at festivals is essentially about relating two concepts: take your mental set and your environmental setting into account before using any substance, and be as
LEELA SKYE PHOTOGRAPHY
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