Not to be a Debbie Downer butΒ here are a few cautionary tales for all you festival maniacs!
1. Moshpit mania
Moshing in large festival crowds, may seem like the most badass thing you could do. However taking on your metal bros in what seems like orchestrated violence can also end in grave consequences. While some of you are lucky enough to wear these scars like badges of honour, some people have not been so lucky. The question is, are a few minutes of addictive aggressive behaviour worth the trouble? You decide.
2. Drugs are bad, kids.
Time and again, people have advocated moderation in the face of the dozens of drug related deaths that take place at festivals. 2015 saw an average of 1 person losing their life at every major dance music festival across the world, a statistic that is a scary reality. The question is, who do you blame? The negligent festival promoter or the over-enthusiastic 14 year old with the drugs? Whether we liked to admit it or not, festivals have become a breeding ground of drug-related overdoses and deaths that don’t seem to have a permanent solution. So before you hand your 16 year old sister her first pop at a festival, please think about the consequences.
3. You could get robbed or sexually assaulted.
Another unfortunate reality of large-scale camping music festivals. Robberies and thefts are commonplace, but darker anti-social behaviour like sexual assault seems to be creeping into festival venues as well. Over the years, there have been reported rapes at festival, where sometimes even the police cover up the scandal to avoid bad press or taking the blame. The infamous Woodstock 99 was not only a host to thievery and vandalism, but also included the horrific rape of a girl in a mosh-pit. Two years ago, a man was held down and raped at Glastonbury while last year, at The Secret Garden Party a rape was reported to have taken place while the festival was going on. Honestly, the list of these happenings are horrifyingly endless, and while we may love to point fingers at ‘the debauched culture’ and the ‘drink and hook-up’ trend of millenials, the reality is that misogyny is rampant to a degree that it even infiltrates happy places like music festivals. Only when security is amped will perpetrators feel fear.
4. Lol @ Festival Camping
Seriously, sometimes festivals camping is a joke and a nightmare, wrapped up into one muddy package.
5.Β Too many people is never a good thing.
Well, this is more common than you think. Festivals that are overcrowded pose a grave danger to the people attending it. Regardless of discomfort, the chances of someone being trampled in an audience or being pushed in a crowd are actually the real reasons why some festivals are strict about their attendee limit. One of the deadliest incidents of suffocating to death at a music festival, took place in 2000 at the Rokslide Festival during Pearl Jam’s set. Nine people died while 26 were injured. The crush took the lives of a cadet police officer as well. This incident (apart from bringing to light the overcrowding of festivals) also exposed how the lack of security of the festival’s part played a significant role in what happened.
6. Washouts can leave you stranded.
Hardly do massive music festivals equip themselves just in case a storm hits, and Tomorrowland 2015 was exactly that. As per usual, festival promoters and attendees paid no heed to weather warnings as they insisted on letting the event go on. This turned out to be the stupidest decision they could make as the rain washed out the festival and people were left stranded in the mud for hours without food or water. Non- campers and single-day ticket holders were in for a rude shock, when they learned that only campers were allowed to attend the festival. This terrible mismanagement proved one thing – always pay heed to your weather update, folks.
