A petition started by a UK resident accrued just 65 signatures after the festival officially announced the ban on the sale of native headdresses at the gathering
(Image Courtesy: Dailymail)
Following in the footsteps of many US based festivals, Glastonbury is the latest festival to implement a ban on the sale of Native American headdresses. The petition argues that the wearing of headdresses by non-Natives “is an offensive and disrespectful form of cultural appropriation, that it homogenises diverse indigenous peoples, and that it perpetuates damaging, archaic and racist stereotypes.”
(Image Courtesy: Dailymail)
Meredith Music Festival and Canadian festival Bass Coast made headlines by banning headdresses earlier in the year, though in both cases an outright ban prevented festival goers from wearing them. This won’t be the case at Glastonbury as the festival has simply placed a restriction on the sale of the headgear, and not an outright ban on accessorizing voluntarily.
(Image Courtesy: dazedcdn.com)
Feathered headdress & Native American war bonnets have now become a common sight at many a music festival. Be it Coachella, Lollapalooza or Bonnaroo, this trend has really caught on over the past year and a half around the same time tribal prints and fashion accessories became the new it thing to don. While you cannot deny the appeal of wearing something as majestic and ethereal as the feathered headdress, by wearing it you are also bound to offend the culture & people it stems from. Critics have deemed it as a kind of ’cultural appropriation’.
Next year’s Glastonbury is rumored to be headlined by the likes of Fatboy Slim, AC/DC, Fleetwood Mac and Depeche Mode and the hype around the festival reflected in its ticket sales which sold out in under half an hour earlier this month.
(Cover Image Courtesy: GQ)