Witnessing people coming together in positive solidarity is a beautiful sight. Whether the reason is to celebrate, to protest or simply spend time with friends, there is a great deal of positivity from people gathering, if they are uniting for the right reasons. But what single thing has been bringing people together since the beginning of time? Music. I may be biased but you will never witness anything more beautiful than 60,000 people coming together on hundreds of acres of land for four days of music and art.
Long before international tours and advanced technology families would gather around their family room to listen to the radio, or buy five dollar tickets to a show even though they didn’t know the band. Earlier generations didn’t experience the extra stress of picking out the “perfect” outfit or getting the closest seat, to them nothing mattered as long as they having a good time with good music and great friends. Now we experience music in a different way. Now we can easily look up an artist before contemplating buying an expensive ticket for a less than decent seat. Now many of us are guilty of recording the show via Snapchat or iPhone video rather than living in the moment. Our fashion and outfit choices have become just as essential as having a ticket. Although there was a time where music culture was simplified, we have the privilege of expansive genres and a diverse group of artist that share their music internationally, and we don’t have to wait for shows to see our favorite artists when their music is at our finger tips. Music festivals are a way to travel back in time with a twist of modernity, it’s a cultural combination of the simplicity of the past with the technology of the present. Large diverse crowds wearing whatever they please as an act of self expression and no one judging anyone for doing so. Festivals surely are an individual experience, but the crowd is more than half the fun. Not only is the crowd diverse, but so are the artists, any genre from folk to rap from techno to bluegrass are represented.
My first real music festival experience was this summer at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. With my best friend by my side we set up camp on a farm in Manchester, Tennessee and endured four days of dust, dirt and heat. I met interesting people from all around the world and together we sang and danced for four days straight. I will never forget the last performance of the festival when Dead and Company performed at the main stage, the What Stage. As I watched music legend Bob Weir jamming out with John Mayer, I danced the night away (about four hours) with 60,000 people of all ages. We held hands and swayed when they sang about love and jumped with our hands in the air when they sang about anything else. When I walked under the infamous Bonnaroo arch for the last time and officially left the festival I felt nothing put sheer peace and happiness, and that my friends, is a feeling you have to experience for yourself and one I will definitely never forget.
All this talk about peace and positivity can get pretty corny, and going to music festivals has not turned me into your stereotypical festival hippie. Yes, I will remember the music and the delicious food truck cuisine, but what is the point of it all without people to experience it with?
Music festivals have reiterated to me the importance of education. That doesn’t only mean institutionalized education in school, but what we can learn beyond the classroom about other cultures, other peoples lives and their experiences. This is the type of information that makes us greater human beings. I learned to always stay observant because there is always something new for me to learn from others.
Music festivals taught me that the horrific events I witness day to day: racism, sexism, bullying, corruption, terrorism, (unfortunately the list goes on) will not prevail. Every day we hear and read about social injustices, and we read ignorant posts on social media, but when I attend a music festival or even a mere little concert, the constant negativity and the pressure to change disappears. I feel hope for the world and all the people that inhabit it because if 60,000 people stuffed onto a farm to camp for four days can get along for the sake of music and art, then what is to stop the rest of the world from coming together in peace to create a better world for the next generations? Festivals facilitate music but what can we do to facilitate world peace?
Music festivals have taught me to keep hope because love and positivity will always win in the end.