Fun police @ Music Festival. Full of rules!

[Exhippy]

Me and my family (UK) have been going to a few weekend music festivals for years now and I’m starting to feel a bit irked by all of their rules.

This year we’ve received endless updates prior to arriving at the festivals about new rules concerning a full glitter ban, all the food vendors will be plant based food only (massive bummer), keep cups only or if you forget these and want to buy a drink on site you must buy one of their £10 keep cups £30 for whole family!

And so on.

Last year, DH finally found a stand that was selling canned drinks and bought one as he was really thirsty, only to be told that they had just noticed the drink was made by the Coca Cola company and that he would not be allowed to sell it. They said they’d take it back and destroy it! 🙄

What happened to the sensibilities of old school hippies- just go with the flow, let your hair down and try your best but mainly have fun- chill out?

Everyone seems so militant now.

This new breed of hippy may as well be evangelical Christians!

But the OP is upset about being asked to take a cup to avoid single use.

The rubbish people at festivals create is no different to the rubbish average families put in their recycling bin.

The right wing, anti-young, climate-change denying media just like to point at a temporarily messy field as being the cause of all environmental destruction because it distracts from real environmental priorities.

I'm off to Boomtown tomorrow, having digested the 16 page rule book 🤔

You don't think hippies should boycott coke or try and be environmentally conscious? You have mistaken us. Perhaps you're not actually a hippy and you just want to party and do what you want?

Op did you consider drinking water on your long search for a drink?

Glitter is usually full of plastic which is obviously not good for the environment. You may notice many schools are not using it so much as a result - we buy the non plastic versions but it's quite a lot dearer so can't be used in quite so much abundance!

It’s a massive problem for me. Most vegan food contains allergens such as nuts and wheat to replace the meat. And it’s usually simple carbs which I can only eat in small quantities because I’m diabetic. I’m happy to take my own food to events such as this, but in many cases they stop you taking food in. So what am I supposed to eat?

My Dd went to a festival which was meat free years ago. She went with school friends and their parents. That would have been somewhere between about 2016-2018 ish I think. Was called Shamballa iirr.

All those so called 'green', free thinking, liberal individuals why do you assume everyone at a festival is like this? They are a cross section.

It is this determination of those on the right to use a photo of a festival to undermine environmental action and dismiss a whole generation. Thats why the picture is put there - to make people clutch their pearls and drive a panic.

There are no pictures in the papers of what Primark is throwing out every day. The media are pointing you in a direction.

Of course I don't drop litter. I personally tidy my local park!

This isn’t true anymore. Vegetarian and vegan food is as varied - more so, possibly - than meat & fish based cuisine. I’ve also only experienced a few day festivals that refuse to allow food in - and I’m sure if you contacted the organisers and explained your allergies, they would make an exception for you. All the camping festivals I’ve been to allow both food and alcohol in.

You don't need to name the festival after that 😂it's obviously Shambala.

To be fair, electric cars are very expensive, and Shambala also arrange coaches to the festival site and promotes car sharing. I've been before and shared a car with a stranger who I met through the app they promoted, and we're still in touch.

I don't think anyone at Shambala really thinks that they're doing their bit for the environment just by attending, and that there's no need to change government environmental policy the rest of the year round. If by setting up the festival like this they come off as hypocritical, just imagine how it would feel if the site was full of single use plastic and rubbish and everyone was eating meat.

The thing with Shambala is that it's very much about Organised Fun, which I guess all festivals are but Shambala more so, as it has the theme every year, fancy dress parade, Freedom Friday (not sure if this still happens?) etc etc. If that's not your thing or not your thing anymore then yes, the whole thing will be grating. I last went in 2019 when I was 6 months pregnant and being sober and uncomfortable the whole time meant I didn't enjoy it much and I developed the same eye-rolling attitude by the end.

Maybe camping in nature would be a better holiday next time. I hear WOMAD is meant to be a more chilled/grown up experience, too.

@Piranhaha sounds like a terrible argument to me. If you have severe allergies and other dietary restrictions you are always going to find eating out a challenge.

I wouldn't think it unreasonable at all, why are you assuming i would? Festivals can do what they like.

They can, as long as they make that very clear before people buy tickets. My assumption (because of the time of year) is that OP has bought tickets, then been hit by a load of rules.

Personally I think any festival banning vegan food would be daft, in the same way as this one is.

I’ve been to a few festivals post covid - all be it very dance music based - and didn’t have any of these rules.

They mostly seemed concerned about drugs being bought in and there were sniffer dogs all liquids confiscated (saw a woman arguing about her perfume)

But we were given disposable cups, there was non veggie (and very overpriced) food. Personally I hate glitter anyway but there were plenty with their faces painted.

Suppose it depends on the individual festival.

My biggest complaint was the mess - there were nowhere near enough recycling bins and the ones they had were overflowing early on. And as always with Festivals - the toilets were hideous

Yes but if they aren’t going to allow safe food to be brought in then they need to make sure there’s something everyone can buy to eat! I’ve contacted festivals which don’t allow food to be brought in and they refuse to guarantee that there will be nut/wheat/dairy free food for me to buy inside. So what do they expect me to eat all weekend?

@Piranhaha I'm sorry I just don't believe you. I don't think anyone at all with medical grounds would be refused to bring their own food on site. Obviously on Mumsnet you can say whatever you want but I think you would be hard pushed to evidence that. If that did happen it's outrageous- and clearly completely irrelevant if the festival was meat or vegan.

And all that rubbish will be mostly unrecyclable and end up in land fill.

Great.

Did someone give you some funny pills at a festival? Or something to smoke?

I’m not sure you make much sense

A lot of rules at festivals will be imposed by the licensing authority.

It's not 1967, you can't just turn up in a field and shit in a hole in the ground any more.

It's a shame the good old days are gone

@Piranhaha you’re sounding ridiculous and entitled. A festival or any other event can be vegan if it wants to, just as there are all vegan restaurants. If you don’t feel you eat the food on offer then you don’t have to buy a ticket to attend! It’s really as simple as that. It’s like moaning that you only drink wine and they only serve lukewarm beer. They serve what they serve and it’s your choice to attend.

Ha ha! It sounds like people Mr Monkey used to encounter when he managed brewery taprooms!

"Why do you serve just beer?"

"Umm because we are a brewery madam, it's what we make".

Drinking alcohol is a choice. Eating food isn’t. You wouldn’t say it’s ok to exclude any other minority group so why is it ok to exclude people with food allergies?

Because you’re being completely ridiculous! You aren’t allergic to all non-meat and non-diary foods.
To compare that to a minority group being excluded on race or religious grounds is farcical.

I go to a lot of festivals, mostly rock, and these rules aren't something I've come across!

OK, maybe the cup rule, but that's been optional and only a couple of quid at most if you chose that.