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!

Which festival IS this? Sound bizarre.
all the ones I’ve been to, small and large,
generally are trying to lessen environmental impact by offering lots of non- meat portions as well as meat, offer discount for anyone using their own coffee cup for drinks and also have a re-usable cup
policy. Ie buy a pint and they give it to you in a hard plastic cup that costs a pound but you get the kind back when you turn it in again, and every time you get another drink your old cup is swapped for a clean one

@Basketballqueen it must be Shambala.

The rules for bar cups are the normal ones you're talking about, but they don't sell disposable coffee cups. Instead you can bring your own cup or buy a branded one onsite, £7 for an enamel one or £10 for a bamboo one.

You can bring your own food but all the food sold by the stalls is vegetarian/vegan. They introduced this a few years ago now and asked for feedback from all the attendees that year, and it was overwhelmingly positive so they kept the rule. There is obviously free drinking water available across the site.

They ask that you don't bring glitter cause it's messy and not environmentally friendly.

They also have other initiatives likes trying not to use plastic cable ties for their build, and encouraging people to share lifts or get public transport.

There is no woke police patrolling the grounds waiting to arrest you if you mention you fancy a ham sandwich or that you've lost your bar cup.

I haven't read all of the responses but have seen Shambala mentioned. I got into a heated debate with one of their activity stalls one year, they were making seed bombs which they were attaching to balloons to let them drift off. It was ok apparently because they were eco balloons. I had to point out that they still last long enough in hedgerows and fields to be a danger to livestock and wildlife. I couldn't really stand the hipocrisy of no glitter, including eco-glitter and all the preaching about becoming zero impact on the environment and then getting people to send hundreds of balloons into the atmosphere. Not to mention there is a finite source of helium on the planet.

We also got caught the year they announced the festival was going vegetarian AFTER tickets had gone on sale and they gave no refund option. It was problematic for us, for valid reasons - and we had to sell our tickets on that year. We haven't been back since.

I have no problem with festivals having ethical ideals and operating according to them, but I do like to be able to make informed choice about whether I want to go somewhere and adhere to those rules.

I've got 30 years of festivals under my belt and on the whole I love the more sustainable approach most of them have taken.

All those so called 'green', free thinking, liberal individuals thinking it is acceptable to just dump unwanted tents etc.

People who litter clearly aren't green are they?! They're the complete opposite. Young people who buy Shein and PLT etc.