Meathman's Diary: The shared experience of music festivals

I’m often surprised with the perception that some people, of all ages, have with music festivals. Many are under the impression that it’s purely an excuse to overdrink and under-sleep.

For a few, that’s all that it is - which is perfectly understandable. The biggest strength of a music festival is that once you enter the grounds, you can make it what you want.

Something such as a music and arts festival is comparable to sporting events, concerts, or any other leisurely distractions. Anything that offers up that sense of communitas often allows people to be their best, by being able to put the frustrations of daily life in the backseat for a number of hours.

If you’re spending an hour watching someone perform an entire lifetime of a body of work on a stage, chances are you aren’t thinking of the leaky dishwasher.

At an event that lasts two, three, or four days, it’s prolonging that immersion and enjoyment. Although you can draw comparisons to this with a trip away, it’s unique to have so many people in one place with one main objective: to enjoy.

Attendees at the likes of an Electric Picnic, All Together Now, or Beyond the Pale aren’t there for any other reason than to just make the most of those few days. As well as this, enjoyment doesn’t have a demographic. Whether you feel like you’re not the right age, or just not the right type of person for a music festival, these opinions aren’t ever true.

For anyone who has been to a few different music festivals, especially ones that offer huge variety like Electric Picnic, you’ll see that it really is for everyone. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend such events all across Europe - from Stradbally to Transylvania. In those various outings, I’ve spoken to all kinds of people from all over the globe, from Croatian grandmothers to Australians enduring quarter-life crises, and each conversation is just as memorable as the last.

Like sport, music and art are able to bring out the ‘people’ in individuals. On a Saturday night at a music festival, you could be waiting in line to get your overpriced chips and strike up a conversation with someone, for no other reason than they were in the place in front of you. In a different scenario, they could be denying you a loan, cleaning your teeth, or serving you in a restaurant.

There is no status or tiering system for people who just want to enjoy art and music. Everyone is there for celebration, and there is nothing less or nothing more to that. A lot of people don’t have the time or resources necessary for as much enjoyment as they should probably get, but an hour, an evening, or a weekend is certainly better than nothing.