May 17, 2014 - Written by: Becky Solomon

Give Me A Festival, Not A Fashion Show

So, I partook in my first festival of the year a couple of weekend ago. It was a lovely little local one. The weather was mild, the food & drink were amazing and the music was good. However, one thing I couldn’t fail to notice was the absolute fashion disasters that kept pouring in through the gates.

I will openly admit: I know nothing about fashion. I neither have the time, money nor interest to keep up to date with what Vogue assumes will change my life. Despite my dislike for somebody assuming that a hand bag will change me in any way other than by decreasing my bank balance, I can still spot what I would call a fashion disaster.

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The problem here for me is that festivals are, and always should be, about the music.

I remember going to my first festival, and I was dying with excitement to cram in as many bands as physically possible. I would spend hours in the crowd, manipulating my way to the front, where I would stand without a toilet break, without water, just so I could live the experience to what I thought would be the fullest. Many times I came stupidly close to dehydration and passing out; if I was lucky enough, I could grab the water they sometimes hand out at the front barriers when everyone is gasping. I’ve suffered kicks to the head from crowd surfers, piss thrown over me from guys who won’t wait and even got caught up involuntarily in a mosh pit.

But as soon as the bands came on, it was all forgotten. Weeks later, I’d be reminiscing about the amazing time I had. That’s what it’s about.

I feel this new, slightly younger generation seems to have confused festivals with Ibiza.

You see, I have noticed the people seem to be confusing festivals as a place to try out a few new outfits and feel like they’re Kate Moss at Glastonbury.

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This annoys me.

‘Festival fashion’ is becoming so popular that clothing stores are bringing out festival ranges and creating lookbooks for ‘festival outfits’. The style seems to be a very weird disconcerting mix of ‘boho’ meets hobo with a pair of Ray-Bans for extra cool.

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I don’t believe that these people are here for the music, they’re there to parade themselves looking good, tagging, tweeting and instagramming to prove to invisible friends they’re having THE BEST TIME EVER.

Really? So what bands did you see?

The celebrities certainly don’t help either, plastered all over magazines supposedly suggesting how to look good at a festival. Well yes, I’d look like that too if I had a VIP pass, had spent the night in hotel and brought my own makeup artist.

So, I watched with dismay as young girls came pouring in sporting denim hot pants, extensions, eyelashes, bad fake tan and, I kid you not, there were even some high heels on that day. I, on the other hand, had my boots, waterproofs and several other layers to keep me warm.