My girls and I have spent the summer taking in music festivals around the province. Big ones, small ones, and everything in between. This may explain why I鈥檝e become somewhat attuned to crowd mentality and how it changes depending on the environment. Not all of society鈥檚 behaviour can be brushed with the same stroke, but what I have noticed is a predominant lack of awareness for what adults do under the watchful gaze of young people.
A disclaimer may be in order, so here goes: I was young once. I remember when having good time was more than an intention 鈥� it was a mission. My festival attendance has spanned (gasp!) four decades now. I spent a chunk of my pre-kids career organizing aspects of them too.
In short, I鈥檝e seen some 鈥渟tuff.鈥�
For anyone who has for years been attending the Squamish Valley Music Festival 鈥� initially known as Squamish Live 鈥� you would recall it had a distinctive flavour. It was at once a music festival with fabulous multi-genre samplings and at the same time incredibly family-friendly. Anyone remember that giant bear mascot that roamed the Loggers Sports grounds giving everyone a high-five?
Well, it鈥檚 not the same festival anymore; this much is clear. The number of attendees has quintupled, there are different organizers and sponsors and objectives, but that鈥檚 not to say it isn鈥檛 just as fantastic. 聽
So now that we have that bit of housekeeping out of the way, I will share with you our first experience attending SVMF as a family this year. Lining up to get into the grounds on Friday, we found ourselves at security flanked by two young women ahead of us being thoroughly examined and another young couple to our rear who smelled as if they had already consumed their weekend supply of liquor in the few short hours it took them to set up their tent that morning.
My girls watched the whole process with eagle eyes as item after item was dug out and carefully examined by a woman who might easily have had grandchildren. Then came the flask.
Suddenly everything went from a regular, if not boring, process of waiting our turn to get through the gate to a moment where as a mom I had to make a pretty quick decision as security handed the flask back to the young lady without so much as a word.
Perhaps I shouldn鈥檛 have been surprised when at 1 p.m., the festival-goer opted to start downing its contents. What did surprise me was the fact that despite clearly being observed intently by a seven and nine-year-old, both the party gal and security seemed to think this was perfectly acceptable.
So I said something.
It鈥檚 sort of hard to remember exactly what it was, but something to the effect that I couldn鈥檛 believe what I was seeing and that it was inappropriate to be doing or condoning this behaviour in front of two young children.
That seemed to snap the two into reality, and the girl looked sheepish as she moved to pour the remaining booze into the garbage bin between us, which seemed like the better alternative to binging before minors.
Except buddy behind me wasn鈥檛 having any of it and audibly protested over the 鈥渨aste鈥� and reached in to save the precious substance from its premature disposal.
I鈥檓 still confounded. Not by the desire to make the most of a weekend, but by the lack of awareness that people 鈥� and I mean of all ages 鈥� have around children nowadays.
At the risk of sounding like a fuddy-duddy, society has lost something of a moral compass in this day and age of 鈥渆verything goes.鈥�
It didn鈥檛 even occur to the grandmother behind the table that tolerating this kind of activity might not be the best idea. Not even close. It took an angry mom saying something to snap everyone out of their slumber. Aside from the tipsy duo behind us, and I鈥檓 not sure much would have gotten through to them that afternoon.
As a society we need to wake up. Maybe it鈥檚 our primary tether to social media that is to blame, our desire to exist only in a world that we shape and create 鈥� it really doesn鈥檛 matter. We need to recognize that we have a responsibility to shepherd our younger generations into being members of society who are not just 鈥渃ontributing鈥� but brilliant, conscientious and caring citizens of the world. 聽
And we can鈥檛 do that if we don鈥檛 look around us and see the others in our presence. Because I assure you, they are there, and they are taking it all in.
