Dancing Together
"We'll all just end up dancing together, like a party."
While this isn't verbatim, it was exactly what happened. We all danced (and sang and swayed our arms and high-fived and spilled our drinks and sweated profusely) together.
It was the 104.5FM 10th Birthday Party festival at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, NJ. On this particularly hot day, thousands came out to see a collection of notably popular bands, including The Killers, Foster the People and Bleachers. Festivals, nowadays it seems, are becoming more prevalent. Why not spend a little extra money to see not just one band, but several, and find a good reason to spend the day tailgating or camping for a weekend? There's no such thing as Free Love anymore when someone has to make a profit. But it seemed, to my observation, there was more to festivals than just the sake of music.
Festivals, whether it be for music, culture, traditions, art, food and drink, have existed since the beginning of settled communities. A reason to gather and celebrate, whether it was to enjoy a good harvest or commemorate a religious holiday, reinforced the strength in having roots. If you attended a festival, you could easily associate with the fellow festival-goers since you are both there for the same purpose. They also happen to live not too far away, and it was an opportunity to celebrate in the daily drudgery of labor, childrearing and housework.
Nowadays, people fly all over the world to attend some of these festivals. While the location of the festival hasn't changed, the community has....sort of. There's a good chance that you won't see your neighbor at the latest and greatest rock festival, but you will find someone there for the same purpose. Does it really matter that you both spent money to find community?
With the age of social media, nothing screams community more than music festivals. We live in an increasingly isolated world, at least in Western countries, where we spend a good amount of our day work-related (in addition to actual worked hours, commuting, answering emails off-hours, etc.). While we do make efforts to "get together," it feels like a once-in-a-while thing, or because of an event and not for the sake of getting together. Music festivals, like the ones centuries prior, remove us from the same drudgery. You're suddenly transported into a place where everyone understands you.
This brings me back to the 10th Birthday Party. Community was present. Many of the bands referred to the location as "Philly" as in "THANK YOU PHILLY!" (Don't get me started with the fact that we were still in NJ). Concertgoers sang in unison because they knew all the lyrics. My friend and I chatted with those in our immediate surroundings, laughing that nobody knew where their seats were, but it didn't matter since we'll all be dancing once The Killers come out.
Mark Foster (of Foster the People) took a few minutes to comment on the current state of affairs, saying "2016 was a hard year" and "love is bigger than politics." He explained that their new album, III, explores the inexplicable challenges facing us today. You can surround yourself with love, essentially, in an atmosphere such as that.
But what about after the festival: when you're stuck in traffic getting out of Camden, when you're going back home on a Sunday night, and when you're waking up the next morning back to that routine? The temporary community you had has vanished when no remains except the Instagram posts as a reminder of a social time.
Maybe I'll go next year, and we'll dance together again. In the meantime, I will make a conscious effort to celebrate my community that surrounds me everyday.
Panorama of the BB&T Venue, 104.5 10th Birthday Party, June 11, 2017.
While this isn't verbatim, it was exactly what happened. We all danced (and sang and swayed our arms and high-fived and spilled our drinks and sweated profusely) together.
It was the 104.5FM 10th Birthday Party festival at the BB&T Pavilion in Camden, NJ. On this particularly hot day, thousands came out to see a collection of notably popular bands, including The Killers, Foster the People and Bleachers. Festivals, nowadays it seems, are becoming more prevalent. Why not spend a little extra money to see not just one band, but several, and find a good reason to spend the day tailgating or camping for a weekend? There's no such thing as Free Love anymore when someone has to make a profit. But it seemed, to my observation, there was more to festivals than just the sake of music.
Festivals, whether it be for music, culture, traditions, art, food and drink, have existed since the beginning of settled communities. A reason to gather and celebrate, whether it was to enjoy a good harvest or commemorate a religious holiday, reinforced the strength in having roots. If you attended a festival, you could easily associate with the fellow festival-goers since you are both there for the same purpose. They also happen to live not too far away, and it was an opportunity to celebrate in the daily drudgery of labor, childrearing and housework.
Nowadays, people fly all over the world to attend some of these festivals. While the location of the festival hasn't changed, the community has....sort of. There's a good chance that you won't see your neighbor at the latest and greatest rock festival, but you will find someone there for the same purpose. Does it really matter that you both spent money to find community?
With the age of social media, nothing screams community more than music festivals. We live in an increasingly isolated world, at least in Western countries, where we spend a good amount of our day work-related (in addition to actual worked hours, commuting, answering emails off-hours, etc.). While we do make efforts to "get together," it feels like a once-in-a-while thing, or because of an event and not for the sake of getting together. Music festivals, like the ones centuries prior, remove us from the same drudgery. You're suddenly transported into a place where everyone understands you.
This brings me back to the 10th Birthday Party. Community was present. Many of the bands referred to the location as "Philly" as in "THANK YOU PHILLY!" (Don't get me started with the fact that we were still in NJ). Concertgoers sang in unison because they knew all the lyrics. My friend and I chatted with those in our immediate surroundings, laughing that nobody knew where their seats were, but it didn't matter since we'll all be dancing once The Killers come out.
Mark Foster (of Foster the People) took a few minutes to comment on the current state of affairs, saying "2016 was a hard year" and "love is bigger than politics." He explained that their new album, III, explores the inexplicable challenges facing us today. You can surround yourself with love, essentially, in an atmosphere such as that.
But what about after the festival: when you're stuck in traffic getting out of Camden, when you're going back home on a Sunday night, and when you're waking up the next morning back to that routine? The temporary community you had has vanished when no remains except the Instagram posts as a reminder of a social time.
Maybe I'll go next year, and we'll dance together again. In the meantime, I will make a conscious effort to celebrate my community that surrounds me everyday.
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