The Do’s And Don’ts At Music Festivals: Does It Matter To You?

With countless music festivals all across the country, it’s becoming more important to stand out.  Even within the electronic dance music scene, festivals find their own niche and style.  Coachella has always been about the blend between alternative rock and dance music.  Lightning In A Bottle is a transformational festival that celebrates life and personal growth. Life in Color is a wild out paint party.  Ultra kicks off the summer season while TomorrowWorld ends it.

But lately, there’s been another way that festivals are dividing — the Hell Yes  and the Hell No.  The PLUR and The Man.  The ravers and the non-ravers. Event managers claim that the rules are designed to enforce public safety.  “I understand [kandi] is not drug related culture inherently,” Diplo wrote in a press release. “We just had serious issues with kids hiding it and there was a definite relationship between safety and security and made it so we had to ban certain items.”

Last year, people were outwardly upset when Diplo banned kandi at the Mad Decent Block Parties across the country.  This year, the kandi ban remains.

Here’s an adapted list of DO’s and DON’TS from two music festivals:

[column size=one_half position=first ]TomorrowWorld DO’S

• Sealed cigarettes, lip balm, gum/mints
• Electronic cigarettes/personal hookahs (including refillable chambers)
• Kandi beads
• LED gloves/LED accessories
• Inflatables
• Headresses/masks and Spirit hoods
• GoPros and Selfie sticks
• Totems/signs
• Hula hoops
• Costumes
• Flags [/column]

[column size=one_half position=last ]Mad Decent Block Party – DON’TS

• Unsealed: cigarette packages, tampons, packs of gum, chapstick/lip gloss
• Illegal substances of any kind (including medical marijuana)
• Kandi bracelets and/or necklaces
• LED gloves, LED microlights, etc.
• Stuffed animals or dolls
• Masks of any kind
• Pacifiers
• Electronic or vapor cigarettes
• Totems and/or flagpoles
• Vitamins[/column]

The question is this: do these allowances or restrictions make or break your willingness to attend the show?  If all other mitigating factors were set aside (such as location, music genre, and cost) would you go to one show or the other strictly because of what you can or cannot bring into the festival?  Further, do you think that creating a culture of DON’T makes the music festival safer to attend than a festival of DO?