Posts by Russell Brown
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This is lighting up on my Facebook too.
Keegan Fepuleai:
Unfortunately it's a large part of the make up of festival culture.
When you have artists throwing cakes, objectifying women constantly this is what you get.
These kids know nothing, nor are they interested in actual clubbing/dance culture. They have spent most of their lives appropriating, exploiting & ruining movements which without them had become accepting and safe places for women to celebrate themselves and those around them.
These are all graduates of festivals such as R&V. The most vile of all festivals. It has for a generation created this disgusting culture of binge drinking, rape culture and idiocy at festivals. This is a large part if why they seem to think this acceptable.
Patrick (Dubhead) Waller:
Patrick Waller 2015 was the last Laneway Festival NZ I will attend which is a pity, because like yourself and your friends Russell I am a big fan of emerging music and have attended all the Laneway Fests to date. Although your piece focuses on young intoxicated males and disrespectful sexist aggression, my experience last year was more of a generational behaviour issue rather than gender specific. At least 20 wasted millenials walked/ran/barged straight into me. No "excuse me" or attempt to walk around - just straight on through as if I was a door, or invisible. They were male and female, mostly intoxicated, and/or using their cellphones at the time and not looking where they were gong. It's a big a crowd and if this happened say 3 or 4 times, I'd have no problem, but I am not exaggerating to say it was 20 times. I wasn't up the front or anywhere near the mosh pit, but simply standing watching a band, or moving between stages. There exists a "large crowd etiquette" when attending big concerts or festivals and it seems that sadly common sense and courtesy has not yet been learnt by many of the youngsters attending Laneway & Rhythm & Vines. This is not an "old man rant", I would have felt equally disappointed if people had behaved this way in the 1980s, '90s, or '00s. I agree totally with your piece, and would add "Fix Up Young PEOPLE" - it's a big world and you and your wasted mates are not the only ones in it. Open your eyes.
Simon Bennett:
I witnessed a fist-fight between two drunk men, three people away from me in the crowd during the Grimes set. Frightening.
Tina Turntables:
jesus, that is some fucked up shit, Russel... there were a lot of gross douche-bro's around on those main stages, i found it pretty unpleasant most of the time there, but nothing like that... it's staggering women are still considered 'outsiders' in music, considering how many of them were on stage this year. gah
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to James Littlewood*,
I’m also thinking about another successful pro social campaign, which involved a young male protagonist “internalising a complex situation.”
That's good idea. Maybe get something robust together for next summer's festival season?
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Stephen Judd,
That might help, yeah.
This has become a massive problem at Australia festivals, albeit one of a slightly different nature. Some promoters are trying to filter for boofheads by banning shirtlessness.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Stephen Judd,
I wasn’t there, so I don’t know how visible and proactive security were, but when people get visibly slung out for being antisocial, it sends a message.
That does already happen.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to B Jones,
I used to get my morning coffee passing under Russell’s watchful eye.
It was a conversation-starter for years afterwards in shops and the like. I tried to always make time to talk about it.
But man, the number of takes it took to get exactly the tone of manly disapproval the director was after ...
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Stephen Judd,
I have a not even half baked idea that reality television and the enormous yet narrow peer group supplied by the internet is contributing to a feeling that one is an actor, performing, that the situation is somehow unreal, and that the (even if horrified) attention of others justifies whatever you do. For the lulz. But maybe I’m just getting old.
I think there's an element of not seeing your target as a real person, yes.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to James Dunne,
but if the young gentleman in question was now facing a lifetime ban from every major New Zealand music venue and festival, along with his friends,
I'd love to see that happen.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to Stephen Judd,
I think demographic, security, cultural cues, lots of subtle stuff, contribute to crowd behaviour. If promoters made “how can we make this event a great experience for women” their guiding principle, I reckon they could do a lot. As a happy side-effect, such an atmosphere would be good for most men too.
I know the Laneway promoters and they’re good people who will be horrified by this. They’ve made a practice of booking female artists, they have a behaviour code and roaming security and they manage alcohol access responsibly (the empty bars in the evening suggest onsite drinking isn't really the issue anyway). What else do you suggest they do? Sincere question, not snark.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to James Littlewood*,
Russell, I recall you were part of the “Not OK” campaign. What were the learnings from that? What worked?
The really effective part of that campaign was how joined-up it was. It gave both victims and abusers steps to take and information with which to take those steps.
Then there was the new onus on the police to take family violence seriously. And, of course, having other men say it literally wasn't okay. It all helped de-normalise family violence. Not end it, but, I think, embed the idea that it wasn't normal or acceptable behaviour.
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Hard News: Fix up, young men, in reply to B Jones,
It’s not up to assaulters’ friends to stop this, whether they’re female or not. It’s up to the event organisers to set and enforce a code of conduct that keeps the attendees safe and happy. If you can get kicked out of the cricket for playing drums, surely you should get kicked out for harassing strangers of whatever type.
If only it were that simple. You're deep in a crowd of thousands and, as Jean noted, even people a few metres away probably had no idea what was going on. There's a behaviour code already in the Laneway terms and conditions:
Your Behaviour: you must ensure that you and your invitees act in an orderly manner when attending the Event Site. Promoter may refuse entry or evict you or any of your invitees if you or any of your party are behaving in a disorderly, offensive or inappropriate manner.
That's why I wrote about how important trust is – and how utterly damaging it is when that trust can't be upheld.
And it's why I feel like my culture is being invaded. These boofheads won't be going to music festivals when they're my age, or even in 10 years' time. They're barely even there for the music.
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