"An unkempt/filthy person of middle to upper class suburban descent (usually white) who in an attempt to rebel against their parents and the establishment cease all forms of hygiene and employment and live off their parents' money while attending music festivals and consuming copious amounts of psychedelic drugs. When not scoring drugs in festival parking lots, they can be found driving from thrift store to thrift store looking for patchouli and crocheted dread lock caps."I have been around these kids for some time now and even have some "festy kid" in me, but I chose this particular type of fan for this week's post because they fascinate me. Although it seems as if a lot of new-age, peace, love and happiness beliefs have seeped into this lifestyle, a lot of these fans are still just fans at heart and do a lot of weird things that fans do.
As I mentioned in class before, they collect pins. LOTS of pins.
Up close, these things can get prettttyy ornate. . .
Oh sooooo tripppyyyyy, bro.
And then they come together in a beautiful collective display on a person's flat bill hat (the flat bill part is very important) which is then displayed on the head.
Like this
So this is pretty cool, right? It's wearable art which reflects a festie-goers preferences as far as music, movies, art, spirituality and so forth. Having an intensely decorated flat-bill is a symbol to other festie goers that you are cool, you belong there, and you have built up some experience in this particular world. At the same time, the flat-bill pins allow the fan to express themselves and to feel unique in a sea full of thousands of other raging hippies.
This comes at a price.
Flat bills themselves can get pretty pricey. You'll maybe pay around $30-40 for a style you like but WAIT! Want to show even more uniqueness amongst your groovy friends? Get that shit CUSTOMIZED, braH!!!
Oh shit, is that the flower of mutha fuckin LIFE?!!
That's deep.
(my friend made this hat)
Then you add the pins which you can buy from this guy. . .
And they'll each run you about $15-$40 a piece.
Add some dreadlocks. . .
(thanks Lenny)
And you'll fit right in!
I remember as a teen Hard Rock Cafe shirts were a big craze. I choose to go for the guitar pins that one could purchase a oh course a reasonable price in the gift shop. I noticed that pins switched to patches when I was coming up through high school. Phish was a big part of my adolescence and I toured with them one summer. The pictures you posted were as close to a flash back as one could have. It is a different world from the moment your car enters show traffic to the first set. Looking back now and with the topic we are review in this class, a Phish show could not be more than a perfect social experiment. You can see all the stages at one show. Starting with the "I'm still holding on" ones who are the freshman to the seniors who have dreadlocks and have a venders license for not only breakfast burritos but Balooooooons. Shit, this is getting me all revved up for a show. Big Cypress New Years 1999 was by far the best example. That was a show. Not sure if you are familiar with PHIsh, but that was the year they retired the hotdog. By the way, do you have an Antelope pin?
ReplyDeleteI think this is also dependent on what type of festivals you go to. I have been to two pretty big predominately hip hop music festivals and you would see none of these people there. When I went to a more outdoorsy 'hippy' festival I saw a lot more of these people
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