As Wireless music festival sells out in record time, parents become increasingly worried over their children’s security during summer festival season.
The recent release of the Wireless festival line-up and subsequent selling out of tickets has made it clear that 2018 seems to be a popular year for music festival events. Not only Wireless, but many other music festivals are on the horizon, such as Parklife, Reading and Leeds, which all typically take place in front of a sold out crowd of thousands.
Whilst this seems to be a great source of energy and excitement for everyone attending to look forward to this upcoming summer, many parents of some of the younger attendees have concerns over their children’s safety and security at such events. Speaking to numerous parents who preferred to remain anonymous, some common worries that cropped up were theft, alcohol/drug consumption, dangers of being physically harmed amidst the crowd and even one concern about an act of terrorism.
Some of these festivals are particularly notorious for underage alcohol and drug abuse, as well as the chaos of dancing and being in such large crowds leading to injuries and pickpocketing, and this has led many parents to be seriously concerned for their child’s wellbeing, and one parent we spoke to told of her decision not to allow her child to attend any festivals on the grounds that they are “too dangerous for somebody his age”. There is no doubt however that this led him to feel extremely excluded, as his friends parents – whilst still concerned – did not share the same degree of restriction. Whilst it is entirely understandable that these concerns exist from parents, the contrary suggests that children need to be given this aspect of freedom to gain life experiences and independence, to learn how to act responsibly and safely when out alone.
By Kai Melhuish, Debden Park.
