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An Editorial Festivals Suck

Festivals suck. Though that statement may seem harsh, it would seem the only tenable position anyone viewing our culture, and the rock and roll scene in particular, can hold at this time. Festivals are a near-deadly phenomenon that has assumed near-deadly Frankenstein proportions; they’re a monster that has youth culture backed against the wall.

August 1, 1970
THE EDITORS

An Editorial Festivals Suck

Festivals suck. Though that statement may seem harsh, it would seem the only tenable position anyone viewing our culture, and the rock and roll scene in particular, can hold at this time.

Festivals are a near-deadly phenomenon that has assumed near-deadly Frankenstein proportions; they’re a monster that has youth culture backed against the wall.

Everybody who has ever heard about a pop festival wants to go to one. And we could even deal with that, but one’s second festival is almost always blatant evidence of conspicuous consumption of the worst sort.

This isn’t to suggest that there’s anything wrong with having a good time or to malign giant gatherings of freeks. But there is something wrong with being part of a phenomenon that is touted as the high point, the ultimate product of our culture but in reality demonstrates our most '"devastating weaknesses--our gullibility, our shallowness, and our proclivity to be manipulated by mass merchandising moguls, indeed, by mass anything.

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