To everyone who was involved in any way,
It has been over a month since SASQUATCH! went down and people have transitioned in the summer season. I am still thinking about my experience this year at the Festival and want input from other people on what they saw. If we communicate and work together we can possible remedy some of the flaws of what is a Beast of a Fest. Please circulate this message to all people you know that attended SASQUATCH! this year because with some more input from all angles (employees, artists, volunteers, media & attendees) we can get the bigger picture.
I have been attending the Sasquatch! for what is now 9 years strong (every year but the very first). I have watched it grow into the Monster that is has become and this year I was extra observant and critical.
I am very satisfied as far as my quality of experience with the Music is concerned and couldn't be more happy with all the amazing performances of artists that I love dearly. Adam Zacks and the SASQUATCH! crew do their best to make sure that everything on the Festival side of things runs on time, sounds great and transitions smoothly. I can elaborate on how much of an amazing experience I had enjoying the incredible music over the course of the weekend but this letter has a different purpose. At the least I will confirm as I do every year, BEST SASQUATCH! EVER.
I know that Live Nation goes far beyond the Gorge as a concert venue and HOB is only loosely involved somehow. My main problems with my experience this year are directly related to how the Amphitheater and Campground is run. This is more than just inflation of cheap booze and food, these problems are essential to understanding the very nature of humanity, NO JOKE.
As with everyone who comes to Gorge on Memorial Day weekend, people expect a lot things. Many people go there as employees with the potential to make money as a seasonal event worker. These people are an quintessential part to making sure things run smoothly. I am sure they expect to work hard and be treated fairly but the system in which they are entangled is terrible.
I will openly communicate with everyone and be as honest as I can. (hence the writing of this letter) Every time I had the chance to communicate with a Gorge Employee that was low on the chain of command and actually ask "How're you doing?" The ugly truth came out.
Here's some examples of what I heard
People had to stand for 6 hours in the sun, no bathroom break, no food or water provided
Numerous accounts of verbal abuse from upper management
Discrimination based on race, gender and socioeconomic background
These are just some prime and intense examples of the mistreatment of some of the employees that I had the chance to interact with. I can only fathom the amount of labor laws being violated. If anyone else saw examples of this please elaborate.
The issue with how the management treats its employees is one of grave concern I think for Live Nation and the Gorge in general. To foster such a negative work environment for so many people really takes a toll on the experience for everyone involved. No matter the pay rate, position or person all people should be treated with the respect as human beings that they deserve. I would love to see the low level employees of the Amphitheater petition for a better work atmosphere because they deserve it from what I saw. I hope Live Nation reads my concerns seriously and addresses some of the serious problems that do exist. I think some of the key issues with the main problems could be solved with boosting employee moral. I have e-mailed them with my thoughts and only received back automated responses.
I was also directly harassed by some security staff in the fact that I was dancing on the path and told to sit down or I would be kicked out, I was not getting in any bodies way besides the lady who got on my case. Tell me again what is wrong with dancing at a Festival?
Another issue that I am passionate about is the waste that is created. The Gorge is without a doubt my favorite place to see live music because it is set in such an amazing setting. Watching people come to one of my favorite places and treat is like a trash can is unacceptable.
I remember there used to be more of push to make people a little bit more conscious about properly disposing of their garbage. In previous years trash bags where distributed in the campgrounds. It would be a simple change and save a lot of money in the long run. Giving people different colored bags for trash and recycle at the campground, having neatly labeled things inside the festival, making announcements on stage about proper disposal.
I am volunteering with an organization called Clean Vibes this summer. This weekend previous (the end of June beginning of July) I was at the High Sierra Music Festival in Quincy, California. It was my first experience with them and I can only say amazing things. Participating with the during festival clean up crew was an honor and a pleasure. We took four hours out of day each day to sort mad amounts of garbage into trash, compost and various recyclables. We also made sure the vendors and attendees knew how to take care of their waste. The care for the waste made during festivals that Clean Vibes instills could benefit SASQUATCH! greatly. I know everybody wants to have a good time and "party" but absolutely trashing the Columbia Gorge in the name of a good time is ludicrous. I am volunteering with Clean Vibes again at Outside Lands in San Fransisco during the second weekend in August. I will continue to document my experience on this blog.
If Sasquatch, the actual big footed creature, attended this festival the main thing I can imagine would be shock at the sheer amount of environmental degradation that it is causing. The Gorge is set amongst an amazing landscape over looking one of the most important river systems in the North West. It needs to be treated with copious amounts of respect instead of so much constant neglect. I did my best to make sure I properly disposed of or packed out everything that I packed in, including my stuff in the festival and campground. I hope people begin to realize in the future that this Festival is special. We get to use that space for such an amazing event and in turn we should treat it with the respect that is deserves.
The campground is a whole different Animal from the Concert and needs to be treated as such.
I want to have a lot of faith in the people who come to the festival and I attempt trust everyone there but this is should indubitably not be the case. Our campsite got raided while we were all in the concert on Friday and two of my friends lost of lot of valuable personable items from their tents.
After that we made sure to lock everything up in the car, but alas after getting back from the concert the next day, the crooks didn't even take time to open the tent zippers. They simply took knives and slit almost everyone's tent at our site looking for stuff to steal. I had to deal with a giant hole in my tent window the next two nights. For a guy who is living out a car, having his tent slashed open is like knocking down wall of somebodies house.
I know security exists at the campground but this year I did not see a single one of them around my campsite only near the entrance taking away booze. This is rather disappointing. No one should come to a festival and have to worry so much about their materials possessions when they are just trying to have a good time like 99.999% of the other attendees. If any body else experienced theft at the campground please speak reply. Safety and Security should be the number one and two concern respectively, not confiscation of alcohol/drugs.
One other thing I can think that is very necessary is a much more efficient and larger security check at the entrance of the festival, it should not take any more than 1/2 an hour to stand in line, have your things checked, ticket scanned and get it. The organization was far less than what was needed and the people always seemed confused (both employees and concert goers). The gates where not far enough back to form distinct lines and it ended up more like a mob. There was a significant amount of people sneaking in front of others creating delays.
On that note, I can understand being poor and not being able to afford an expensive ticket to large festival. But please if you can buy your ticket to SASQUATCH! and do not sneak in. The money goes to the hard working artists who you are enjoying to see live, the employees of the Gorge or the Festival and to all the resources it takes to put on a party this big. By not contributing and only mooching people who sneak in contribute nothing to the Festival community besides another warm body. Please contribute when and if you can in some way.
O yeah, there needs to be way more water stations inside the festival. I don't want to wait more than a couple minutes to fill up my water bottles, and last year it seemed there were a lot of more than this one. One of my favorite things to say over the course of the weekend is always "A hydrated Sasquatch!, is a happy Sasquatch!"
The wristband idea is logical and makes a lot of sense in the long run but from my experience I think it needs some revamping. My band personally fell off in my tent saturday night/sunday morning good thing i found it had some white medical tape i discreetly reattached it. A sturdier model of wristband is needed if this is repeated next year. A lot of people lost there band or had it ripped off in gnarly crowds by stupid people. These wristbands are too important and cost too much money to have them feel like a dispensable item.
I appreciate anybody for reading this all because it is long and sporadic. What I am basically trying to convey is I love SASQUATCH! for so many reasons but would really love to see things run with a little but more LOVE & MERCY and not so much GREED & WASTE. Please respond and circulate this amongst people who were there and want to make SASQUATCH! 2012 the best one ever.
sincerely,
Taylor Livingston
TELivingston@gmail.com
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