EDM festivals fraught with white privilege

EDM festivals fraught with white privilege

Festival experience dampened by rampant cultural appropriation and racial bias

Guest Author

As an avid fan of house music and member of Binghamton University’s Hoop Troop, I’m almost the typical attendant of EDM festivals. However, my experience at this past summer’s Electric Forest Festival proved to me that so many white people just don’t get it. Because I am a person of color, what should have been an exhilarating adventure turned out to be a nightmare. I faced covert racism and microaggressions from pseudo-hippies that left me cynical about festival culture and colorblindness among the younger generation.

Festivals such as Coachella have already received backlash for the cultural appropriation of Native American headdresses; so much so that a plethora of festivals have banned the sporting of the war bonnets. Yet something that the media doesn’t address is the cultural appropriation of dreadlocks that is so apparent in EDM festival culture. The amount of white people with dreads at Electric Forest was astounding. I was prepared to be one of the few people of color at the festival, but I wasn’t prepared to see people steal my culture.

Many festival attendees fail to realize the cultural significance of hair as a part of black identity, especially dreadlocks. Historically, straightening black hair was a form of survival, in hopes of gaining access to opportunities and resources that African-Americans were denied. Wearing afro-textured in its natural state is a declaration against the European standard of beauty.

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