G-YOU MAGAZINE// FESTIVAL // NOV 2021 // 14
I don’t know about you, but when the clubs opened af-
ter eighteen months of pandemic misery, I was first in line. After eighteen months which objectively lacked in fun, the only thing I wanted to do was put on my dancing shoes and let loose. I feel most people are the same: everyone wants to enjoy themselves, if not in HIVE then at the theatre, or the football or TRNSMT. Essentially, after something so horrible as a pandemic, once the healing has begun, everyone wants to celebrate.
The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are the event which perhaps best typifies this debate. Previous Olympic Games have always been jubilant and lively affairs; while the run up to the Tokyo Games was met with muted fanfare and even protests within Japan. As the nation’s intensive care wards filled and it became clear that no spectators would be able to attend, huge questions had to be asked about whether the games should go ahead. Ultimately, they did, and were met with great success for the host nation who achieved their highest ever medal tally and the global TV audiences were some of the highest ever achieved by the games.
‘we
can
continue
to
re-unite
G-YOU MAGAZINE// FESTIVAL // NOV 2021 // 14
This is not a new phenomenon; for eons humans have used festivals to signify the end of dark times and begin the healing process. Clearly, there is something for everyone in a celebration of art, culture, and good times. However, these celebrations, especially when they happen near tragedies, can be viewed as disrespectful. Detractors feel that celebrating amounts to rubbing it in the faces of those who have lost, or ignoring the problems faced by our society in favour of debauchery. For COVID, this argument takes on an extra relevance as the risks are not yet completely gone. As our festivals pose the possibility of spreading the very issue that we are trying to recover from, how can celebrations help us to heal?
