LET’S ROCK! the vote

Last weekend I went to a music festival in New Orleans. The festival (Voodoo fest) can best be described as three days of good music, nice weather, pricy food, an eclectic mass of people, and politics. Leaving the festival grounds last night, more than ever before I felt how the election is now ruling the nation.

What started of as any other concert/festival, soon turned in to some kind of political rally, with almost every single artists talking about the election. November 4th is getting closer everyday and I know this election is probably one of the most important elections is American history, but what I do not get is that even on ‘neutral grounds’ like a music festival, people are trying to talk about politics and in a subtle or, more often, not so subtle way are trying to sell a candidate to their audience.

I acknowledge the importance of political awareness and I think that it is good that these artists, that so many people are looking up to, are underlining the importance of voting. The thing that bothered me, however, was that most of them didn’t leave it at a simple ‘you need to vote’, but that they felt the need to reinforce a candidate on the public. And, if it would have been a mixed endorsement for both candidates then maybe it wouldn’t have come across as such a big deal. However, this wasn’t the case. Every artist that called out for a certain candidate to win talked about the same person. And even though this is the same person I am ruling for, even to me it felt inappropriate and just simply too much.

A music festival should be about music, not about politics. With almost every artist bringing up the election and their favorite candidate, they however turned the festival into a political gathering. Politics and the election are already consuming our lives. Let’s keep them out the door when we try to find distraction.