Here are six reasons…
1. I see all the lesbians I have ever known.
2. I start thinking everyone is a lesbian, that’s how many there are!
3. I have a rare reprieve from feeling fat or clumsy. Because there are people with all kinds of bodies–old, young, fat, skinny, hairy, disabled–showing skin and dancing and laughing.
4. In one day I saw: three gay leather guys laughing hysterically together, one in a wheelchair with no top on and pierced nipples; a two-year-old dancing in a sparkly purple cape; a woman with a beard; many dyke moms; a guy in a wheelchair with a tracheotomy smoking a giant doobie by the port-a-potties; a 12-year-old girl that I danced at the festival with when she was a baby; and some average looking folks who were just going with the flow.
5. THE MUSIC: this year Sarah Jane Morris blew me away! And Martyn Joseph made me cry because he sang about injustice in this way that my mom would have loved and she is dead and the world is crazy.
6. The incredible attention to access for people with disabilities. They are everywhere! And you realize that they could always be at events if people made the effort to be accessible! I push my girlfriend around the festival in her wheelchair and I AM NOT THE ONLY PERSON with a disabled partner! And she can watch music and not have to arrange for a special place to sit or get me to stand in line for hours and save seats because the festival has built a place for her to sit!!
Now, this year there were not as many people in the disabled access area as usual. Is this because the Folk Fest has raised the price of discounted community tickets (given to community groups to distribute)? I HOPE NOT. I plan to write to them. I hope you do too, if this is important to you. (Go to the fest’s FAQ page and scroll down to see list of things they offer for people with disabilities.)
