Made Fresh Today - July 11th, 2007

Chair-sitters vs. Standers

There's a lot of talk in the local media about people who attend music festivals and whether they should be allowed to bring a chair or not. Some say not everyone can stand for hours and why penalize them? Let them have their chairs! Others say, those chairs take up so much space, space that 3 or 4 people could crowd into. The Bluesfest made a chair only section, but they didn't enforce it, so some chair people moved their chairs into other areas and then got into conflict with those who were standing, thereby blocking their view. This was amusing when we were at the Bluesfest to see the White Stripes. Pre-concert as we were hanging out on the grass, having decided to leave our honking big chairs at home because:

• they were heavy to carry
• we'd have to keep track of them all night long
• I wanted to see if I still could stand for a concert

It was the right decision for all those reasons and as the music played the crowd grew and grew and they mashed in close to us, and most of those chair people folded their chairs and stood, cause they wouldn't see anything without doing so, and many filed past us through the crowd, chairs slung over their shoulders.

Oh I digressed.

So, I was going to say, we were waiting on the grass for the concert (over 2 hours) and there were these double camp chairs connected to each other by a canvas table just sitting there empty. They were holding space for at least an hour and a half; no one in them, no one revelling in their luxuriousness. Eventually as we had all settled in accommodating the chairs, the people sitting on the grass next to the chairs nudged them over an inch or two. Then a bit more, and a bit more. We were behind the chairs and my guy made a motion to lift the chairs and we could crowd surf them back a few rows. We didn't do it, boy everyone wanted to. You could feel it. As he said,

"Listen they don't know how far up they really are, they're just looking for their chairs. So what it they're 6 rows back? They'll never notice."

I've been trying to figure out why those chairs annoyed us so much. Definitely they really took up way way too much space. And their connectedness was annoying. I suppose if you're the happy couple sharing those chairs, you'd call me a cynic but it was irritating. When they returned they sat down, oblivious to the scowls aimed at them, never knowing how lucky they were to see their chairs where they left them (almost) and the eventually the concert
started, the crowd surged forward and they were blocked in. They were forced to stand and the female who belonged to those chairs was probably 5' tall if that. There was no hope for her to see the stage or even the big screen. I am 5'6" and I got glimpses only. It wasn't long before they packed their chair into the carry bag and made their way out of the crowd.

Is this right or wrong? I know the crowd 5 rows back trying to get closer doesn't care there's a chair in the way. People weave in and out looking for the smallest space to move forward or to claim for themselves. A chair in this kind of space will not win. Sure you can insist on sitting but you won't see a thing. It's your choice.

A guy said to me when we surged forward, after the chair people had left,

"Hey, you were one of the Get-Rid-Of-The-Chair-Faction
people right? "Yes I was," I said. "Peer pressure wins again."