Each summer, hundreds flock to the grounds outside the Max Bell Arena in Calgary to take in electronic music at the Chasing Summer festival. This year, a new cohort of music fans will be able to attend the contentious festival: minors.
Since 2013, the music festival has only been open to people 18 and older. Chasing Summer made a change for the 2018 event, opening it up to fans of all ages.
That change is rubbing some festival-goers the wrong way.
“There’s a really high demand for adult-only concerts and I feel like there’s a lot of reasons why they shouldn’t change it to all ages,” Ben McMaster told Global News on Tuesday.
McMaster created one of two petitions that started circulating online in recent days, demanding Chasing Summer reverse its decision to host an all-ages festival. With McMaster’s gaining more than 700 signatures by 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday and the other petition collecting more than 500 signatures, there’s mounting opposition to the change.
“The EDM (electric dance music) festival brings out a lot of adults, it brings out a lot of drinking and unfortunately elicit drug use,” McMaster said.
Last year, 15 Chasing Summer festival-goers were taken to hospital for substance abuse during the two-day event. The year before that, 17 people were taken to hospital for drug-related issues.
Despite a plea from Alberta Health Services, the festival also didn’t let festival-goers bring their own naloxone kits to the grounds last year. According to its website, the same rule applies for the 2018 event.
McMaster has attended two Chasing Summer festivals and his wife has been to three.
“Everybody’s kind of energized, rather drunk or high,” he said, adding he and his wife don’t partake in excessive partying.
Watch from August 2017: EMS were kept busy at the Chasing Summer Music Festival at Max Bell over the August long weekend. Thousands took in the event, and as in past years, drug and alcohol issues were prominent. Heather Yourex-West reports.
He said several potential issues stick out to him, including that young audiences could be exposed to graphic scenes if something should go wrong.
“I can’t picture a five-year-old, a 10-year-old or even a 15-year-old witnessing someone overdosing,” he said. “I won’t want to have to see a kid have to witness that.”
He added he doesn’t want to see younger audiences being exposed to or offered drugs or alcohol.
McMaster said he’s heard from several regular festival-goers who have expressed similar concerns, saying they may choose not to attend unless Chasing Summer makes the event 18+ again.
“Honestly, even when I read the signatures on the petition, a lot of people said they’re going to lose a lot of Chasing Summer fans,” he said, adding he and his wife will likely not attend if the event is all ages.
In an emailed statement, Chasing Summer said the change puts the festival in line with other, similar all-ages festivals like Fvded in the Park, Contact Music Festival, Ile Sonique, Veld and Centre of Gravity.
“Our goal has always been to provide guests with an enjoyable and accessible experience, which in the past has meant restricting attendance to guests over the age of 18 to avoid additional fenced areas and access limitations,” spokesperson Sandra Mrez said in an email.
“Thanks to recent changes in event licensing regulations, we are now able to maintain the same freedom of movement across the site while opening up the event to all age demographics.
“The new changes to Chasing Summer’s age policy allow the opportunity to expose the next generation of dance music fans to the live event experience.”
Tickets for the 2018 Chasing Summer festival, which runs Aug. 4 and 5, go on sale on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
Watch from July 2016: People are snatching up tickets in advance of the Chasing Summer Music Festival, but security will be tight, and those coming back for another year are not surprised. Global’s Bindu Suri reports.
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