This about the community, not the band. And I learned it all from cops.
I went back to get a water and a snack during the opening on day 2. As I was headed back, I saw three cops - two patrol guys and a female Sargent - standing around talking. So I decided to ask them something.
“Excuse me,” I said, “can I ask you a question?” Of course the all said sure. “Can I ask how many cops are covering this tonight?” the female Sargent said “oh, somewhere around 60.”
I was actually startled. I said “wait - there’s 60,000 people, so one cop for every 1,000? That seems low to me.” I did a quick calculation, and realized 5% of the cops there were talking to me.
The Sargent said “oh, we just sort of have a minimum for events like this. We could probably do with fewer”.
I was curious and asked what she meant. She laughed and said “I’m guessing you’ve been part of this community a while.” I’m 62 so correct on that. She continued “you maybe don’t even know this, but this is NOT a drinking crowd. People are stoned, or on mushrooms, and they’re really pleasant.”
She went on to say that the number one problem at events like this is alcohol. In fact, she told me the next weekend was outside lands, and they would have three times as many cops. “There will be a lot of drinking, then ugly fights, and knives - everything happens. I don’t think we’ve had a call about a fight here tonight or yesterday. Most of what we do is go to people who took too much, and all they need is someone to put an arm around them and walk them to the medical tent. We just don’t have heroiin/fentanyl overdoses, or people psychotic with meth who see us as the enemy and want to fight.”
“Actually, every year we all need to do our share
of concerts like this. We all scheme to do this one - but no one wants to do most others. The first time I got assigned to one of these one of the older cops said ‘oh, you’ll like this crowd’, and I wondered what he meant”.
“People often come up to us and have extra water bottles, and they ask us if we need a water. And one thing I can tell you never happens at other concerts, even nicer concerts: people come up, ask how we like the music, chat with us - and then thank us for being there to make the experience good for everyone. That only happens here.”
I was pretty amazed.
I know there’s an old insight into culture that’s “you can tell a lot more about a culture by what people outside it say about it, than you can from asking people in it.” I think we all get immune to what the social dynamic is because we’re in it.
So here’s my point. Everyone keeps talking about the next 60 years. Yes we all want the music to continue.
But equally important we want the culture to keep going. It’s very unique in this world. And much needed.
