Music festivals have long since been a haven where we can find like-minded friends and enjoy a long-awaited, and sorely needed, break from the mundaneness of our everyday realities.
Fashion has also offered us the chance to express ourselves and rebel against the long-standing conformist societies in which we live.
It is no surprise then, that wherever you may be in the world, festival season represents a time of profound release and inner most expression.
"Time to find my tribe". Adam Bloodworth, of the Huffington Post, UK
Who are my People?!
We've all struggled at one time or another to make new friends. For me the main difficulty always lay with how to tell just by looking at someone that we would get on, (truthfully, the people I think don't look like 'my friends' usually become my nearest and dearest).
One of the easiest ways to discern 'your people' from the rest of the crowd is fashion. More-often-than-not, we gravitate toward people who look and dress how we aspire to look and dress, and it just so happens that the freedom afforded to us by festival season allows us to look and dress exactly how we want!
NME Blogs is full of articles describing friendships that sprung from mere utterances like "I love your dress" or "Where did you buy those shoes?"
Where are my People?!
Specifically for members of the LGBT+ community, finding their 'place' or community within society has been a significant challenge, one that music festivals and fashion trends have been all too eager to help with!
The flamboyant, free-spirited, and non-judgemental qualities that are more-or-less unique to festival fashion strips away the usual watchful and domineering gaze of mundane society. One of only a few places where popularity, conformity and expectations are meaningless; a festival is the perfect place to experiment with various modes of self-expression.
This experimentation, unsurprisingly, leads us down into a rabbit hole of self-discovery and new relationships.
"[Festivals] Aim to make diversity visible and recognisable as a valuable resource" Joke Dewilde et al. of Taylor & Francis, Norway
Festival fashion is doubtless invaluable to our sense of self and our ability to exercise freedom of expression. It's so easy to get bogged down the the monotony of everyday life, which only makes opportunities to break boundaries, rebel against contemporary trends, cast off professional restrictions and reveal our true essence that much more important.
The ability we have to temporarily cast off the shackles imposed by our jobs as waitresses, teachers, construction workers, and office clerks is intrinsic to our fundamental freedoms and at the heart of what it is to be an individual.