We have a club at my high school that regularly goes to Camaroon (and other west African countries) to bring computers and set up student computer labs. One of their fundraisers has been to host a music festival in the spring.
This music festival has a few student bands and several professional regional bands participate. It's awesome!
Pre-pandemic, it would be two nights with two stages going so when one band is setting up, folks could mosey over to the second stage. Some years, they even had an acoustic stage set up.
The pandemic kind of stopped WO-Stock for a few years. Last year, it returned with one night and one stage. The struggle with high school traditions is that if you miss a few years, the students don't always have the institutional memory to know what is valuable. Attendance was low, but the show still went on. The folks who attended had fun, and attendance was a little better this year.
I noticed a couple of things though.
One: Do teenager not know how to participate in a rock concert any more? The music was good. Kids would cheer at the end of a song. But they were stationary during the song. Certainly no head banging. Not even a head bob or a toe tap. I mean, there were two girls jumping around, but most of them looked like they were waiting in line for Taco Tuesday in the cafeteria. Again, they would yell and scream and cheer when the songs ended, but nothing during the music.
Is this a phone thing? Like, are they so used to consuming music solo through their airpods that they don't dance? Is it a social media thing? Like they're waiting to "like and subscribe" at then end?
Two: While some bands were playing, there were almost as many students out in the concession area as in the gym where the music was. They paid for the ticket to get in, but some of them were just as happy to hang out in the school hallways. I mean, on the one hand, it's kind of cool that they want to be in school with their friends on a Saturday night, but why not jam out to some face-melting rock and roll?
Maybe part of this was they set up an open-mic/Karaoke situation out there. (Let me tell you, the singing was delightfully cringeworthy on that stage.) I'm not sure. I'm glad they had fun though.
This music festival has a few student bands and several professional regional bands participate. It's awesome!
Pre-pandemic, it would be two nights with two stages going so when one band is setting up, folks could mosey over to the second stage. Some years, they even had an acoustic stage set up.
The pandemic kind of stopped WO-Stock for a few years. Last year, it returned with one night and one stage. The struggle with high school traditions is that if you miss a few years, the students don't always have the institutional memory to know what is valuable. Attendance was low, but the show still went on. The folks who attended had fun, and attendance was a little better this year.
I noticed a couple of things though.
One: Do teenager not know how to participate in a rock concert any more? The music was good. Kids would cheer at the end of a song. But they were stationary during the song. Certainly no head banging. Not even a head bob or a toe tap. I mean, there were two girls jumping around, but most of them looked like they were waiting in line for Taco Tuesday in the cafeteria. Again, they would yell and scream and cheer when the songs ended, but nothing during the music.
Is this a phone thing? Like, are they so used to consuming music solo through their airpods that they don't dance? Is it a social media thing? Like they're waiting to "like and subscribe" at then end?
Two: While some bands were playing, there were almost as many students out in the concession area as in the gym where the music was. They paid for the ticket to get in, but some of them were just as happy to hang out in the school hallways. I mean, on the one hand, it's kind of cool that they want to be in school with their friends on a Saturday night, but why not jam out to some face-melting rock and roll?
Maybe part of this was they set up an open-mic/Karaoke situation out there. (Let me tell you, the singing was delightfully cringeworthy on that stage.) I'm not sure. I'm glad they had fun though.