Festivals through the Eyes of a Teen 

By Luna G, Grade 9

“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” -Martin Luther King Jr.

Parties usually smell the same. Food, smoke and beer. From Munich’s Oktoberfest to Rio’s Carnival to Coachella and even house/frat parties that are scattered across the world, people attend to enjoy tradition, enjoy their lives, to forget. It’s a sign of how far we’ve come as a people, with massive celebrations that bring strangers together through cultural pride and togetherness under DJs and LED lights. However, while parties and festivals are celebrations between communities, a place where all may socialize and live freely, it carries several social comebacks that are often hidden behind their glory. 

Excessive Alcohol Consumption

For many festivals, drinking is both a well-known social tradition and a form of social lubricant. Alcohol dominates most celebrations, one of the main factors of party culture. Because of this, it could lead to a series of problems such as public intoxication, alcohol poisoning, accidents and aggressive behavior. 

Though authorities, whether those surrounding large festivals or police who are patrolling party areas, try their best to manage the consequences of excessive drinking, there are often more drunk people than they can handle. The glorification of drinking may also influence the attitude of younger attendees, subtly reinforcing a culture where recklessness is normalized. 

Public Safety

Crowds are what gets the party going, the gears to the engine. The energy of thousands of people compressed into one shared space creates not just euphoria, but risk as well. Every year, incidents such as stampedes, medical emergencies, and more occur at world-class festivals. 

The balance between the safety of the people and profit of the festival is often precarious. Many organizers and organizations value and prioritize showmanship and revenue, sometimes coming at the expenses of crowd control. This can go wrong, for example the 2010 Love Parade in Germany, where overcrowding caused the death of 21 people and 650 other injuries, primarily due to suffocation from being crushed in the crowd. 

Authorities are often present, but this doesn’t mean they can prevent every incident from happening. Alcohol, drugs, exhaustion and emotional instability all increase the chances of incidents as they cause people to be unpredictable. Festivals are meant for escape, a break from the real world, but sometimes, it’s what sets them free that creates fear for the rest of us. 

Sexism and Harassment

Alcohol, anonymity. Harassment tends to follow wherever these two are together. Sexual harassment is a recurring issue at large crowds, often providing cover for groping, catcalling or following due to the thick crowds, often targeting females and marginalized individuals.

This isn’t new, nor isolated. This 2025’s Oktoberfest had 72 cases if sexual harassment, most of it being upskirting. Mind you, these were only reported and documented cases. Perpetrators often justify their cases as “harmless fun” or “drunken mistakes” while victims of their actions face social stigma, fear of disbelief, or simply self-disgust.

Even though security has improved throughout the years and awareness campaigns such as “Sichere Wiesn” were created, the numbers remain consistent. It reflects an almost societal problem, where male entitlement, toxic masculinity and alcohol-fueled aggression intertwine with festivals meant to provide escapism.

Consequences to Celebration? 

Festivals can prove that it is possible for people to unite through music, shared emotion, bringing inner healing and joy. People we just met feel like lifelong friends, followed by flashing lights and vibrant color. People can be remined that they live in a collective experience, that they aren’t alone, that someone, somewhere in the world is facing the same problems he is. 

Despite this, this joy comes at a cost, with chaos sometimes bubbling underneath the surface, waiting to erupt. It exposes the serious such as irresponsible and excessive drinking, safety risks and social inequalities. These often-overshadowed issues slowly but surely come to light, revealing a much darker side to the festival’s happy celebration. 

 Until there is a way to strengthen the people’s responsibility and respect for one another, festivals will remain a reminder of the two human sides in all of us, the joyous and the vile.