Post by cheybaer on Jun 8, 2016 9:45:48 GMT -5
I have been a dedicated "jammer" for many years, i believe this year was my 9th Mountain Jam and I fear it will be my last. Every year I buy my tickets as soon as they go on sale, before the lineup is even announced because I love the vibe so much. Usually by Monday after the festival I start looking forward to the following year. I live 15 minutes away and ski at Hunter all winter so I feel very close to the mountain.
For the last several years we have been mountain top camping, we've made lots of friends and created a great community up there but this year something changed....
First of all, the security was awful. There were too many different "bosses" and they were giving us conflicting information as well as arguing with each other which made them all look incompetent. When we arrived at a designated camp site on Thursday morning (the exact site we had the year before) we started to set up our tents, only to have a nasty man with a long pony tail on a golf cart (I know his name but will refrain) come over and scream in our faces that we had to move everything as no one was allowed to camp there. Of course over the next 12 hours the spots all filled in anyway. When we did move our ENTIRE site we were told that our tents were too close together and our car was facing the wrong way. We bought 2 sites so we would have enough room but then we were told that each site was actually a DOUBLE site so we basically spent twice as much money for the same size lot as last year. We were told that in the "handbook" you're only allowed one vehicle, one tent and an ez up over the tent....In all of my years at mountain jam I have never gotten a handbook and it says nothing about that on the website, I know because I checked. Next, the fire marshal came by and changed the rules again saying we were encroaching on an invisible fire lane and had us move a tent for a 4th time! The long pony tail man came back on Saturday morning and requested that I move one of the tents again... I'm not making this up.
They didn't provide us bathrooms in the mountain top camping area, meaning I had to go through security each time I needed the facilities and they wanted to pat me down. I'm sorry to be such a rule breaker but I had to refuse after about half a dozen times because I was so frustrated. They acted like the TSA and I was being treated like a criminal rather than a guest...I'm a mother of four camping and listening to music, "no i will not spread 'em while you grope me".
The worst part about all of this is the way we were treated. It was as if they would rather that we just left, they already had all of our money and clearly we were not valued as "customers". I saw security guards standing ready to fight wearing reinforced gloves looking like they were ready to hurt people. I had security in Gray shirts herd me through one set of fences only to have security in Yellow shirts tell me I was in the the wrong place and had to go back. Because of all of the bullshit I just stayed at the campsite and listened to the music from there for the majority of the weekend. I didn't feel safe or welcomed and realized that it's not my kind of vibe any longer. I did my best to shake it off, stay present and enjoy the company of my friends and the music. We managed to have a good time.
Unless there is some post along the way outlining a re-imagined 2017 with a different security outfit and a clearer outline of the campsite information I will be looking for a different festival for next year and will encourage the other 10 people I was with to do the same. I get the feeling from the other threads I've read today that I'm not alone.
Peace and love my friends....isn't that what it's supposed to be about anyway?
For the last several years we have been mountain top camping, we've made lots of friends and created a great community up there but this year something changed....
First of all, the security was awful. There were too many different "bosses" and they were giving us conflicting information as well as arguing with each other which made them all look incompetent. When we arrived at a designated camp site on Thursday morning (the exact site we had the year before) we started to set up our tents, only to have a nasty man with a long pony tail on a golf cart (I know his name but will refrain) come over and scream in our faces that we had to move everything as no one was allowed to camp there. Of course over the next 12 hours the spots all filled in anyway. When we did move our ENTIRE site we were told that our tents were too close together and our car was facing the wrong way. We bought 2 sites so we would have enough room but then we were told that each site was actually a DOUBLE site so we basically spent twice as much money for the same size lot as last year. We were told that in the "handbook" you're only allowed one vehicle, one tent and an ez up over the tent....In all of my years at mountain jam I have never gotten a handbook and it says nothing about that on the website, I know because I checked. Next, the fire marshal came by and changed the rules again saying we were encroaching on an invisible fire lane and had us move a tent for a 4th time! The long pony tail man came back on Saturday morning and requested that I move one of the tents again... I'm not making this up.
They didn't provide us bathrooms in the mountain top camping area, meaning I had to go through security each time I needed the facilities and they wanted to pat me down. I'm sorry to be such a rule breaker but I had to refuse after about half a dozen times because I was so frustrated. They acted like the TSA and I was being treated like a criminal rather than a guest...I'm a mother of four camping and listening to music, "no i will not spread 'em while you grope me".
The worst part about all of this is the way we were treated. It was as if they would rather that we just left, they already had all of our money and clearly we were not valued as "customers". I saw security guards standing ready to fight wearing reinforced gloves looking like they were ready to hurt people. I had security in Gray shirts herd me through one set of fences only to have security in Yellow shirts tell me I was in the the wrong place and had to go back. Because of all of the bullshit I just stayed at the campsite and listened to the music from there for the majority of the weekend. I didn't feel safe or welcomed and realized that it's not my kind of vibe any longer. I did my best to shake it off, stay present and enjoy the company of my friends and the music. We managed to have a good time.
Unless there is some post along the way outlining a re-imagined 2017 with a different security outfit and a clearer outline of the campsite information I will be looking for a different festival for next year and will encourage the other 10 people I was with to do the same. I get the feeling from the other threads I've read today that I'm not alone.
Peace and love my friends....isn't that what it's supposed to be about anyway?
