For weeks, months even, LovEvolution, formerly LoveFest, has been bubbling up in conversations. LovEvolution is a music parade and festival that occurs annually in San Francisco’s Civic Center. The music is all dance, techno, and electronic, played by famous DJs from around the world. LovEvolution is modeled after Germany’s LoveParade, which has been a huge success since the late eighties. This year, over 150,000 people attended the festival; it was packed.
I went to LoveFest because of all the hype I’d been hearing. I felt like I should check it out. I wanted to base my opinions on what I saw and experienced first hand. I’d heard both sides; the side that absolutely loved it last year, and thought it was the best day of their lives, and then the side that found it trashy, crowded, and disgusting. I was neutral as I walked through the gates of the festival, but did not take long before I had joined a side.
Founding board member of LoveFest, Joshua Smith stated, “In a time of recession and war, we are taking over the streets and city hall to express and share the values of culture, peace, love, unity, and respect—when we need it the most.” And while this is principle is great, as I too support sharing the values of culture, peace, unity, respect, and love; LoveFest, to me, did not symbolize any of these ideals.
For starters, let me just say, in a time of recession and war, taking over the streets, littering everywhere, peeing off the sidewalk, throwing up between bushes, all carefree and wild, is not solving anything. In a time of recession, we should be conscious of our spending, rather than going to American Apparel to blow our money on minimalist skimpy $30 gold lamé bikini tops and see-through mesh “low slung panties”… I guess that’s where you could say, props to all the nudists out there for saving some bucks on clothes.
The values Smith mentions were not values that I noticed as I pushed my way through the hordes of people. Careful not to trip over the masses passed out on the ground, I noticed friends slung over friends, puking, kissing, sleeping. I was bombarded by creepy men who squeezed my sides as they slurred some distasteful remarks. One elderly man even told me, “I’m here to check out all the hot girls.” Great, thanks. Talk about a lack of respect.
There are about twenty-five floats set up on the outskirts of Civic Center after the parade down Market Street takes place. All the action goes on in the middle of all the surrounding floats. Each float plays techno music, the bass up so high that your body vibrates to the beat. Primarily women dance atop the floats, some naked, others wearing nipple petals and thongs. Others wore tiny tutus and bandeau tops. Some pole-danced, others danced in cages. Some floats wreaked of S&M. The objectification of women at LoveFest was outrageous. As I was dancing, men around me were ranking the women on the floats, “Dude that one is hella nasty.” The women were considered items to these men; sex symbols.
The pornification of LoveFest was obscene. Some women have this idea that their only value is their sexuality, and that they must use this as their tool to impress men, as toys to these men. Seeing tens of thousands parading around LoveFest, locking tongues, groping, caressing, and dancing provocatively fuels this idea that women are and should become objects, sexy and desired. I’m not so sure that can be considered love, Mr. Smith.
As for “taking over the streets and city hall”, I find it all quite ironic. The idea that in front of San Francisco’s city hall, people are thizzing on ecstasy and LSD, smoking marijuana, and drinking from bottles and flasks, not to mention, walking around naked, is insane to me. The epitome of illegal, all going on in front of the city’s legal headquarters…
Walking back to BART, I took a last glance back at LoveFest and saw the clouds of smoke puffing up from the Center. The catcalling continued the duration of the walk to the station, and scattered groups stood huddled together, too “on” to have a care in the world. A care in the world… forget unity and peace and love. This whole thing was just an excuse for perverts to get some ass, girls to feel wanted, and drugs to be done, all out in the open.
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