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With people nationwide condemning the government’s decision to forego fining Hillsong Church for very clearly defying public health rules, further insult has been added to injury by the lack of police presence and sniffer dogs, which have been a common addition to the festival scene for years.
The Hillsong Church only recently landed in hot water when videos of teenagers singing and dancing in a packed crowd were released online, despite recent rule changes condemning public displays of joy.
Though the videos broadcasted were heavily contested by liberals to not ‘contain any dance moves’, given the lack of rhythm, others suggest that the flailing of arms definitely fell under the umbrella of dancing – even if it did look like everyone was at a Limp Bizkit concert.
Though no one should be shocked by a religious organisation believing themselves to be above the rules, some are understandably angered by this flagrant display of favouritism which was slap to the face to all those who’d tried to abide by the rules.
Not to mention the number of non religious organisations fined thousands of dollars for doing the exact same thing.
Despite multiple musical festivals being cancelled and hospitality venues struggling to remain open under the new rules, Hillsong Youth Festival has not only been able to go ahead but was also supplied with enough rapid tests for all the attendees.
Though who knows where organisers could have gotten those from.
But for an event that included the exact same lineup as 2014 Stereosonic, organisers state that it’s ‘not a music festival, it’s just a festival that happens to have music.’
According to local sergeant Chris Knapton, police presence was not required for the nonmusic festival, nor were sniffer dogs ordered to patrol the grounds to scare teens into consuming a whole bag of pingers in fear of jail time – because as far as the police are concerned, there’s no way repressed teens piled into a field together would have any interest in taking illicit substances.
Adding that he wasn’t aware of the festival himself, Knapton failed to provide a cohesive answer as to why Hillsong was able to slip past the notice of the police.
It’s unknown how affected attendees of Hillsong will be or if it’ll be touted as a super spreader event, but those who attended are urged to refer to thoughts and prayers as the first course of treatment should they start feeling ill.
More to come.
