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It’s no secret that at festivals, people can accidentally be insensitive with their outfit choices, and appropriate other cultures.
When it comes to the iconic Splendour In The Grass Music festival, the excitement of dressing up with your friends and entering a magical arts fair can often result in some distasteful outfits, especially if you are a white millennial who doesn’t really give a fuck about the importance that other cultures put behind ceremony and dress.
There are a lot of misconceptions about cultural appropriation. It is not as simple as borrowing items from another culture. Issues arise when a dominant group picks and chooses parts of a minority culture to participate in, as they don’t ever face the same level of discrimination as minorities.
In years gone by the American Indian has been a dominant theme in electronic dance festivals, as munted roid boys rock the native head dress in the mosh pit of a Flight Facilities gig.
Since then, the flippant cultural appropriation of kimonos, sarees and Hawaiian shirts have all drawn criticism from Buzzfeed listicle writers.
This year is now different, but like all festival outfits, the trend has changed when it comes to borrowing and exploiting the traditional dress of minority groups.
As was the case at both Glastonbury and Coachella, this year has seen a distressing trend in young women adulterating the ancient culture of the Manly Sea Eagles.
The prominence of white girls with twin-braid hairstyles at this year’s Splendour In The Grass has resulted in organisers sending out an official email to tickeholders, requesting that all partygoers do their best to enjoy the weekend without cultural appropriating NRL footballer Steve Matai.
Manly Sea Eagles Coach Des Hasler has come out strong in his condemnations of the new trend.
“My premiership-winning 230-game NRL centre is not your costume” said Hasler.
