Day 3. The sun is hot, and so is the sound. Between the sets of Ace Ventura and Tristan there‘s a short layover at a lecture about the general loss of individual freedom. A really bad thing, as the audience agrees with affirmative nods. However, a few minutes later the very same audience doesn‘t care at all about the various observation drones which circle the sky above the festival. Also the constant presence of a multitude of ridiculously expensive zoom lenses and cameras seems to be the most natural thing in the world.
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If you want to engage in some real trance dance today, if you want to dance as if nobody‘s watching, you have to take into account that you might be filmed while doing so and that this footage might be part of an “After Movie” a few weeks later. But hey, it‘s beautiful pictures and emotions. If you hit it really hard, there‘s always a chance that some idiot from your camp takes a picture of you being shitfaced and puts it on Facebook. You might not even know about that picture. Is that still individual freedom, and isn‘t individual freedom what our festivals are all about?
Many clubs in Berlin have a far better policy. Cameras are strictly prohibited. If you are caught taking pictures with your smartphone you‘ll be kicked out and won‘t get in any more. „What happens in Berghain, remains in Berghain“ as a popular saying about one of the most popular venues goes. The Psytrance scene could take one or two pages from that book. As a matter of fact, some smaller events have already done so and banned cameras from their dance floors. Being an avid photographer myself I perfectly understand the fascination of taking pictures. However, when it comes to party photography I think there‘s all too often a lack of respect towards human dignity. Or, rather: A lack of respect towards those moments of uttermost bliss when a human may temporarily lose his or her dignity – without any consequences for the future. All well and good, but in times of the creative inflation this subject is kind tricky. Everybody‘s a photographer, everybody‘s a film maker today – and that‘s why everybody needs an audience. An experience that doesn‘t include a picture on Facebook is only half as exciting, isn‘t it? I guess what we need first is that shift in human consciousness so many people talk about at the moment.