Re: that reply I made on Tumblr, about accessibility ombudsmen, wearing colored arm-bands. That was what I learned from my mom, when she was president of The Clearwater, and Pete Seeger wanted to expand the one day, one stage, annual, fundraising concert/picnic into a two-day, 6 stage, multi-acre music festival, with a craft outlet for local artisans, many international food vendors, and also organizing opportunities for Peace and Environmental activists. And naturally, since she had a disabled daughter, she wanted to make it accessible (This was back in 1978, if I recall correctly -- I would have been 14).
Since this was a pro-peace, anti-military, focused affair, no one wanted to hire cops for security, so they arranged to train volunteers in conflict resolution, who would wear special tee-shirts with a "peacemaker" logo. And it was Mom's idea (I think) to have a subset of those people with accessibility training to wear bright yellow armbands on one sleeve, for extra visibility, so people could flag them down in case someone got stuck or needed help with something.
Anyway, I went to the Festival's official homepage, to double-check my memory. And all that history I remember was erased. The history of that big, two-day festival with all the extras was conflated with the first simple picnic/concerts -- and all of it was credited to Pete Seeger "and friends." Even though, back in 1978, Clearwater's board of directors didn't want to take the risk of expanding it, until my mom backed Pete up at the next meeting. All so they could say it was the oldest festival of its kind (aka older than Woodstock, I think).
And I just ...*flails*
You know?
Anyway -- thanks again for making the wide, wide, world that much wider. And congratulations on surviving the con!
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branchandroot
Venting here because I don't want to call out a favorite activist organization on Tumblr
Date: 2021-08-02 12:14 pm (UTC)Re: that reply I made on Tumblr, about accessibility ombudsmen, wearing colored arm-bands. That was what I learned from my mom, when she was president of The Clearwater, and Pete Seeger wanted to expand the one day, one stage, annual, fundraising concert/picnic into a two-day, 6 stage, multi-acre music festival, with a craft outlet for local artisans, many international food vendors, and also organizing opportunities for Peace and Environmental activists. And naturally, since she had a disabled daughter, she wanted to make it accessible (This was back in 1978, if I recall correctly -- I would have been 14).
Since this was a pro-peace, anti-military, focused affair, no one wanted to hire cops for security, so they arranged to train volunteers in conflict resolution, who would wear special tee-shirts with a "peacemaker" logo. And it was Mom's idea (I think) to have a subset of those people with accessibility training to wear bright yellow armbands on one sleeve, for extra visibility, so people could flag them down in case someone got stuck or needed help with something.
Anyway, I went to the Festival's official homepage, to double-check my memory. And all that history I remember was erased. The history of that big, two-day festival with all the extras was conflated with the first simple picnic/concerts -- and all of it was credited to Pete Seeger "and friends." Even though, back in 1978, Clearwater's board of directors didn't want to take the risk of expanding it, until my mom backed Pete up at the next meeting. All so they could say it was the oldest festival of its kind (aka older than Woodstock, I think).
And I just ...*flails*
You know?
Anyway -- thanks again for making the wide, wide, world that much wider. And congratulations on surviving the con!