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· 26TH OF MAY, THE YEAR 2002DEATH OF THE FEST FOR
Death of the Fest
For those of you who don’t know, my friends in Connecticut have this sort of quasi-tradition called the Fest, in which we all get together, watch dumb movies, and make fun of these movies (making judicious use of the word HEH). ‘Party’ isn’t exactly an appropriate descriptor, as parties usually entail some level of organization beyond a rampant flurry of emails and the renting of several movies. I think we started doing it my junior or senior year of high school, beginning, I think, with the Star Wars Fest (all 3 Star Wars flicks + lightsaber fights in Shifty’s backyard), or maybe the Aussie Fest (Romper Stomper, Strictly Ballroom, maybe something else). Pretty small groups, mostly: me, Shift, Jess, Rich, Eric, sometimes Justin, JD, Deep, Will, the Giggling Duo, maybe even a Diane occasionally, rarely all together. For a bunch of socially stunted nerds, they were a rare opportunity to interact outside of school (ok, maybe it was just me), and were generally pretty fun, even when they ended up at Denny’s (mmmm….Tang….).
Post-high school, several fests have been attempted over holidays, and none have been quite as successful as the originals. People started bringing friends, sizes began to balloon, lengths shortened (often my fault since I like sleep), and people started getting touchy about what exactly defined a “good” fest. Now fests are practically impossible, as some of us now live too far away to make the trip back to Clinton, others have such specific lofty expectations that they won’t even show up if the plans don’t meet their standards, and fests are now often filled with people that don’t actually know each other particularly well. I personally no longer have any real desire to watch any more than 2 movies consecutively, and I generally don’t like interacting in groups of more than a couple people. Once there was a fest a my house where over 20 people showed up. That was fairly absurd. This past Friday, we attempted a Star Wars fest, watching Phantom Menace at Deep’s and then going to Hartford to watch Attack of the Clones with digital projection. But no one brought lightsabers (including me), Deep only had a ripped copy of TPM on his computer, and half the people only showed up right before we were to leave for Hartford. Not that it wasn’t fun, and I got to see some of my friends for a while, but it certainly lacked the intimate humor of fests of yore.
I think the main problem is we have this very concrete idea of what we want, embodied in the word ‘fest.’ Maybe if we stopped calling these things ‘fests’, or stopped trying to organize them weeks in advance, or stopped trying to be so inclusive, we might actually get to see each other a little without all our moronic expectations. Or maybe it’s just that most of us have drifted so far apart that we just don’t get along as well as we think we should. Maybe everyone else actually has all sorts of fun together and they just don’t invite me because I’m a stodgy old bastard who doesn’t like staying out past 1am.
3 COMMENTS
Okay.
Fests happened because there were no expectations, no enforced homogeny and an almost conscious desire to be zany. If you recall, fests originally would feature perhaps one or two “new people” who had never been to a fest before, people hand-selected by those previously inititated into Fest Culture (henceforth FC) as additions to the crowd.
Many time in the nearly 2 years since I’ve left CT, I’ve tried to explain to my new (and notably zany) “crew” what exactly makes me so prone to nostalgic reminiscince about my CT friends. I’ve articulated it more than once as enforced heterogeny. Most social groups I’ve encountered encourage their participants to subdue the differences and strive for a singular, narrow paradigm. Needless to say, there were many shared characteristics between those involved with the FC between 1998 and 2000. However, it was the bizarre amalgamation of differences that maintained FC’s growth and development.
Eric has often said that fests have degenerated because the so-called “Core” has dissolved. (Ed. note: his word, NOT mine.) In some very real ways, yes, I believe that the divergent modes of existence pursued by the “core” make difficult the sort of easy discourse which once flowed from couch to rug. One can look at this in one of two ways: either we no longer have anything to say to each other or we perhaps have everything.
Fests can still work. Fests do not have to be elabourate and will do much better if people can avoid elabourate calculations of whether or not their gas money will be comensurate to the enjoyable time spent. If you are obsessively wary of disappointment, you will run into it everywhere. If you spend the entire night rhapsodizing about how glorious the gatherings of yesteryear once were, you will neglect to realize the excellence of the present: old friends with an obsessive and fairly unique desire to keep up with each other. Relish this, rather than bemoaning a past undoubtedly made more glorious with the sheen of time past.
Let the Lord be with you.
(By the by, anyone want to have a Housewarming Fest the first week of June? Shifty and Geoff will become my minions and you guys can bring all their stuff up and have a weekend up in my swanky residence — think of it like a mini-vacation. Come on, who’s interested?)
Ok, you’re right: there were always other people included in Fests. When I complained about people bringing friends, I was trying to complain about the number of people that tend to show up to these things these days.
And I don’t like strangers.
The term “Core” was first used by JD, actually.
I don’t think the problem is the divergence of the social groups. Perhaps the addition of new people was even necessary to stir conversation. I don’t like strangers either. We knew each other so well when it was “core” that people didn’t even have to speak. Everything that came out was formulaic. Not necessarily boring, though. The formulas were nice, predictable, still funny.
People change, move. Relationships are not static, apparently. Oh well. Maybe I’ll see you guys some time in the future, maybe not.. It’s not as easy as in high school, when we moved together from class to class. Schools are nice in that they make social goodness possible.