After hundreds of drunken children were found stumbling around the Song Festival Grounds during the Õllesummer festival despite City Hall's crusade to save them from unethical traders, Jaanus Mutli has decided that it's all the organisers fault. "We did everything we could," he said*, "but it just wasn't enough. And now measures are going to have to be taken." And there is, of course, only one man to take them. Mutli outlined the uncompromising steps Tallinn is set to take to safeguard the future of its innocent and impressionable young citizens in a press release issued today: "The organisers are really going to have to think about setting an age limit in future." This, needless to say, didn't sit well with the organisers, who, like I said, have been working hard to market the festival as more of a family event of late. However, their reaction was possibly not as helpful as it may have been, considering their alleged target audience. "It's nobody's fault but the parents'," declared festival director Marje Hansar. "They've obviously raised their children appallingly if they're letting them go about getting drunk. I can't be expected to take responsibility for them." She has a point, although blame in the first instance surely has to be laid at the feet of the kids themselves? Bugger not being responsible for their own actions in the eyes of the law.
Not that there's much point in playing the blame game, as our Jaanus has a point and all. Õllesummer is exactly what it says on the tin: a beer festival. You can dress that up as much as you like with sausages in buns and balloons and concerts for all ages, but it doesn't change the fact that the whole thing is founded on something which is meant to be illegal to supply to anyone under the age of 18. Now I'm not much bothered either way; kids are always going to want to try things they're told they're not allowed to, and they'll always find ways of doing it, so you're faced with a choice: make it an 18+ festival on principle, or abandon all pretence and just let people get on with it.
* Or words to that effect: all 'quotes' appearing in this article are rendered in a paraphrased and exaggerated style for dramatic effect.
2 comments:
I agree. When I got drunk when I was 15, it was not my parents' fault. They were totally oblivious. Not because they were bad parents, but because I did everything in my power to keep them oblivious. At the end of the day, it's the kids who will pay for drinking too much: either they will have hangovers, die of alcohol poisoning, or grow up to be unemployed drunks with no future (I should know -- that's my life).
And what a life it is!
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