7 Ways to Describe A Music Festival to Your Mom
Music festivals are practically a rite of passage for teenagers, but it can be hard sometimes to convince Mom to get on board with the trip. This is especially the case if you’re going to have to travel some distance to get there.
Below you’ll find seven of the best ways to describe a music festival to your mom to get her to agree to let you go. A big part of getting Mom to agree to a trip means addressing some of the reasons why your parents might be set against it. Read on to learn more about why your Mom may not want you to go to a music festival and how you can argue your case to go.
So Your Mom Won't Let You Go to a Music Festival!
So your mom put her foot down and said absolutely not when you asked to attend a major music festival. It’s easy to immediately get mad about what seems like an unreasonable response to a reasonable question. However, parents usually have lots of good reasons for being cautious about letting their teenagers go on any kind of unsupervised overnight trip.
If your mom’s first response to the music festival question is a big N-O, try following these tips to help turn the tide in your favor:
- Don’t get mad or act immature. If you’re trying to convince your mom that you’re mature enough to go out of town to a music festival or even attend one overnight closer by, chances are that sulking, whining, shouting, and storming off aren’t going to do anything to help your case. Instead, accept Mom’s initial response and bring it up later.
- Try again during a relaxed, happy time. Timing is everything when it comes to convincing your parents to let you do something as a teenager. If you approach your mom about going to a music festival when she’s stressed out by work, laundry, or any other situations, she’ll be a lot more likely to give an automatic “No” response.
- Show that you’re responsible. This works better if you’ve been doing it for several weeks or months prior to asking for permission to go to a music festival, but doubling down on your responsibilities in response to being denied rather than complaining or arguing can illustrate to your mom that you’re mature enough to go after all.
Even if your parents initially turn you down when you ask to go to a music festival, that’s not the last word on the matter. Many parents can be worn down and persuaded over time if you know how to frame the music festival in a positive light that makes it less threatening.
Why Moms Don't Let Teenagers Go to Music Festivals
There are several big reasons why moms aren’t into letting teenagers go to party events like a music festival. Almost all of them are safety concerns and worries about whether their child is mature and responsible enough to go on an unsupervised trip.
Here are a few of the reasons that your mom might want to bar you from attending a music festival:
- Drugs and alcohol: Many music festivals, especially EDM music festivals, have a reputation for parties that involve underage drinking and illegal substances. Since there are so many people at music festivals, it’s hard for security to manage any illegal activity once people make it inside. Your mom may worry about you getting drunk or high.
- Large crowds of strangers: Spending days with large crowds of strange people puts you at risk of many things, from theft to sexual assault. Your mom might not believe you have the awareness to protect yourself in a mob situation. Music festivals also contain a large range of different age groups too, which can make parents nervous.
- Traveling with unknown friends: If your mom isn’t familiar with the friends you want to attend a music festival with, she might be worried about you going somewhere overnight with them. Your mom is more likely to let you go to a music festival with friends that she knows and trusts than she is if you go alone or with unfamiliar friends.
- Sensationalized stories in the media: From Burning Man shock videos that show people having risky good times to scandal stories about festival overdose deaths and injuries, there are plenty of things in the media to scare moms away from letting their teenagers attend such a carnival.
Getting your mom to let you attend a music festival means reframing how your mom thinks of music festivals. Showing her that they involve more than just wild shenanigans while also demonstrating responsibility in other areas may be the edge you need to change her mind.
How Do You Describe a Music Festival to Your Mom?
Permission to attend a music festival is easier to get if your mom doesn’t think of a music festival as a way for a bunch of party animals to get together and get drunk or high. In actuality, there are tons of other great things about music festivals for people who aren’t interested in doing those kinds of activities.
Music Festivals Are Like Artistic Block Parties
Music festivals might seem like crazy places to parents, but in many cases music festivals are more like community or regional block parties. They’re the perfect place for people who appreciate certain types of music and performance art to come together to experience live performances with other fans.
Yeah, a music festival is still a party, but there’s a lot more wholesome vibes at a music festival than media impressions may let on. For the most part, music festivals are full of fun-loving, friendly people who make a point to look out for everyone, including strangers. This loving sense of acceptance is why many people like music festivals so much.
A music festival isn’t just a party. It’s a positive community gathering and a way for people with common interests in art and music to come together.
Music Festivals Are Like a Carnival
Seriously, where else are you going to see superhero cosplay and fire breathers in the same crowd? Many music festivals, especially EDM festivals, have a bright and cheerful carnival-like atmosphere. There are other reasons to visit a music festival other than get wasted, like taking in all of the cool sights and sounds.
When many parents think of music festivals, they think of wild parties, but there’s more to a music festival than that. If you’re going to an EDM festival like Electric Daisy Carnival or Coachella, you’ll also get to see some of the coolest costumes and lightshows in the world.
Music Festivals Are Just Like Any Other Camping Trip
If you’re going away to a music festival where you’ll be staying overnight for a night or two, it’s a good idea to emphasize that camping at a music festival is not that much different than camping anywhere else with your friends.
Other than the music and the crowded atmosphere, you’ll still be responsible for the same things you would on a normal camping trip. That means stuff like:
- Not driving drunk (or drinking underage)
- Being careful who you hang out with
- Staying in a group for safety
- Keeping your phone on you for emergencies
Teenagers who have proven themselves to be reliable on other overnight trips may have an easier time convincing their mom to let them go to a music festival than those who have a reputation of being irresponsible, so this is a situation where past maturity (or lack thereof) can really come back to bite you.
Music Festivals Are a Musical Experience
If you’re passionate about music, going to a music festival can be one of the best ways to get to experience live music up close and personal. This is especially true if you don’t have a whole lot of other opportunities to see concerts since music festivals can cram a lot of live acts into one long weekend.
Describing music festivals as a music-focused experience and emphasizing how much you want to hear the music acts that are playing may help convince your mom that you’re not just interested in going to the party.
Music Festivals Are Just a Big Party
I know what you might be thinking – aren’t we trying to avoid the impression that going to a music festival is like going to a party? But if you’ve shown yourself to be responsible at other teenage parties in the past, you can make the case that going to a music festival isn’t really that much different than other parties you’ve been to before.
This method may not work as well if you have made some party faux pas in the past like trashing the house while your parents were out of town or gotten in trouble partying with your friends, but describing music festivals as just a slightly larger version of the same things you already do can help make them seem less threatening to your mom.
Music Festivals Are a Smorgasbord
When it comes to music festivals, it isn’t just about the music or the party. More and more often, music festivals are about amazing food, too. From food trucks to BBQ stalls, some of the best fare of the summer can be found at music festivals.
Part of making a music festival sound more acceptable is describing it as a well-rounded activity. If you make it sound like you’re going to be doing a large amount of different things rather than just sitting around listening to music and vibing, the festival will sound more like a proper fair and less like an outdoor drug den
Music Festivals Are a Test of Faith
It might be tough to convince your mom to let you go to a music festival if you’ve already been denied, but one way to describe it that might change your Mom’s mind is to frame it as a test of faith. If you’ve never been allowed to go to a music festival in the past, the only way to prove that you’re responsible enough to go is to be given just one chance to do it.
This is a great part of the conversation to bring up other responsible things you’ve done in the past (if you can). But describing the music festival as a way to prove how reliable you are when it comes to staying in touch by text and/or not getting arrested with your friends may be enough to earn the permission you need.
Music Festivals Are More Than Just Parties
When it comes to convincing your Mom that music festivals aren’t all half-naked Burning Man orgies, describing things in the right context is important. Knowing how to describe the festival to your mom can help her understand that you know what to expect and you’re mature enough to handle it. Who knows? With the right conversation, you might end up persuading her after all!
