Storm in a teacup

Innocent flag wavers

The media and publicity hungry politicians seem to have whipped up a lot of attention surrounding the Big Day Out’s discouraging of people to carry the Australian flag at the Sydney Big Day Out.

At last year’s festival there was quite a number of drunken, flag waving yobs causing trouble.

This is from Andrew G’s blog after last year’s Big Day Out,

"The main thing I got from the crowd was that there was a large, dare I say it, “Cronulla” style element. Australia Day, Beer, Yobs in board shorts yelling things. Flags. Lots of “Aussie Pride” tattoos. Scary. There were fights there. I’ve never ever seen a fight at a Big Day Out. Why would you want to fight at a day like that? All the bands and food and hot girls/guys you’ve ever wanted in once place at once, and you have to biff? Why??"

"My dear friend Ali saw a poor guy get his lights viciously punched out because he refused to ‘KISS THE FLAG’ draped around the shoulders of some pissed animal who was travelling in a cowardly pack of other yobs. This is Sydney? Kiss the flag or I’ll hit you? Please explain to me how that works? I want to know. I really do. Post below and let me know, help me understand it, please."

While there’s plenty of entirely innocent flag waving going on, that sort of behaviour is presumably what organisers are quite rightly trying to stamp out. They’ve since clarified their position, which is to request people leave large flags at home, rather than ban them outright. The media and political beat up seems way out of proportion.

Living End flag

Whatever the case – i’m psyched for photographing the Big Day Out again this year. Hopefully it’ll be less agro than last year.

18 Comments

  1. It seems that there is always some sort of press beat-up surrounding the BDO.. That’s what, 2 big ones this year with the whole ebay / scalping law suit and now this..
    Though it is pretty sad that people feel the need to be that patriotic, ie. the whole mob / yob mentality.
    Meh at this stage I dont even know if I’m going to the Big Day Out this year, despite having tickets..

  4. Being summer, no politics, thus not many scandals and so the newspapers decided to create their own.
    I really did feel very uncomfortable last year at the BDO (I was only there because of The Stooges). The entire atmosphere was really alienating.
    I’m really getting sick of it that whenever anything about the flag is talked about people go into a psychotic frenzy. It’s bad enough that the community hasn’t come down hard enough on people wrapping themselves in the flag.
    Instead of condemning those who wish to cause trouble, we’re condemning the organisers who were trying to ensure there wasn’t a repeat of last year.

  5. Dare you to turn up with a Turkish flag. If you don’t dare – then it’s worth considering whether it’s the type of day out you really want.

  6. While this may be a storm in a teacup, it’s sadly also yet another lost opportunity for us to really address some very serious questions whirling around our national identity:
    1. do we really accept all Austrlians (as in people who are citizens of this country) as being “Australian” (as in playing a role in our national identity)?
    2. Has the word Australian become an increasingly exclusive idea, and do we feel any need to reverse this?
    3. Are there people in other countries who have had the experience of having their national flag hijacked and polluted by a tribe to which they feel no affiliation?
    I totally agree with the motivation that drove the organisers of the BDO to do “something” – yes, there was a nasty nationalistic vibe at last years’ event, unlike any other in the past. However, I’m going to have to criticise them pretty strongly for the way they have gone about this. Whether or not they ever did make a public statement effectively banning the flag, they really should have been in front of the media first thing this morning explaining their position on this. Apart from the comment from their web site, not a word from them all day. Instead, just the mad yammerings of the idiot fringe, Howard Iemma et al. Yeah, proably another lost opportunity there as well.

  7. I hope you get some great pics Dan, I look forward to seeing them. However I won’t be there as I believe the lineup is sadly dire. I also am very worried what has happened to Australia Day under the Howard government. The day used to be a day of pleasant celebration, it now seems to be day awash in Flag waving. I don’t even want this flag but that’s a whole other topic. In fact I don’t like flag waving of any sort, It just represents ugly nationalism in my mind.

  8. flag, or no flag. The BDO is full of yobs.
    lookin forward to your people pics dan.

  9. Really don’t see how the flaag has much to do with BDO in the first place, especially considering how many international acts are there and that BDO is not exclusive to Australia…
    Wish I had brought my camera to the one in Auckland but then I would have missed out moshing to Kasabian 😀 No yobs to be seen, just plenty of emos. Which isn’t much to be proud about, but mleh.

  10. Ok I’ll go as far to admit that I like Tool – BUT, a lot of Tool fans missed out on tix to their show which went on sale before BDO. This means a lot of crazy Tool fans will be there. I don’t mean to stereotype but certain genres of music attract certain types of people.. that was enough to turn me off the BDO this year.
    P.S. Why do we still have a union jack on our flag?

  12. JJJ yesterday afternoon pretty much did what I think was a really ignorant and poor approach at news reporting.
    I find it hard to believe that people who work at jjj would be so blind as to think that these morons waving flags around don’t have a hidden agenda.
    Every time I see “young white male aussies” waving our flag out their car windows it makes me cringe.
    Seeing the “Australia, love it or leave it” stickers also makes me sick to my stomach.
    Its hidden racism and it makes me sick.
    Good luck Dan, the crowds is the main reason I’m not attending BDO this year after seeing what went on last year.
    You’ll get some great shots as always, can’t wait to see them!

  13. ok, so did I say “its makes me sick” enough then? Please excuse my poor attempt at intellect.

  16. It’s funny but even though we have a really high percentage of deadshits on the Gold Coast I didn’t see one blue or any of the sort of stuff that was described from Sydney last year. 100 or so arrests with the majority being for possession. Nowhere near as multicultural up here though…the rednecks would have to beat each other up!
    Can’t wait to see your pics Dan.

  18. ill be the one with an australian tattoo and the flag wrapped around me

Comments are closed.