Soundwave Is Banning Selfie Sticks

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Published

February 24, 2015

Partial as we all are to odd bout of self-indulgence – and, real talk here, taking a few occasional minutes here and there to love the shit out of yourself is healthy as fuck – the beating heart of the bitter curmudgeon beats true in the souls of many of us. So for as much as the world has greatly embraced the simple act of putting a smart phone on a stick to avoid getting a stranger to take a photo from a mild distance, an equal an opposite amount of people tend to loathe the things. It’s Newton’s Third Law of Fads. Every action (trend) has an equal and opposite reaction (group who swill from the Haterade trough).

But like all trends and fads, there’s a time and a place for it. Much like the severe Mrs Crandall would confiscate your Tamagotchi till after third period SOSE, if you’re going to be somewhere where giant crowds of tightly packed people are likely, it’s probably sensible to leave the selfie stick at home.

‘Course people can’t be told these days, and thus they’ve been doing it regardless. Venues have been taking note of this, and have begun to place bans on them outright. The Sydney Entertainment Centre, Etihad Stadium, Domain Stadium and Perth Arena in WA, and Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane have all included the ban in their ticket terms & conditions.

Now Australia’s biggest touring festival, Soundwave Festival, has decided they’ve had enough and are ridding themselves of them for the remainder of their tour.

Festival kingpin AJ Maddah made his feelings on the issue clear via his notably forthright Twitter page.

Dear people with those fucking camera sticks: please have some consideration for people behind you trying to enjoy the show. Thank you.

— AJ (@iamnotshouting) February 22, 2015

But in a further interview with Fairfax Media, Maddah stated he’ll be moving to nix them altogether on the remaining Festival dates.

“The biggest problem with the sticks had been in Melbourne, he said, with about 40 or 50 of them in use at the Soundwave there. Most of them are pointed at the stage with kids taking photos. But I think the one that kind of put it in perspective for me was there was a band set going and a young girl pointed it at herself. It took every fibre of resistance I had not to just grab the stick off her and kick her out. But then I figured she may have possibly paid for her ticket and so I resisted.“

And as for the Sydney and Brisbane festival stops on Saturday February 28th and Sunday March 1st?

“It’s absolutely not going to happen. We’re just not going to tolerate one person using them.” It is insane that people don’t have enough courtesy to care about the people around them. Just don’t bring them.“

As for my own personal opinion on them – which, I’m dead sure, you’re all dying to hear. They’re weird to look at, and I certainly won’t stand in line to buy one. But that’s a product of my own financial tightness more than anything.

The bottom line I’m trying to make here is in two points.

Firstly, the current upswing of the product is probably not even close to the first iteration of such a device. I mean, if you think for one second that this gangly robotic bro didn’t have a camera on a stick somewhere inside that hat of his…

…then you’re completely mugging yourself.

And secondly, I’m totally ok with them if it means making the occasional encounter with them, such as I did this past Friday night, wherein someone repeatedly shouts nonsense words due to trying to use one with voice commands inside a packed pub. Mostly because it reminds me of this, which gives me endless joy.