Opinion: The currency of the rain-plagued Splendour In The Grass festival near Byron Bay this year was not a shiny wristband but a gumboot
The currency of the rain-plagued Splendour In The Grass festival near Byron Bay this year was not a shiny wristband but a gumboot.
In the days before the festival, as someone who lives locally and already owns gumboots, I was moved to helping interstate visitors find suitable options. My teenage daughter, who associates wearing gumboots with the Northern Rivers floods earlier this year, was horrified.“Do we have to wear them right from the start?” she asked. Luckily, my powers of parental persuasion are not completely exhausted as it turned out gumboots were needed well before getting inside the festival.
After spending Saturday at Splendour looking at people’s feet , I’d say 98 per cent of festival-goers had managed to source gumboots. Another one per cent had other boots that would have been fine in less trying circumstances, leaving the final one per cent in trouble, with a mix of never-to-be-worn-again regular shoes, crocs, plastic bags and bare feet. I even saw one lonely, long-ago abandoned thong.It quickly became clear that not all gumboots are created equal.
This got me thinking that having gumboots in a world that had completely gone to … mud … feels a lot like a metaphor for our troubled times. Like having housing from which I’m not likely to be evicted on the whim of a landlord wanting higher rent. Or not having the impossible decision between rebuilding on a floodplain versus starting again somewhere else.
Having well-covered feet felt like a gig economy worker who’s paid enough for each job that they can cover sick days, superannuation and other basic conditions that are enshrined for most in workplace law. Having good gumboots at Splendour felt a lot like having a prime minister who believes in democracy rather than theology.
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