Is dancing becoming an issue at Festival?

The Festival at Sandpoint is truly a community gift. The quality with which it’s put together is just simply over the top and the coordination and effort put into the event is evident from the minute you step through the gate.

Having said that though, this little cat-and-mouse game that has developed over the years between seated participants and dancers I believe is getting somewhat out of hand. I attended the Steve Miller Band concert and was extremely disappointed to see that the dance area had been pushed yet further around the corner and the sound system set up on the side even smaller and inadequate.

My impression is this continued practice and policy makes for disgruntled patrons on both sides of the “magic ribbon.” Seated participants are certainly unhappy, and have every right to be, with folks who end up dancing in front of them after they have waited outside for what I would consider extreme amounts of time to get claim their turf, and when the music gets good people end up taking over with a “critical mass” dance movement anyway, in some ways washing away their efforts. Staff and security are definitely unhappy and stretched with enforcing what many of them consider an overly stringent policy and are faced with disappointing many, including their own friends, as well a put in a position of continually being the bearer of bad news.

The people who enjoy dancing are certainly disappointed with the quality of sight and sound afforded them, and my observation is this crowd seems to have grown throughout the years.

Not being one who complains about a problem without presenting some potential solution I feel like an acceptable compromise would be to carve out two pie-shaped pieces beginning at the front corners of the stage getting larger the further from the stage you get for people to dance, leaving the center section as well as additional areas along the sides of the “dance pies pieces” for patrons who really just want to sit. Just a thought, but I believe something needs to be done to resolve this ever growing issue.

The Festival board and its employees have done a spectacular job of resolving other issues that periodically present themselves and I believe it’s time to bring some effort into solving this one.

Long live the festival!

STEVE HOLT

Sagle