Features
Peace, Love, Dope…Wombats?
It all depends on who you ask.
They both spawn festivals; Woodstock’s is the famous one that was last held near Bethel, N.Y., in 1999, and there’s the not-so-famous Wombat Festival, held near Muncie, Ind.
Other than that, it’s hard to find much of a correlation.
Still, some residents and commissioners of Delaware County, Ind., have decided the two festivals have plenty of similarities, chief among them the illicit presence of the demon weed: marijuana.
Citing Woodstock ‘99 and a fear of wild-eyed pot smokers, Delaware County commissioners voted to withhold their approval for the event, according to The Star Press of Muncie, Ind.
Residents near the proposed Wombat Festival site – an open field off Indiana Hwy. 3 south of Muncie – came to a recent commissioners meeting in droves protesting festival plans.
“They don’t want dope-smoking hippies out there; that’s the reason they came today,” promoter Scott Myers told The Star Press.
“There will be drinking, and quite frankly I think they will be smoking pot,” neighbor Jesse Newton told the commissioners. “They will be out of control.”
Promoters are in the process of making the usual arrangements for food, water, waste disposal, insurance and liability bonds and still hope to throw their two-day Labor Day weekend bash despite the consternation of locals.
The annual festival, which features local bands, and is expected to draw about 1,000 fans, is likely to go on even without the county’s official blessing, according to promoters.