In the past few weeks, the measles outbreak has been all over mainstream media. Throughout the country, lack of vaccinations has been wreaking havoc everywhere from schools to farmer’s markets. The measles outbreak has been the perfect distraction from the alleged herpes outbreak at Coachella weekends one and two and Stagecoach the following weekend.
Both festivals are hosted at the Indio Empire Polo Club for three consecutive weekends and it seems like Coachella may have a crisis on their hands. It’s not surprising that an outbreak like this would happen at one of the most heavily populated music festivals in the country but now I’m wondering if there is a way to stop it?
According to an app called #HerpAlert, there was an enormous surge of reports through the app in the southern California region that seem to be linked to the music festival. So far Coachella has yet to say anything on the matter. In a recent posting from Daily Wire, apparently 250 reports were made from the festival per day compared to the average 12 reports on any other given day from the same area.
The Daily Wire article also points out the fact that music festivals are not only the place to spread diseases because of the hook-up culture at festivals, but are the perfect place to spread herpes from the constant sharing.
Coachella should be aware of this for next year and make sure to post helpful tips about how to stay clean at the camp grounds and around the festival. Herpes especially can spread from sharing sips of water, cigarettes, lipstick or anything else that might come close to your mouth, which means almost any kind of relationship (new or old) at the festival could have experienced a problem. Although most events have medical tents and on site health care providers, the festival should also make a point to provide patrons with advice and tricks to stay as healthy as possible at their events.
This idea of disease due to crowds is not new for music festivals and was very prevalent at the age-old festival, Woodstock. The 1969 event drew a crowd of 300,000 people and was ridden with drugs, sickness and overall uncleanliness. At the time, many of the sicknesses were caused by the usage and selling of “bad drugs” and the medical tents were dealing with more than 1000 people in one day.
Lucky for Coachella and Stagecoach, music festivals have managed to clean up their act since Woodstock, but all upcoming festivals around the country should be on the look out this year and try to help patrons stay clean from any STI’s.
Within Earshot 