Island Earthfair Apology

Now that a month has passed, it’s given me time to digest the letters, comments and overall outlook on Vashon Island Earthfair–what it used to be, what it is now and where it’s going. Although I am not on the Earthfair Council, I am heavily involved.....mostly by bringing the music to the event, but because we are so understaffed.....I tend to wear many more hats, as several of us need to in order to make it happen.

I’ve heard numerous compliments from both attendees and musicians about how much fun the event was this year...so I know that lots of people enjoyed themselves...but the ones that I heard about that had a bad experience because of some of our Security Staff are the ones that are more important to me right now. As a result of being very involved with this event, I feel personally responsible and accountable for the actions that took place by some of the people on our Security Staff. There is so much positive that happens at and because of Earthfair–to hear that people were mistreated in any way is very disheartening to me and it makes me sad, because so many people put so much time and effort into it to make it a fun, educational event.

The fact that people were ushered out in a sweep immediately after Trolls Cottage performed was just plain wrong, in my opinion. The decision was not made by Earthfair staff, it was made by someone on the Security Staff that really didn’t have the authority to do so. By the time our EF staff realized what was happening, it was too late....people had been swept out of the park and the damage was done. I was unaware of this whole situation until the next day and to be quite honest, I have had a knot in my stomach ever since.

I cannot speak for everyone else involved with Earthfair, but I can speak for myself. I apologize from the bottom of my heart to my brothers and sisters in this community (and beyond) that were affected by this sweep and/or any other negative experiences they experienced with anyone on our Security Staff. Not only some of the people that were attending or participating in this event, but the food vendors were affected by this too. These vendors worked very hard to provide great food for the event and had prepared for the "after Trolls" crowd, only to find that they were not coming because of the sweep. My apology goes out to them as well, for what it’s worth.

We are blessed with such a great community and for me, my friends and family have always come first. Nothing is more important than that.

I know that at this point, it’s water under the bridge and what has been done is done and people are probably sick of hearing about it. However, Earthfair is a beautiful event and I think a necessary one to bring our community together for what it’s always intended to be. It is very apparent that some things need to change for it to continue to evolve and they need to change immediately or I am certain some of us will not continue to align ourselves with it. Both volunteers and attendees.

There have been and continue to be some really great people involved in putting this event together and I feel fortunate to have worked with each and every one of them. I have all the confidence in the world that they will do the right thing and make the necessary improvements in order to make this event even better going forward.

-Pete-