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EVANSVILLE — Among the items banned at the 2009 Freedom Festival will be cameras with detachable lenses and professional video cameras.
Organizers say the prohibitions are needed because the bands booked for the event will refuse to play if the audience can capture images of a professional quality. Such equipment often is banned at stadium concerts for the same reasons.
Yet some say taking away the cameras will take away their main reason for attending the festival. Greg Wilcoxon said he couldn't care less about Kevin Bacon, the famous actor and member of the band Bacon Brothers, which is playing Saturday night.
He had planned to drive from Gary for the sole purpose of photographing the F1 Champboats racing on various days of the festival. He had already booked hotel rooms but is now thinking about canceling the reservations.
Wilcoxon, who has taken photographs for Easy Rider magazine, asked why the organizers would single out cameras with detachable lenses. That feature now comes on many cameras and isn't necessarily a sign of equipment fit for professionals.
"It's something anybody could buy," Wilcoxon said.
The Growth Alliance for Greater Evansville, which is organizing the Freedom Festival this year, is willing to make exceptions in certain cases, said Mick Conati, GAGE vice president of Downtown Development. For one, organizers have no qualms about allowing cameras of the "point-and-shoot" type.
Conati said he recognizes many photographers will only want pictures of the boats. For them, there is the option of obtaining a press pass allowing them to snap shots from the esplanade along the river. But they will have to be escorted and won't be allowed into the main area of the festival.
With 20,000 people expected to attend the event Thursday to Sunday, organizers will have no way of preventing the audience from taking professional photographs, short of banning certain types of cameras, Conati explained.
GAGE also has broken precedent by prohibiting people from bringing in alcohol. Conati said the decision was made in response to surveys in which respondents said they had stopped taking their families to the event because of a reluctance to be around drunken patrons.
Beer will be sold at the festival. "But we are controlling it so we make sure that no one gets out of hand," Conati said.
What I have to say is that DSLR cameras are so cheap now of days (compared to a few years ago) just about everyone has one. I been to a few theme parks and seen parents with these cameras. I can imagine parents anger when they show up to photograph their kids having a good time to not be allowed to.