Woodfordia - from another perspective
The following was written by a friend who came with me to the Woodfordia Festival this year. Her take on the events is great because it gives another perspective to what can happen when a group opposed to freedom of choice decides to shoot themselves in the foot by overcapitalising their opposition to the AVN in front of a crowd that believes in freedom of speech. This group spent $2,800 hiring a plane to circle the venue, thinking that this would bring people around to their way of thinking. All it REALLY did was antagonise the crowd and make more people think about, talk about and decide to investigate the other side of the vaccination debate. Here's hoping that those who try to suppress freedom will always fail so spectacularly!
I was somewhat surprised in mid-December last year to receive an invitation from Meryl to attend the Woodford Folk Festival with her. Surprised because I’d never heard of the festival. So, of course I had to go. The programme of speakers and musicians promised a very busy week. Then there was the food.
Originally Meryl’s talk was on the increasing rate of autism, but this was changed to a talk on vaccination with an immunologist presenting the vaccine side. Meryl, contrary to many reports, was fully aware of the change and assisted in the hunt for the other speaker. Some of her opponents can thank her for their inclusion in the hunt for this speaker.
Her venue on the day was standing room only, with overflow outside. An aeroplane flew overhead towing the banner “Vaccination Saves Lives”. It was apparently up there for two hours at a cost of $2800. The plane was certainly noticed by the festival attendees. I don’t know whether it influenced attendance at the talk or not. The publicity prior to the event probably influenced that more so than the ‘plane, though the plane might have jogged some memories.
As is the case at these events, you talk to a lot of strangers. Everyone at the Festival is identified by an arm band. This band is colour coded so security can restrict access to the performer’s area and other parts of the Festival. As I was with Meryl I had a performer’s band. People would ask me what I was doing as part of the Festival. I had to confess that I was a mere hanger-on, there to support a friend.
I would then tell them who I was with and what Meryl was talking on. The first thing most people said was “Did you see the plane!”. So, yes the plane was noticed. We would then talk about the opposition to Meryl, and every person I spoke to thought that she should be allowed to talk. They were surprised at the level of opposition to her. Some I spoke to were people who did not vaccinate, others did not mention their beliefs. I spoke to performers and the general public, and the opinions were the same. Trying to suppress an unpopular belief does more harm than good.
The general opinion on the ‘plane was that it was a desperate measure to silence a critic. There was disbelief when I told of how sponsors were inundated with emails and tweets urging them to tell the Woodford organisers that Meryl should be dropped from the programme or they would withdraw their sponsorship.
At one stage there was great glee among her detractors because two names did disappear from the sponsorship page on the Woodford website. Unfortunately they failed to notice the appearance of the “media partners” link on the same webpage, and this is where the missing names were relocated to. They were media partners, not financial sponsors, so should not have been on the sponsorship page.
I witnessed many people coming up to Meryl to thank her for being there. Some also brought stories of their own vaccine experiences, which were not positive. I saw Meryl go from being concerned about her possible hostile reception to being relaxed, positive and overwhelmed by the reaction of everyone. If anything, the whole episode has made her stronger and more determined.
Of course, I only spoke to a dozen or so people. There were thousands at the festival. The majority of whom probably had no idea what the ‘plane flying overhead was all about. Nor did they care. They were there for music, food and fun.