Festival International hopes the only thing smoking at this year's event is great barbecue, Sonny Landreth's guitar solos and Steel Pulse's horn section. The festival announced today it has partnered with the Louisiana tobacco control program Let's Be Totally Clear in a campaign asking attendees to this year's event to voluntarily not smoke on the festival grounds in order to provide for a more healthy, family-friendly environment. In a press release this morning, Festival International Executive Director Dana Cañedo says, “We encourage all of our festival goers to be smoke free, so that you and your family can enjoy the sights and sounds of Festival for years to come. Rosalind Bello, Director of The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco-Free Living, adds, “Festival International is a wonderful event. It speaks to the culture and richness that is Louisiana. The festival organizers recognize that secondhand smoke is a serious health threat in Louisiana, and have taken a proactive step to protect the citizens of Lafayette and those coming from around the state. I applaud their decision to be smoke-free and I encourage all Louisiana residents to attend this healthier, family-friendly festival.”
The free festival will be held in downtown Lafayette April 21-25. Visit festivalinternational.com for more information.
Awesome idea. But don't see how they can enforce it.
... written by Scroll Lock , April 13, 2010 - 05:21 pm
Long Live the Nanny State!
... written by Andrew Brashear , April 13, 2010 - 05:48 pm
Better ask for those attending not to drink alcohol too. Otherwise I don't think you will have much success with the no smoking request. For most smokers if they are drinking and having a good time they are gonna wanna smoke...... Good idea and I hope it is successful.
... written by Buckley , April 13, 2010 - 06:12 pm
Wonderful- Festival International has become not only our source for the preservation of our rich cultural heritage, but it has taken on the role of our nanny as well. Heart disease is a big killer in Louisiana as well. How about doing away with all things fried in the food vendor areas. Oh, and alcohol exacts a dear social price too.Gonna prohibit that? Maybe we should STRONGLY SUGGEST that all fair skinned folks wear an adequate sun block. I mean people, you gotta love big organizations who know what's good for you, cause really, you're too stupid to figure it out for yourself. Has anyone really been bothered by second hand smoke in a vast outdoor setting? Really? I've never-at Festival or DTA (yes, they did the smoke free roll over,albeit for a sponsership) been aware of or bothered by second hand smoke in that environment-and I hate smoke and smokers.In restaurant or a bar, yea, it violates my rights and endangers my well being. But outdoors? Nope. Any organization for a smoke free anything has an agenda that says, look we know better than you what's good and bad so this one little time we are going to suspend your God given persoanl liberty for the sake of-not your fellow man-but YOU. once you go from banning it indoors to banning it outdoors, you've dramatically changed the stakes. Nanny knows best boys and girls.Now go have a good time, and don't worry, if there's anything out there bad that's out to get you, we'll let you know.
... written by Me , April 13, 2010 - 09:45 pm
This is incredibly STUPID!
... written by Joe Clement , April 13, 2010 - 11:59 pm
It's not enforceable. None of it is. They won't tell you that, but go ahead and smoke in a non-smoking area. Who gives you a ticket?
They don't know! There's not a unified enforcement system for this bill.
If you don't believe me, go to Superior Bar & Grill in New Orleans. They proudly tell patrons they can smoke in certain sections of the restaurant ... inside! That's because they know there's no designated enforcement officer for the bill. It's hollow legislation, but no one is telling you that.
But here's the BIG question ... did Festival International get sponsorship money? Is that why they went "smoke free" or was it voluntary?
Worth asking, I think.
... written by Franco , April 14, 2010 - 12:21 am
Absurd. In an outdoor venue? Give us a break. Let me be totally clear...
While I endorse a non-smoking policy for indoor events and in bars and restaurants, and a 30 feet rule from any public entrance to a building, there couldn't possibly be a way to capture any relevant, meaningful, or useful data to support an assumption or claim that second hand smoke in an open air environment is harmful to a non-smoker. The variables are too vast. Don't like the smoke? Move up-wind, or ask your smoker to change places with you.
Let's ask the executives at Festival International what methodology was used to calculate the statistics used to jump on this "totally clear" bandwagon---for example, what overwhelming feedback from offended non-smokers in this outdoor venue have they received, or what loss of revenue / dollar amount was estimated from offended non-smokers who claimed they wouldn't attend the festival because of second-hand smoke risks. Let's ask them to identify the business case for this decision and ask them what has been planned for measuring outcomes.
Perhaps the author of this article did not have enough information on how the Festival arrived at this decision to "partner" with the totally clear group----all we really see are quotes from a festival executive director and a canned, twenty-second elevator speech from a director of a tobacco free living campaign who claims the event will be more "family friendly" without tobacco smoke in the air.
I mean, really. This sounds more like a cheap advertising gimmick than a sincere endorsement of the Let's Be Totally Clear campaign. Perhaps the Festival should donate a $1M sum to "totally clear" and endorse indoor smoke free events. Perhaps they have.
... written by Joe Clement , April 14, 2010 - 02:16 am
Want to be "totally clear"? La. Campaign for Tobacco Free Living is the source behind the "Let's be Totally Clear" campaign. They use your tax dollars to "sponsor" smoke free spaces.
READ: You paid for Festival to be smoke free.
That's right. It wasn't free (ironically) for them to be smoke free. You paid for it.
Is Jazz Fest smoke free? No. Why? Because Jazz Fest would tell Tobacco Free Living to leave their patrons alone. They pay 80 bucks to get into Jazz Fest, let them do what they want.
But Festival is smaller, they need the money. Let's face it, who doesn't want Festival to have more money? We all do. So Tobacco Free Living comes in and dangles some sponsorship dollars, but there's a string attached ... it has to be a "smoke free" event.
Can't they just spend money on helping people quit? That's what they were designed to do, anyway.
... written by Avery78 , April 14, 2010 - 12:21 pm
The Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco Free Living is giving money out to places that hold smoke free events. Downtown Alive and Festival International are listed as smoke free event (which is just funny.) I am all for banning smoking indoors but in the out of doors?
... written by Solutions , April 14, 2010 - 01:23 pm
You know, methane is causing global warminig. Maybe they should ask the festival goers to hold their farts.
... written by negative nancy no more , April 15, 2010 - 03:21 pm
Don't send out the war call to the ACLU folks too fast! I thought the same thing you guys did until I re-read what that festival chick said - 'encourage' not DEMAND, nor BAN. Clearly civil liberties & freedoms are still in tact! Pretty sure those festival people don't have any expectation that anyone not smoke at a free, public, outdoor event. Maybe I'll smoke a little less but I'll probably smoke a little more just in spite, but regardles, I'll be there all week enjoying the heck out of everything!
... written by Buckley , April 15, 2010 - 09:57 pm
negative nancy no more- I don't think the repondents to this blog are the type to call the ACLU;the drift here seems to be more of a conservative thing. I think that if the "Festival Chick" could do more than encourage she would. Maybe not her personally, but certainly the organization she is shilling for.
... written by Northsidian Shotgun , April 17, 2010 - 06:11 am
The only thing awesome is every peep has a right to be in a smoke free environment.... So, i would say if your home is smoke free, stay home. I don't smoke, yet i am dedicated to demanding my space and to do what ever the hell i want to do, in my space, short of dropping my pants in public, or urinating in public. But, the smoke thing is each person's business........... There are thousands of cancer causing products manufactured in the name of profits in the good ole U. S. of A, the government is aware of this fact and the money these products generate overshadows the health damage smoking causes, also over shadows the multi-billions generated by cancer research and the multi-billions generated by the medical profession for cancer treamentwould lose out on, by banning these products and banning smoking
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