Free Coke, bikinis and red-hot tents, all for NIS 200
Thousands of teenagers attend a series of summer Coca-Cola festivals. Parents beware
If we were parents, it’s not clear we’d send our teenage kids to this particular festival. A three-day fest of more than 1,000 scantily-clad teenagers, fridges full of free Coke and possibly co-ed tents, the 10th-annual Coca-Cola Summer Love Festival is all about good times fueled by caffeine and hormones.
The festival is actually a series of four three-day-long summer camp-style events. Held through the end of July in the bucolic surroundings of Ganei Huga, near Beit She’an in the north, the camp caters to a total of 5,000 Israeli teens, ages 14-18. According to Shiri Cohen, the brand manager of Coca-Cola Israel, the kids are housed in tents and fed four meals a day — all for the relatively low cost of NIS 200 ($55) per person — and have all-day access to the natural springs and to unlimited Coke, of course.
For most of each day, bikini-clad girls and board shorted-guys sit in plastic red chairs, half-submerged in the cool waters of the natural spring. The midday sun has a sedative effect on the teens, who, despite the constant music blaring from the DJ’s station in the center of the camp, are mostly quiet, probably coming off the previous day’s caffeine high. They lie in the natural pools, on the grass, or beside their red tents, which are too hot to enter. No alcohol is allowed on site, and all bags are searched at the entrance.
“How old are you?” asked Elad Zehaviah, when he saw us walking around. “I’m looking for girls.”
But he turned back to the the communal Xbox console upon hearing we were 20 and 23, too old for his 17 years. Luckily for Zehaviah, he was surrounded by more than 1,000 kids his age, all day.
In between the live performances also sponsored by Coca-Cola, the festival offered a variety of other sources of entertainment. There was a small “spa” where kids could cool off in massage chairs and get free manicures. There was also a game tent, where they could play an assortment of video games and use computers, probably posting Facebook statuses, Instagram photos and Tweets bragging about being at the festival.
Ninety-three percent of all high school students know about the festival, said Cohen, with suspicious accuracy. Consequently, in order to get one of the coveted 5,000 spots, participants had to sign up immediately when tickets went on sale at the start of July.
Geva Stanietzky, 17, Zehaviah’s friend, sat by his computer and signed up within seconds of the application going live. Rumor has it that after only five seconds, the festival was sold out. Some teens signed up for two of the three-day events in a row.
Adi Rahat, 15, said it’s known as a fun place where kids come to “hook up” with other teens. But this reputation is only half-true, she insisted.
http://youtu.be/1JB7j-0PtpA
“We don’t participate in that,” Rahat said. She and her friends didn’t come for love, or even for the music, they came to “relax.”
For some kids, it’s all about the free Coke, offered in unlimited amounts during meals. Gilad Gabrelli, 17, had downed nine bottles by 4:30 in the afternoon.
Besides the free caffeine and constant hormones, the festival brought in two of Israel’s hottest musical groups: a new pop trio, led by veteran Elai Botner with a pair of ex-Israeli Idol contestants, Adar Gold and Ohad Gai, and the mega-popular rock/hip-hop band Hadag Nahash.
Botner and his two partners performed first on Thursday morning. The rambunctious and eager young band members, who have been together for a year and just cut their debut album, said they wished they could stay longer to bask in the refreshing waters of the natural springs.
“We’re loving our first day here,” said Gold. “I think it’s all about the love, love for the music and love of life,” she said.
However, the band that most kids were talking about was Hadag Nahash, the nearly 20-year-old combo that gained fame and notoriety by making leftist political statements with its songs. Eschewing an overt pushing of its political agenda, especially on the young and impressionable crowd at the festival, lead vocalist and DJ Guy Mar said the band preferred that its songs speak for themselves.
“We’re coming on stage to help people enjoy themselves and just party on with us,” he said. “The message lies within our songs anyway. When we’re onstage we’re about having fun, that’s it.”
Just like the Coke-fueled kids.
The Times of Israel Community.