Current generations of cellphones include audio recording capability and many include video recording capability.

Therefore, ifest essentially forbids cell phones.

Practically speaking, no one is going to stop you for bringing a cell phone. That is not the point. The point is that ifest has made rules it cannot enforce and are unnecessarily restrictive. A recent court case has confirmed that these rules are redundant anyway. Performers can already take legal action to prevent bootleg recordings. They don’t need the venue to impose these rules.

The goal of my article is to show that these kinds of restrictions are unnecessary and counter to the spirit of a publicly subsidized arts event.

I’ve been going to Ifest for almost 20 years, so it was with deep regret that I finally decided that I cannot stomach these sorts of rules.

A lot of musicians do not care if you record their events (see jamendo, and yet Ifest has not taken their interests into account. They have only taken into account the interests of those performers with the most restrictive rules.