Flid's views on poi and the mainstream

Well, I have to say, it's been a ahile since i;ve made a drunken HoP post, I went without beer since easter whilst revising for my university finals, so tonight is the first time in ages that i've been drunk. Anyway, why am I boring you with my post? Well, i debated with myself whilst walking home whether to write it at all, whether to put it in social chat or discussion, but, here it is. I know this has been discussed before too, but i thought just for myself i'd make my own thread, like 1600 post perogative (heh, lightening is creating enough threads at the mo!) smile

There's been many threads about 'mainstream' and 'poi will become mainstream and uncool' and all that. My 2 cents are here on my observations of the expansion of the poi scene over the past 2 years:

Poi is getting more popular, there's no doubt about it. At festivals here in the UK last year they were selling poi on loads of stalls and there were hundreds of people of all ages trying to spin the 3 beat weave. At uni tonight, the last big free event of the year, i saw various people spinning, including fire.

But, the majority of these people learn poi as a party trick. It isn't anything more to them than a 'hey look at me! arn't i cool!' type thing. It's like fire breathing (no offence to many that do), but it annoys me when i'm spinning and someone comes along and breathes and suddenly they have the crowds attention - because 'my flame is bigger than yours!'. My personal view, is that as poi reaches more people, there will be an increase in people learning, but the increase in people learning seriously, to the point of joining a forum such as this, meeting others, attending meet-ups etc isn't increasing that much. I think it will be a shame if it reaches the point where there are so many '3 beat as fast as you can' party trick fire spinners who set fire to stuff and give it a bad name, but as far as people who actually practice to the point of 5 beat, hyperloops, throws etc go, the expansion in numbers isn't that significant. There was a guy spinning fire tonight at uni, who was just clearly starting out, which is cool, but he was spinning fire in a really crowded area, with loads of drunk people around, and to be honest I just really hoped that security would come and tell him to stop - it was a disaster waiting to happen. I get the sense from people who spin for a living that they want people to enjoy their artform, but at the same time don't want hobbiests to destroy their scene/source of income by stupidity/giving it a bad name. I feel almost like a snob to be saying the same thing, as a hobbiest myself, but i'm worried that with the amount of people introduced to poi, the numbers of people taking the piss with fire and hurting themselves/bystanders will increase substanially frown

. I'm still at the stage where i mention poi and people are interested, not think i'm reckless because their friend got her hair singed off by some pisshead with poi at a party.

My view of course, from my small corner of the globe smile

It's not a particularly elegantly made post, but then it is 3am, and i hope you get the jist biggrin

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