Show Notes
Duke Rumely is a former alcoholic who has been sober since 1989. Since then he realized that what was needed at concerts and sporting events was an area for those who are sober and trying to remain that way. He founded Sober AF Entertainment and is making great strides in leading the sober movement - making sober the popular to be for young and old alike.
In the 1990s, Duke was an avid rock concert fan, but his love for music came with a dangerous drug addiction. After getting clean, he still wanted to enjoy live music, so he went to a Grateful Dead show while six months sober. It was there that he discovered the Wharf Rats, a support group for sober music fans.
The Wharf Rats gave Duke a new perspective on music culture, showing him that it was possible to enjoy shows without drugs or alcohol. "It helped make sobriety cool," Duke says. "I could be a normal, sober guy 28 days a month, then go see the Grateful Dead three days in a row and be able to kind of hang out with the cool kids."
Thirty years later, the need for sober spaces at events is even more urgent. Duke was at home when he got a text from his daughter at a Red Rocks show, telling him that her friends had all taken ecstasy and she felt unsafe. "I was petrified that I was going to get a call that she had taken cocaine with fentanyl in it and overdosed," Duke says. He was struck by the fact that despite the rising number of drug overdose deaths, "we have no other culture besides the party culture at music festivals, concerts and sporting events."
Inspired by his experiences with the Wharf Rats and his concern for his daughter, Duke founded Sober AF Entertainment. This nonprofit creates sober spaces at concerts, festivals, and sporting events, offering an alternative to the ingrained party culture. Despite his own struggles with addiction, Duke makes it clear that he isn’t out to ruin anyone’s party plans. He’s less interested in pushing abstinence with Sober AF than with simply providing options for those who choose it.
Sober AF's tailgate parties, for example, give people who aren't drinking a place to go and something to do, so they don't feel like "the sober one." "There's no money in abstinence," Duke says. "Every music festival is sponsored by Bud Light; you go to Coors Field. There's just a lot ingrained."
Sober AF is changing that, one event at a time. It’s a group that Duke hopes will make it easier for young people to enjoy music and sports safely. This podcast updates his activities over the past year.
For information on upcoming events with SAFE spaces, visit their website: https://www.soberafe.com/
https://www.safemusicfestival.com/
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Intro and Outro music by:
Decisions by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100756
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
