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  Mary Williams Williams is playing columnist today. Give her encouragement at mwilliams@media.ucla.edu.

Walking around a music festival nowadays gives the distinct impression that it isn’t about the music anymore.

Between the corporate sponsors and the exorbitant prices for tickets, food and souvenirs, profit seems to have taken over as the dominant message of festivals that, at one time, stood for the power of music.

A few years ago, aging hippies and a new, younger generation of music lovers gathered in a site near the original Woodstock concert, only to discover that they could hardly afford to eat at this newly-corporatized mess of a festival. The music may have been the excuse, but it was no longer the point.

The same trend can be found closer to home, in the popular radio festivals that boast big name bands and equally big name sponsors.

Last weekend’s KROQ/Levi’s Inland Invasion and Power 106’s Powerhouse both fall into this category. Their stages held some of the biggest names in their respective musical genres, and right offstage were advertisements for the companies that brought them there.

At the KROQ/Levi’s concert, the company’s name in the concert title was not the only presence it had. Ads for their jeans were projected onto the walls on either side of the stage between sets, even during the performance by Mike D and Mixmaster Mike.

A van where concert-goers could buy Levi’s products and get fitted for custom jeans was parked near the side stage. Next to it was a trapeze, and those adventurous enough to try it out received a free pair of Levi’s jeans in return.

It seemed that wherever the audience members turned, it was made clear to them that Levi’s was the company that brought them there.

At Power 106’s Powerhouse concert the same day, the big sponsor was the shoe company Skechers.

At one point in the show, the station gave away a Hyundai Santa Fe filled with 106 pairs of Skechers, a gimmick that once again placed a name brand in the center of attention.

More antithetical to the style of concert was the advertising at the Vans Warped Tour, an annual haven for the once anti-establishment punk music.

While bands like Pennywise raged against conformity, viewers bounced Target beach balls and roamed around in the shadow of the towering Yoohoo sign. A disquieting feeling, that the message of the music was at odds with the message of the sponsors, pervaded the concert.

Not only are viewers inundated with advertisements, but once they are inside the venue they are subjected to whatever food and souvenir prices vendors want to charge.

Concerts are one of the few places where booths can sell $6 hot dogs and $4 lemonades. To buy a band T-shirt, a concert-goer will have to pay $20, and this is all on top of the already high ticket prices and Ticketmaster fees.

Yet somewhere, in between the vendors, the corporate sponsors and the other distractions, there is still a lineup of bands in these festival shows that deserves everyone’s attention.

Regardless of what message the music is promoting, it should be the focus of the event rather than an excuse for intrusive ads and obscene prices.