Fest way forward

Why today's sanitised festivals suit Tom Cox just fine

I suppose I was never much of a festival person in the first place, but the one that really blew it for me was Glastonbury, 1995. I'd always wondered exactly what those people carrying the fully-assembled tents across the site over their heads were up to. It had never occurred to me, or my friend Ian, that they might actually be in the process of theft - or at least not until Ian returned from the dance tent to find a yellowing patch of grass where his two-man Coleman had previously stood. It was so downright surreal and so Glastonbury, that we couldn't help laughing. That is, until the next day, when two of us had our wallets stolen.

Of course, that was in the old days and a lot has changed since then, but I've stood firm in resisting the hardcore festival experience. The only difference is that I no longer see any point in ranting about it.

In some ways, one might imagine that I'd be more vehement in my anti-festival stance these days. Everywhere you go, tabloid journos, local radio stations and low-rent celebs - the kind of people you would once have never seen at Glastonbury - enthuse about 'festival fever' in the manner of 15-year-olds who have just learned a cool new phrase from their mates but don't quite know what it means. Undoubtedly this is annoying, but complaining about festivals these days would be a bit like complaining about reality TV, death or flu: certainly, they're all largely disappointing experiences, but it's not as if, by banging on about them for long enough, you're ever going to make them go away.

I'm actually happy that there are two festivals, Latitude and the Secret Garden Party, not far from my home this summer. This festival-mad age might mean higher ticket prices, but it also means new levels of choice. This includes the choice between properly mucking in, or simply deciding to mosh and go. And while you can talk about how this detracts from the 'original spirit' of festivals, it's important to remember that 'original spirits' tend to be a lot more attractive in edited form than they are in actuality. We are living in a musical age where the past is being constantly improved upon. Who's to say that the new festival culture - friendlier, less smelly, less dangerous, less elitist - is not part of the process?

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