A Love Letter to Summer Music Festivals — Britons Share their Fondest, Grottiest and Most Memorable Experiences
By Harriet Lambert, in-house writer
It all started back in 1968, a great year for art, romance (or free love, whichever you prefer) and serendipity, as the Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine hit the big screen just a few months after both sets of my own grandparents were hitched on the exact same day just a couple of streets away from each other. Most notably, it was the year the very first music festival landed on home soil in the Isle of Wight, a landmark event that set off a daisy chain of mud-sliding, boozing and pure unadulterated ecstasy.
Whether you’re a huge fan of music festivals or view them as glorified camping trips with the added bonus of smelling like an aged sock, since their introduction, they have flourished as an enormous part of British culture. When festival cancellations began a few months ago, thousands lamented the loss of future memories that were not to be made, among them artists and performers who have also suffered tour cancellations and other career-changing appearances, like disco queen Joyce Sims, who was set to embark on her first UK stage tour since 2017.
As my own disappointment festered, I decided to spark conversation with a few friends, by asking them about their favourite festival memories and thoughts on why, collectively as Brits, we anticipate festival season with such vim, sending many of them into a spiral of woeful nostalgia.
“My favourite thing is the camaraderie of the group you’re camping with and the notion that for a weekend, you’re a little squad that has each other’s backs.”
“… the in between phase of seeing acts, where you sit outside the tent with your mates drinking and having a laugh.”
“Chatting to strangers as if they’re your BMAs” (had to confirm that’s Best Mates Always).
“being able to talk about funny stories in years to come and the good vibes you feel when you think back.”
“Several days of having nothing else to think about other than dancing, getting pissed and where your next piff meal is gonna come from.” As you can tell, my mates are all from Essex.
As well as creating an environment where friendships can form and deepen, festivals are also the perfect place for romantic love to blossom. With the heady concoction of over-excitement, excessive alcohol consumption and the seductive scent of roll on deodorant, it’s no wonder so many marriage proposals take place among the crowds during and between live performances. I got some fascinating insights by casting a wider net via social media…
“I met my wife at a festival!” one distant acquaintance gushed over Instagram DMs, “we both went to Glastonbury with friends… I saw her and thought, she looks nice. Plucked up the courage to speak to her and BOOM.” Boom indeed, “I proposed to her at the same festival a couple of years later and we’ve now been married for six years.”
“It was the first time I sniffed a girl” another revealed.
Food is also a common centrepiece of many a festival-goers’ experience. Long gone are the days when your only two options consisted of a dodgy burger van or a two mile walk to the nearest Tesco Metro. Now you can expect just about every cuisine. “Falafel wraps and Happy Maki sushi burrito plz” begged one middle-class vegetarian follower.
Following on from that are the fashion statement ops festivals give us, with many commenting on the ‘wavy garms’ you see amongst the ice cream trucks and edgy tattoo tents. But let’s not forget the sheer pleasure that comes along with “wearing wellies with a bin bag dress and still owning it.”
I got some negative responses, however, to balance out the idealism.
One participant curtly summarised their last festival experience as “four-day constipation.”
Another lets me know that my question has evoked traumatic memories of “getting so squashed in a tent that I had to use my asthma pump.”
A poet friend of mine described “the plastic of the tent rubbing against my skin, hot bodies cramming into the dense triangle like roosting starlings” incidentally, having never been to a festival, which makes sense; few who have been crammed into a hot tent would feel want to romanticise the experience.
In another era, these memories may have been our only consolation during festival bereavement season, however thanks to modern tech, 2020 has given rise to the ‘virtual festival’, with hundreds of musicians taking part in interactive online performances via Instagram Live and YouTube among other video streaming platforms.
Why not recreate the full experience by pitching a tent in the garden (or living room), setting a sequence of alarms to wake yourself up every two-three hours and peeing into a plastic bottle? Or you could hang up some bunting and enjoy the musical performances from the comfort of your own sofa. It’s not quite the same, but it’s a silver lining through the empty squares on our weekend calendars.
If you’re more of an audiophile, join me in catching Joyce Sims as she features across national radio stations on the following:
BBC Berkshire: August 10th, 2.30pm.
BBC Manchester: August 12th, 1.50pm
BBC West Midland: August 13th, 4pm
BBC Kent: August 14th, 2pm
BBC Devon: August 17th 2pm
BBC Somerset, August 18th, 4pm
