Canvassing opinion

Not making Glastonbury this year, I did the next best thing (well next best after watching it on TV) and cycled to the site the Wednesday after it had finished.  I just wanted a bit of the atmosphere, and to see what was happening.

Experience has taught me that, in the UK (it's quite different in Holland), people on bikes tend to get ignored.  It certainly seems that way on the roads, anyway...  But that was not the case at Pilton.  My arrival within shouting distance of  one of the gates caused a small posse of grim-faced security guards to gather and and eye me warily.  My default position of using humour in such situations ("I've arrived at last - when does the festival start?") caused no more than the slow closing and opening of eyelids.

What were they fearing from a middle aged (I'm being kind to myself) man wobbling about on a bike three days after it had all ended?   I tried to start a conversation, but quickly gave up.  They had clearly all been well-trained at the school of strong and silent.  

What was most noticeable, from my glimpse through the gates and later as I looked back at the site from the other side of the valley, was the huge number of tents that had been left behind.  This trend has been commented on elsewhere, including a piece in Saturday's Guardian ("Forget pitch a tent - now it's ditch a tent" Money section p7 09/07/11).  It reinforces what a middle-class credit-card festival Glastonbury has become.  Those who can afford the tickets, travel costs and the small fortune to keep themselves fed and watered for 4 days (beer at £6 a pint, I was told) can doubtless also afford to view a £14.99 tent from Millets as eminently disposable.

But that's hardly the point.  Where does it leave Glastonbury's efforts to be green?  And who exactly do the abandon campers think is going to be responsible for clearing the debris of thousands of discarded tents, camping mats and cheap folding chairs?

Saturday's Guardian quoted a festival spokesman: "...we need to dispel the myth that overseas aid charities are going to want a load of cheap tents from Asda, because they don't.  And this is not a tent problem - it is a 'life' problem."