A week ago I was watching Crosby Stills and Nash from a sunny hillside, sipping cider and wishing it would last forever (the event, not just the cider). This despite the dismal sanitation, sleep deprivation and enough rain to render Worthy Farm squelchy for much of the weekend. So it must have been a good experience, even though I was unable, by my return on Monday, to commit unequivocally to repeating it. Indeed, my observation to a fellow camper, returning to a car near mine at sparrow's fart on Monday morning, that it must be like childbirth, demanding a refusal to repeat until the pain is forgotten, seems to have been on the money. I can now say, with a week's hindsight, that it was great and that I would go again. Why's that then?
The music was, predictably, a big part for me, and put crudely, if you add up how much I'd have had to spend to see the acts I enjoyed individually, it must be well over twice the cost of attending the festival. Plus patience is rewarded by allowing the stalwart field-stander to get very close to the performers, even with those massive crowds.
Secondly, the atmosphere is, as everyone insists, special. Very little aggravation, the shared experience apparently sufficient to allow conversation between strangers that would be rare in normal social situations. Just as well, given I was alone for most of the time.
Thirdly, there's stuff you're just not likely to see anywhere else. The fancy dress, the art displays and the musical acts that you chance upon and enjoy, though you never would have looked for them deliberately.
Finally, being out in fresh air for four days is not something that happens to me very often, and is probably therapeutic even if it may have contributed to the tiredness.
From those pluses we must deduct the following:
1) It is a HUGE site, miles from end to end, and if you want to take full advantage of it you're going to walk a long way. I'll take a pedometer next time, but there's no doubt that I walked miles, not a problem but for having to wear wellington boots for so much of the time. Hikers next time, maybe.
2) Not all of your fellow campers qualify as well behaved. Consequently they add to the inevitable mess in the toilets which simple over-use would dictate, and relieve themselves into beer cups before slinging them at those further forward in the crowd. Nice!
3) Many of them are inconsiderate noisy bastards whose "good time" will not be compromised by respect for others and their sleep. So you'll be lucky to average four hours a night.
4) Finally, while the toilets may be "much improved" over the past few years, support for Water Aid's campaign for worldwide sanitation is not going to be furthered by giving people a first-hand experience of third world conditions. No, they probably aren't that bad. Not quite.
For me, the first list comfortably outshoots the second, but I would have to respect anyone for whom the reverse was true. The sanitation issue would be more significant for many women, I'd guess.
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