Glasto 2009- this is what 100,000+ tents look like- click to see bigger!

Every year at this time, more than a hundred thousand Brits go slightly bonkers all at once, by camping on the same farm, enjoying a staggering lineup of international musicians and performers, praying for sunshine so the whole place won’t turn into a gigantic mudbath, and queuing for appalling portaloo facilities in between. Much fancy-dress (US: costume) is worn, many fire-eaters on stilts and suchlike are admired, and in general everyone has the biggest party in the world.

Even though we have never been to the festival ourselves, our “UK base” is just a few miles from the action, and this year one of the teenagers has managed to wangle** a ticket with family friends, and is making her inaugural visit with great enthusiasm, so we are all excited on her behalf. It’s hard to explain what is so special about Glastonbury, but something about this unique mixture of music, camping close enough to hear your neighbours snoring/singing/chanting Druid rhymes all night in the surrounding fifty tents, holiday-bonhomie (people actually talking to strangers in a friendly way! a major departure from the usual buttoned-up English habit) and (last but definitely not least) Very Extreme Hardship, really does both suit and summarise the British character. Maybe one year we will make it over there. Probably when scientists finally invent weather machines and can actually guarantee sunshine.

** “Wangle” is one of those ridiculous-sounding British words that Americans find hilarious. It means “to resort to trickery or devious methods”, in the manner of the Artful Dodger etc. There are an awful lot of words for this concept in the GB, for some strange reason- it’s a bit like the legend of the Inuit words for “snow”. One very popular one is “fiddle”, as in the recent MP expenses scandal. In the US, this words means “play” in an honest if unfocussed way, and does not imply deceit of any kind.

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