“Summer Festivals used to be free you know?” those immortal words I’m forced to endure every year from my father as I contemplate yet another summer where I choose to spend hundreds of pounds of my pay packet on festival tickets. It’s safe to say that this year I’ve been more than over indulgent in a season that will see me take in at least three festivals within three months. It’s this statement that makes me question why I and so many others choose to shun summer holidays abroad in the guaranteed sun to run the risk of a dreary weekend camping in the great British countryside.

There is something about festivals that will always remain a draw even in our modern western society of luxuries. Thousands of people will always pay a small fortune to live four or five days in potentially muddy fields and freezing cold tents. Of course the music remains the biggest draw and when you take into account the amount of bands you’re going to see and what concert tickets might ordinarily cost you individually, the cost of entrance to a festival can seem an absolute bargain.

However, I believe there is something more that draws us to these events; almost a primal urge of ritual and worship that rarely exists in our modern world. These events are our Mecca where we gather as one to pay tribute to our demigods and to enjoy music that inspires us and keeps us sane in our day to day lives. A weekend where the most eclectic range of people can gather to let loose in a place where society’s usual rules don’t apply; after all, there are few places where you can walk around dancing half-naked, swigging from a box of wine and not even earn a sideways a glance.

You may think me stupidly precocious for comparing these activities to some sort of spiritual experience but the truth is for some of us there is nothing better than that feeling you get when stood in a field (even in the rain) with your favourite band playing and the hairs rising up on the back of your neck; is this not akin to a religious experience? And in a world that so freely donates to its churches, why not pay for this? After the weekend is over you’ll know you paid for it with more than just your pay packet.

Adam Hooper
Images by James Seymour