Me and my camera on the festival circuit, my adult playground, my glastonbury
There are about 200,000 people on site at Glastonbury including punters, performers and crew and a huge chunk of them dress up in outlandish outfits. It feels that most are just doing it whilst they are in a safe haven where anything goes, an opportunity to release the more flamboyant aspects of their personality which remain largely hidden in their normal lives. At Glasto no-one is going to bat an eyelid. Pirate, cross-dresser, giant banana, no-one gives a shit. Its quite funny to watch as the days go on and as the Glastonians (is that what they’re called? they are now) feel more and more liberated how their outfits get more and more outrageous and provocative. As the grip of the real world loosens so does their inhibitions.
A smaller minority of revellers look like they have come as themselves, vaudevillian circusy travelling tinker types and aren’t in costume, they are like that all year round. There used to be many more in this category but as the festival has become more mainstream and more expensive the representatives of an alternate society has decreased dramatically. The organisers of Glasto used to give out thousands of tickets to performers, circus folk etc to add to the atmosphere but at £250 a pop someone got out a calculator one day and worked out how much money they were losing to potential purchasing and that was the end of that.
But regardless of whether you are a libertine tourist or a 365 festival freak Glastonbury encourages this freedom of expression. It is an opportunity to rid yourself of the shackles of normality and to express yourself as you see fit, without fear of recrimination or judgement. This is always a good thing. It is in fact a beautiful thing and should always be celebrated, even if you will shortly be back in your office, in your work suit, trying to scrape off a bit of glitter that escaped first inspection.