that YouGov poll article on efestivals....

[5co77ie]

It's no coincidence that many of those that live near Glastonbury have such an affinity for it - as once you got to 16/17 you could go without your parents. By the time you got to 18 you wanted a ticket. I just checked and that's still true of the festival today. A lot of other festivals today are very against 16/17 years olds attending on their own, some like Glade even said they couldn't attend.

Slightly off topic:

Maybe the solution is better "ubran" festivals then?

[kaosmark2]

I was having a discussion with someone the other day and we were discussing the interweb at festivals, I was saying that having the web at an event actually makes it less immersive and adds to the disconnect, where you're less a prticipant (or feel you're at a festival) but more likely to be streaming it or viewing it through your phone or ipad, instead of capturing the experience in your head and feeling it, you capture it for the internet, and afterwards it feels as though you aren't actually there.

[midnight]

I personally wouldn't take a kid that age to Boomtown. But having said that, there's a kids area (which, from my chat with the organisers a year ago is set to become a bigger part over time), and there was nothing that the younger attendees were doing which would put me in fear for the safety of a kid.

If you like, it's a bit like a nightclub where everyone is pissed but polite. It's safe enough for a kid, but not really the sort of environment you'd choose to take a kid into by full free choice.

[midnight]

it makes me laugh - people vote to say that festies should be more green, fair enough. But how many of those making those votes are doing what they vote for themselves, rather than than expecting a vote for 'more green' to magically make it happen for themselves as well as the event?

M: But this is an assumption you are making about the voters, isn't it? I mean we don't really know who/what type of people they are. Not all of them ask for better parking, so some of them might indeed come by public transport.

I can certainly see the irony, as far as my own green credentials go, much as I like going to festivals, bringing all the stuff required to hold one safely, plus a few1000 people and all they need, even at a minimum comfort level (still needs lots of clean water, electricity, bogs, a zillion gallons of petrol, etc) to some far away field is probably not a very eco-friendly thing to do. Here's one thing to add to the case for more urban ones.

I would say that a big part of the reason that no age assessment gets made is because a person's own age fits comfortably with those around them.

(for myself with an efests hat on, it's become a part of what I've made a mental note to observe).

M: With my sociologist's hat on, I think there is a considerable bulge in the 40-55 section of the UK's age/population pyramid, which might go some way to explain why this age group looks so numerous in all sorts of places. That's a bit more reliable than my own (admittedly bad) ability to guess someone's age, until they start talking to me - then I can usually make an inspired guess based on the conversation! ;-)

At boomtown this year for someone my age, it jumped right out and hit you in the face.... I've even heard of a very experienced 22 year old festival goer (whose father has big role in a big festie) who came back from boomtown telling his dad that he spent all weekend feeling old.

M: And yet, heaven (and all other irrational powers who might have a hand in this) forbid that I should ever be transformed back into my own 18 year old self, as someone wished for himself here earlier! Though I wouldn't mind stopping that getting older thing now, before the aches and pains and all sorts of limitations start.

Edited November 23, 2013 by midnight

[LondonTom]

What festivals dedicated to the Romanian singer?

or the Spanish guitarist?