Going to Glasto this year with your little tent? I only ask because the average age of people who attend this extortionate smugfest is now not terribly distant from that of people who read this magazine. So it is possible that some of you are off to watch good old Neil Young, Nick Lowe and Gary Numan (the average age of headliners has almost tripled since the festival began in 1970) – and, of course, Kneecap, the British band who affiliate themselves with the Provisional IRA, Hamas and Hezbollah. But more about those lovable bhoys in a moment.
The festival was truly counter-cultural for a handful of years. At that first event you could sit in the damp grass and watch the yet-to-be-abbreviated Tyrannosaurus Rex and the prog-rock raga jazz awfulness of Quintessence while coping with the symptoms of botulism occasioned by your beanburger. The average age of festival-goers was about 25; it is now nearly double that. The counter-culture has become the predominant culture – and attendance, performative in itself, verifies the individual as being on the progressive wing of society. You vote Green or Labour or Lib Dem; you support ‘Palestine’, even if you are not wholly sure what is meant by ‘from the river to the sea’; you are proud to recycle.
OK, you’re a little alarmed at the rise in Jimi and Olivia’s school fees this year as a consequence of those new taxes, and you are holding off from installing a heat pump for now. By and large, though, you’re on message, you’re down with da kidz.
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