this "festivals as fashion show" thing gives me the Rage

[dirtyface]

i am a music lover and as a teenager / early 20 something i used to go to festivals every summer

think the PROPER festivals, donington, ozzfest, reading festival etc. a fashion show they were Not. it was actually about the bands and music and just having a proper good time and not really giving a shit what you were wearing as long as you were reasonably comfortable. apart from maybe if you wore a t-shirt of your favourite band. not designer brands, a face full of make up, and artfully dishevelled "festival hair"

but "nowadays" its just soooooo cool to be "seen" at festivals. it doesn't seem to be about the music anymore. it seems to be more about posing. this whole "festival as fashion show" bandwagon thing only came about in the last 5 or 10 years. and now ever summer, every vacuous shitty womens mag is saturated with "festival fashion" articles and what celeb twats like kate moss are wearing at glastonbury. as if the paps will be snapping you every 5 minutes in your generic hunter wellies and ray bans.

bugs the shit out of me (but as i said i am an old gimmer of 33 who doesn't go to them anymore anyway so what do i know :o )

In my day, it was all combats, vests, flip flops during the day, and trainers at night. Functional, but undoubtedly fashionable (hard as that may be to believe now). Plenty of people wore make-up.

Same as the fashions now, as far as I can see. Cut-off shorts and hunters. Functional but fashionable. Just not our fashionable, because we're not 20 anymore.

Erm, I'm still fashionable, thanks! I just wouldn't spend upwards of £300 to ponce about a field looking like a flower fairy that's been attacked by Topshop.

There's an antsy article on Glastonbury by Suzanne Moore writing in the Guardian, a couple of weeks ago. Look it up online, its quite funny (sorry can't do links).

No hope for me. 42 and looking at my Neon Orange Hunters and wondering whether there is any chance of the weather being cool enough to wear them this weekend (Latitude, pretty much the Boden of festivals).

looking like a flower fairy that's been attacked by Topshop

pmsl

Who says anyone's spending upwards of £300? The glossy magazines...?!

I'm sure some people probably are spending a wodge on their festival weekend away, just as some people probably did in our day, too.

Pus ça change...

£300 won't even get you a night in a yurt...

I work in fashion retail. I get to serve the overgrown Bratz dolls that come in to buy their "festival wardrobe"

Hunter willies cost £70 there or there abouts. They've all got 'em.

Come on. Look at this picture and tell me they're not irritating as fuck

And here is the line-up for Reading '96, to pluck one out of the air

I can't see anything approaching the 1990s equivalent of Rizzle Kicks or Jessie J on there. Yes there are big acts on there but they're all veering towards the alternative side of things.

Hahaha that picture makes me chortle! Ready to mosh with my mesh bodysuit and cut off shorts!

Yeah it looks American but dressing like a wankah traverses the Atlantic...