To be at a festival and wish everyone would just grow up!?

[bumbleclat]

Each year I'm 'lucky' enough to be given free tickets to a very well known music festival which runs over four days (live nearby so organisers give local residents tickets to keep them sweet).

It's your usual hippy fest with lots of workshops, vege food, healing yurts and a variety of music.

Each year I go, I become more bored of the cliche hippydom, for example faces full of glitter, posh white youths wearing ironic vintage clothes, dub beats in the background, overpriced drinks, pious recycling regimes, home educated children called 'Oak' and 'Cloud' being wheeled around in metal wagons with fairy lights around the edges at 3am, the constant wondering from tent to tent, the illusion of freedom and the naive art work everywhere.

I must be getting old but these events just don't do it for me anymore, I see men and women in their fifties and sixties wearing fairy outfits and elf ears and it just gives me this, 'oh just grow up' reaction inside.

I dislike this judgemental threatened Katie Hopkins like beast that seems to rise up inside me each time, but I think next year I will just sell my much coveted ticket to a more appreciative visitor.

I am BU aren't I!?

YAB a bit U. Most of the people at festivals are having a good time and doing no harm. You don't have to dress up, pretend to be a hippy and wear a put together 'festival look' to have fun.

Ever year a load of us (in our 50's) and our group of teenage DC do a couple of festivals. Us grown ups wear sensible clothes, carry camping chairs to sit on as our backs are knackered and drink pimms which over the years I have become very adept at smuggling past security. The teens tend to do their own thing and turn up for breakfast money each day. We aren't remotely cool - but it is a great way to catch up with old friends that works for everyone.

My advice would be if its no longer your thing don't go -

"BACON? Who do you know who excessively talks about bacon?"
The internet cares about bacon. Bacon is a meme. Bacon is meat candy.

I'm a bit of a hippy but have never been to a festival. I thought they were just full of loud drunken teenagers and horrendous hygiene facilities. Your depiction sounds like much more fun.

(Still not going, though. Crowds are not my thing.)

I don't understand why the OP wastes their time going ....surely the satisfaction of knowing you got in for free whilst other people paid a lot of money can't really be a good enough reason ?

I'd rather eat my own eye balls than attend a festival , crowds, loos, discomfort etc .My limit is an open air gig for the day .....I've happily got soaked to the skin doing this but needed to know I had a dry hotel room with a hot shower at the end of the night 😀 . I'd happily spend time at Disney childless there's a lot more to it than the big rides (California or Florida not a fan of France's version) but i honestly don't get why anyone would waste their time or money going year after year to something they don't enjoy .....I value both too much to waste it like that.

And what the hell is wrong with going to theme parks without children?

Nothing 'wrong' with it - it's your right to do so and none of anyone else's business. Similarly nothing to do with anyone else if you believe in Santa and book a visit to see him at Christmas. Or if your idea of a good read is 'The Gruffalo'. Or if you want to wear your hair in bunches with Hello Kitty ribbons. It's fine and you can do these things if they appeal to you - it's just that some people will find it odd that adults choose to do things aimed at kids if they aren't taking the kids! I'm not trying to be goady (I love reading a bit of Paddington Bear myself!), but I think that's at the core of it.

I went to quite a few in my 20s as i liked the thrill rides then. Not really "kid" rides. In fact I thought it was only relatively recently they'd added things for small kids (Peppa pig world at Paulton/cbeebies at Aston etc) certainly ly when I went to Chessington and Alton towers in teens/20s that did seem the majority age group!!

I don't equate them Park with thing slide gruffalo and bunches. Yes going to something aimed at young kids (like gruffalo and bunches) but surely thrill rides /zoos etc aren't childish/ child orientated!

How about it's just not your thing, but it's others?
Who cares if people want to go to disney, zoo etc without kids?
I love any animal places ( and old cartoons, rock/metal festivals ) and i don't give a toss if people thing i'm sad at my age
Disneyworld is for everyone! ( maybe not my cup of tea) Not just for kids! don't really care if adults want to queue up to go on the teacups, that's up to them.

Your post was funny, I had a good laugh. :-)

You're done with this festival I think. Let someon else go next year.

I've been to Disneyworld with DH and without children several times. We can go in the rides we want, we can stop and eat when we want, we can drink our way round the world in Epcot... And we were having far more fun than the people who were being followed and whined at by children!

I think theme parks should have adult-only days with wine and better food.

Good god having to go to Disney without the kids. Why the hell would I want to go with just me and hubs when we could go somewhere so much better? Same with themeparks - we have Merlin passes and we go for the kids not for us.

Festivals - meh! People are trying so hard to be alternative and achingly cool - its exhausting. We go to Slamdunk in Leeds which is an all day metal festival - its in the city centre so can escape to a descent restaurant when we need to. This is about as much as I can stand.

I went to my first ever festival a couple of years ago with a big group of 30-something, seasoned festival go-ers. It was apparently a 'chilled, grown up' festival.

It was a tiresome 4 days.

Camping is grim. The toilets were grim.

Roughly 80% of people were off their fucking faces on drugs.

The food was over priced.

The forced joviality, stupid clothes and fairy glitter faces made me feel every inch the cynical, uptight hag I am

I'm at a drink and drug free festival at the moment, everyone is having a lovely time. Tis super hot though.

Think my friend's exdh is at that same festival. It sounds grim to me but to each their own...he is a great guy and loves going.

I have never been to a festival and have no desire to do so. Last year however we went to Thailand. We spent the first week of our holiday in a resort type place. The resort was quite luxurious but it was in a remote area so we were also able to see some less touristy aspects of life out there. In our second week we went to Ko Phangnan. It was shit. Full of people who considered themselves "alternative" who all wore the same uniform of tie dye and harem pants. It made me really sad because the island is beautiful but there is no infrastructure and no thought to how the place has been developed.

Well, l8toys, we like Disney. We like the films, we like the rides, the roller coasters, the attention to detail in the scenery.

Where should we be going that's 'better'?

bearded I love my harem pants, long floaty skirts, beads and jewellry collected from around the world. Unfortunately combined with an RP accent I appear to be a "trustafarian" (ie. apparent hippie but with a large trust fund). Was intrigued and aghast some years back to be party to a conversation with some backpackers (also in SE Asia) discussing how "everyone dresses like a hippie when they travel" - I was "am I the only one who's wearing my normal summer clothes?!" They decided I must be a "real" hippie.

Ooh and no-one's posted yet?

Just back from one. It was apparently voted the best family festival last year.
The scene by 9pm was post apocalyptic with children either flopped all over the extremely rubbish strewn ground or being launched in the air as their parents attempted to dance.
It has just been hit by lightning so everything had to be turned off. I reckon even the higher power got fed up of this one.

Ha ha Once ! That was exactly the one I was at. Including the cheese tent.

Eh, to each their own.

My stepdaughter used to be heavily involved with the management of a festival with a very hippy ish character. My dad and stepmum got free tickets and went along for a day and apparently had a whale of a time, although my dad stuck firmly to tweed instead of tie dye.

As an adult, I've been to zoos without children, Alton Towers once, and several festivals and enjoyed myself thoroughly. I went on a cruise once and lost the will to live. I refuse to believe that 'grown up' means not being allowed to do stuff I find fun. I can't wait until DCs are old enough for Disneyworld too.

Stepdaughter? I meant stepsister! Don't know why I typed that.

What's wrong with posh white youths wearing vintage clothes?!

I think the majority of those 'festival hippies' have very mundane 'middle-class' jobs and everyday life. Going to festivals is expensive.

Going to a festival when pregnant is just idiocy