You live and learn, as they say.  I’ve been to a fair number of music festivals in my time, and have even camped out at quite a few, but I found out by reading my trusty BBC News app today (thanks for this, Sophie Van Brugen) that there’s a volunteer milkman, Greg Newman, who starts out at 6.30am and travels around the Glastonbury campsites for the 4  days of the festival in his tractor and trailer, taking 8 hours to finish his round of delivering 2500 pints of milk to weary revellers. He uses a megaphone to alert campers to his presence with a cry of “Milky milky!”.  Some may have just got to sleep, but others flock around his tractor, happy for a pint of milk for their early morning cuppa.

I’ve never attended the Glastonbury festival, mainly due to the terrible weather that usually accompanies it (although I think this year the sun shone for most of the time), and also because the bands more often than not don’t play the kind of heavy rock music that I like.  The festival is also too big for my liking.  However, none of the festivals I’ve ever attended before have had a milkman delivering to the campers.  Apparently back in 1970 the first festival goers at Glastonbury each received a free pint of milk from Michael Eavis’s own cows, but nowadays if any of the 175,000 campers require a pint, they have to pay Greg Newman £1.20.

What a great way to drum up business for the farm!

At festival campsites I’ve attended, we’ve only been able to bring small disposable barbeques, and to boil the water for a cup of tea on that takes an age.  I remember queueing up in the mud and driving rain at the Download festival for drinks back in 2009.  One girl in front of me in the queue was covered in mud.  The stall holder gave her a cup of tea and passed her a used spoon, as she wanted to add some sugar.  She asked for a clean spoon, but was told to use the one she had been given. I think a previously used spoon must have been the last straw for this poor girl, as she fixed the stall holder with a terrible stare and said the following:

“I may be covered in mud right up to my fanny, but all I’m asking for is a clean spoon!”

She got one.