[Sundae]

Wow UT, sounds glorious. And beautifully written.

The closest I came to that feeling of cameraderie was when I was 15, at a Christian festival.
It wasn't quite as spontaneous or musical as the Fest (of course) but it was the first time I was openly offered drugs. And yes, you could sit down at many tents, scrag a beer and talk rubbish for a while. And none of it about Jebus.

I had a starving orphan look in those days and was often offered food, drink - and on this occasion drugs - for the whole long weekend.

The toilets in those days were simply latrine trenches, with wooden lavatory cubicles (with holes in planks of wood) above them. In the block nearest us, only one had a lock! There was a squashed moth on the inside of the door. Someone had written Hello, I'm Molly the Moth! and someone else added Have you seen my flatmate? If we needed to go to the toilet in the dark we took a friend to guard the door, in case we weren't lucky enough to have a visit with Molly.

One morning two chaps wandered across with a packet of Dalesteaks (horrible processed meat that lived on in your burps for hours). They'd brought no cooking equipment, reckoning they could easily "borrow" some. We'd had a communal fry up that morning (they trusted me with the money to go to the nearest shop! but not with the cooking... I still had a sore arse after travelling pillion on Dom's hog with no bloody suspension) so there was still grease in the pan. They picked out a few blades of grass and were good to go.

Turns out they had pretty much nothing but sleeping bags. This doesn't sound weird to me now, but it really screwed with my teen head - when we went camping as a family we FILLED a (hired) estate car. Even with things on the roofrack, Dad still couldn't see out of the back window.

To buy a ticket for somewhere and not even have a tent!!!
Wow.
Far out man.

The year after - I think- I scared my friends shitless by disappearing with two bikers and coming back coked up.
They were really nice chaps - only "bikers" because they'd come on motorbikes.
Their tent was spotless - in fact I wonder at this late remove if they were gay. We had some touchy-feely but strictly above the waist. And they were very keen to share the experience with eachother.

I was severely told off by my male companions, and made to feel as if I'd done something dangerous. They didn't know, they weren't there. But I appreciated my role as both a Bad Girl and a Victim for a while. I still have a picture of them I think. And they do look gay. But it was 80s - the same could be said of everyone.

I never captured the same feeling of recklessness and safety at any festivals I attended afterwards.
Maybe something to do with growing up.
But Phila sounds like somewhere I'd like to go.