Homo Festivus

• We are entering this time of the year when the festival tickets go on sale, with its lot of line-up rumours, struggles to reach Ticketmaster, prohibiting prices and so on. This year the Big Thing is, of course, Glastonbury. The novelty comes fro the fact that one has to register beforehand in order to even consider getting tickets. This is presumably in order to produce tickets that will contain the owner’s picture printed on them, and therefore prevent sales on e-bay.
  
  Right. Well I don’t have a problem with pre-emptive registration per se. But frankly, going through so much trouble to - let’s be honest for a second - spend 4 days sleeping in the mud, no thanks. Since half the bands will be this year’s NME new discovery (and therefore probably forgotten as quickly as they have appeared), and that half of the time I’ll have to be wasted to be able to get some sleep, it’s definitely not value for money.
  
  So I have discovered the perfect alternative: Werchter festival. Here is a festival with a brilliant line-up (so far Pearl Jam and Muse have already confirmed. Which UK festival has even a single band announced, I would like to know…), really cheap, close to London by Eurostar, and extremely well organised. OK it's in Belgium, but hey! Nothing's perfect!
  
  That is, I have found, the best way to enjoy a festival. Well, if you’re going for the music, not the hype, that is.