Reading lists

Mud, music, mayhem: the greatest festival scenes in books

Not got a Glastonbury ticket? There is still plenty of hedonistic joy to be found in fiction, from Zadie Smith to Peppa Pig.

Festival scenes in books
Image: Penguin/Mica Murphy

This weekend Glastonbury will return, after three long years away. For those without tickets, it could be a FOMO-inducing nightmare. But who needs a 900-acre farm full of agitprop junkyard sculptures, New Age healing and power ballad yoga when you can pick up a book instead?

Festivals and carnivals have long provided inspiration for writers looking to craft a scene around an atmosphere of carefree abandon. From work by Malcolm Lowry to Zadie Smith, here are some of the best.

“Two enormous brown eyes are staring into mine. Thick lashes frame them. They look like feathers. Wait, no. They are feathers"

Three Day Summer by Sarvenaz Tash (2015)

The first time our heroes, Michael and Cora, meet on the mud-trudged fields of Woodstock, he has indulged in a little too much of something he shouldn't have:

“Two enormous brown eyes are staring into mine. Thick lashes frame them. They look like feathers. Wait, no. They are feathers. They are the brown circular orbs found in peacock feathers. And now they are multiplying. There were two, now four. Only this bird is red and white, with thin stripes like rivulets of deep red blood going through every feather.

"Her plumage is fanning out, so many eyes and rivers. It’s impossible for it to be contained.

“'Tell me about your family, Michael.'

“Oh my God. She knows my name. This beautiful, rare bird is talking to me.

“I have to do it. Very softly, I reach out and touch one of the feathers. It’s like silk.”

There begins a love story set in the mud, sweat and drizzle of the greatest music festival in history, told across three days of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, where clothes are optional, festivalgoers queue for hours to use payphones, and iconic musicians – from Hendrix to Joplin – play anthems that defined a generation of parent-provoking impulse. A truly groovy summer romance read indeed.

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