What’s behind Britain’s festival frenzy?

At Gala festival in Peckham Rye park, dry ice drifts into the trees as grime MC Novelist raps about a south London bus and the crowd bounces along. A DJ teases Skream’s Midnight Request Line, hands go up, and the scene feels emblematic of a summer now overflowing with events from Black Water County and Cursus in Dorset to Radio 1 Big Weekend, Slam Dunk, Sidmouth and scores more across the country.

Music festivals have become a major economic success and a visible part of national life: a teenage rite of passage, a family holiday and a tourism draw. That popularity has brought tensions—criticisms of male-dominated lineups, corporate owners with controversial investments, disputes over the use of public parks and worries that fans are being overcharged.

Britain, Peckham Rye, south London

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