DESPITE familiar names going to the wall, energy prices rocketing and dole queues lengthening, an inordinate number of people still seem happy to blow three-figure sums of money on attending music festivals.

Why are people so willing to spend £150 to get rained on, surrounded by cider-swigging ‘emo kids’, before trying to get a couple of hours of kip in a field?

It costs a fortune even to pitch up at one of the ‘me too’ strum-athons such as Cornbury. Madness!

JAMES WESTERHOUSE Oxford