(What's so funny about) peace, love and toilet paper?

Radio 1 DJ Jo Whiley on tuning in, turning on and falling over at Glastonbury

WHILE OTHER festivals come and go, the emperor of them all - Glastonbury - continues to get bigger. It's still untouchable, despite the best efforts of the commercial sponsors to breed bigger, slicker super-festivals throughout the summer. It is the original, and still the best, as the jingle used to go. The BBC bi-media family have never taken it more seriously, despatching the likes of John Peel OBE, Jools Holland, Steve Lamacq and myself to straddle TV and radio between us.

I'm on duty all weekend - something I'm having to get used to, but you can guarantee that I'm going to see as many of the bands as is physically possible. It's a far cry from my "first time". Then, the music was just a small part of the gig. Seventeen years ago, I knew nothing about the festival, just that everybody in the sixth form went and that it was dead cool, something very special. I had to discover it for myself.

I arrived with my fifth-form mates, and soon discovery was the very last thing on our minds, for we had been introduced to authentic scrumpy... I was flat on my back.

By the time I covered Glastonbury professionally for first time, it was Pulp's year and I had managed to sober up. Oasis and Portishead played, and Robbie Williams turned up. The magic hit me. I would never have dreamt I'd have got behind the big iron fences saying "Keep out - this is where all the media people are". I just stood and gazed around, my jaw on the floor. Might it be that I could get a glimpse of anyone from New Order? Now it's really good to be able to try and translate that feeling to millions, whether watching TV or on the radio.

Music is just half of it - although you have to say, the major half. There is the chance to have a live experience with the more obscure bands you've been meaning to catch up with but wouldn't have parted with a few pounds to see. It's a chance to see the bands everybody is talking about, although that is less the case this year, with the paucity of successful new material from established bands being one of the reasons behind the collapse of Phoenix this year. But the other half is just as magical - the spirit, the jugglers, the alternative fashions, the new foods and the environmentalists on attractively painted soapboxes. The toad has a chance to hop off your back, even if it's just for a weekend.

It's a chance to escape from the sanitised world of Cool Britannia in London, even if it means sacrificing my full English fry-up on a Sunday morning for some falafel or organic dahl. I say "sanitised", but I have to admit that after a couple of hours at Glastonbury, you do begin to miss the rudiments of modern sanitary provision. Ask any regular festival- goer for the obligatory top tips for coping with the outdoor life, and they will mention the toilets.

The more cynical claim that the loos in the media village are in some way better. They may be shinier, but doing your business in the middle of a field is always a bad experience. Taking extra toilet roll is one of the top tips all festival-goers should adhere to.

The alternative lifestyles on display are mirrored by the stirrings of an alternative economy. Speculators take note - stocking up on the right commodities can leave you in a very healthy position. My colleague Steve Lamacq reckons that if you take enough, say, toilet roll, you can begin trading, quite by accident, in return for other essentials you may need. In the mud at last year's Glastonbury, straw became the equivalent of the Ecu. Bales of straw saw their exchange rate rocket as the ground beneath our feet sank.

The only infection from the outside world is the slow creep of technology onto the site. Last year's oasis of calm saw the birdsong that festival- goers have become so used to accompanied by new tones - those of the mobile phone. This year we have cash machines on site, although I'm not sure I could stand the queue. It's all very useful, but I want to escape properly.

But music continues to be the driving force. It has changed a great deal since the first Glastonbury in 1970, when Marc Bolan made his entrance onto the farm site in a velvet covered car. Folk and Roots have begun to give way Dance tents, but the breadth of musical experience is just as mind-blowing. It might not be under a single roof, but where else could you bring together the talents of Pulp on the Pyramid Stage (Sunday), Asian Dub Foundation on the Other Stage (Friday), The Unbelieveable Truth in the New Tent (Friday) and of course, Rolf Harris on the Acoustic Stage (Friday)? Not to mention Embrace, Portishead, Spiritualized and Tricky.

As my boss for the weekend, overseeing the BBC's TV and radio coverage, Trevor Dann has said, "If this was pay-per-view across TV and radio, you can guarantee you'd be bankrupt!" If you haven't managed to blag a ticket, make sure you tune in to capture a little of the magic going down in a corner of Somerset.

Jo Whiley will be broadcasting from Glastonbury as part of the BBC's TV and radio presence, which will include John Peel OBE, Jools Holland, Jayne Middlemiss, Jamie Theakston on BBC 2; and Steve Lamacq, Mary Anne Hobbs, Annie Nightingale as well as Jo and John on Radio 1