Our humorous reactions to Glastonbury are uniquely British

Mike Ross said he had “never been on a roundabout long enough to take a nap before”

(PA)

The final weekend of Wimbledon, the first morning at Lord’s, nonsensical headlines in August and rain at Glastonbury: such is the stuff of English summers, and yesterday the last of these obliged in great style.

So much of our national character is formed through coping with rain: our skill at indoor games such as snooker, billiards and darts, for instance; and our uniquely English irony. Social media is often castigated as the root of all evil, but yesterday morning, as the queues on the road to Glastonbury led to people being stuck stationary for up to seven hours, and the rains flooded Worthy Farm, Twitter played host to some wonderful sarcasm.

Mike Ross said he had “never been on a roundabout long enough to take a nap before”. Moira tweeted she had “been in this traffic for 12 hours, that’s longer than any of my relationships”. Others started playing cricket by the roadside, adjacent to the traffic, in the rain.

As it has grown, Glastonbury has changed, becoming ever more popular by appealing to a growing number of people. It used to be thought of, long ago, as the preserve of a few hippies with too much time on their hands and inheritance cash in their pockets. Yesterday’s marvellous outbreak of spirit, and the endless pictures of muddy revellers we are guaranteed over the coming days, will show that Glastonbury is now something else altogether: a definition of England we can all be proud of.