I have often made the same observation as Stephanie Phillips about Glastonbury (Why are big festivals like Glastonbury so white?, 20 June), but it’s naive to gloss over the fact that festivals are largely still defined by genre, and that certain genres are more white than others.
Traditionally, Glastonbury has been defined by alternative music and culture. Plenty of white people feel excluded from Glastonbury. Tickets are hard to get hold of and the price is prohibitive for anyone but the comfortable middle classes. Travellers and people with alternative lifestyles who once helped define the atmosphere of Glastonbury are no longer a presence, which is sad.
What Phillips doesn’t include are anecdotes from non-white people who feel excluded. Is there a sense of feeling unwelcome or are ethnic minorities less interested? I’ve never been to the Notting Hill carnival; it’s not an event I felt the need to prioritise. That’s all. My husband is brown and I am white. It’s not being a mixed-race couple that puts us off Glastonbury, but the fact that we don’t want to share a portable toilet with thousands of others. Different strokes for different folks.
Phillips quotes the 2020 Arts Council England diversity report as an issue in that only 11% of staff at organisations that it funded were not white. But, according to the 2011 census, ethnic minorities are 13% of the population in England, so while there is always room for improvement, it doesn’t sound hugely unrepresentative.
Lucy Matthews
Liverpool
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