How to Survive (and Enjoy) Festivals as an HSP or Introvert: My Glastonbury Story

It’s festival season and it’s Glastonbury time again.

I haven’t done the whole camping-there-for-days thing in years , but I used to. My first time was back in 1984, when it was called Pilton Pop Festival and we walked in free of charge through Pilton Playing Field! It was all dogs on strings, ‘crusties’ and Monster Juice (whatever that actually was). It was far quieter and much less chaotic back then, no hydration backpacks or phone-charging stations. It still felt big, but not the behemoth it is now.

Even then, though, I found it overwhelming.

I didn’t know I was an introvert or a highly sensitive person. I didn’t have the language or the understanding, I just knew I was really absorbing everything; the noise, the smells, the dynamics between people, the emotional undercurrents, and all the amplified energy from people being high or drunk or whatever.

I felt weird and different and I didn’t want to draw attention to that. I couldn’t understand how everyone else seemed to just “get on with it.”

So I did what most of us did, I drank (and the rest), to take the edge off, to be part of it, to not be “boring” or “too sensitive” or “a lightweight.”
I wanted to be there, having fun, but I also really wanted to be back at home, on my own and in the peace and quiet.

Until fairly recently, I’d still feel torn, if I was there, I’d want to be at home, and if I wasn’t there, I’d feel intense FOMO and jealousy, as though everyone else was having some magical life-changing experience that I was missing out on. I recently tried just going in on the Sunday but that felt too much as well.

It’s taken years to understand myself better and realise I wasn’t broken or boring or wrong but I just needed to do things differently, or not at all, and that’s OK.

So this is a little blog for anyone who might be feeling similar.
Maybe you’re off to a festival this summer, or watching everyone else go and wondering if you should want to.
Or maybe you went, didn’t enjoy it, and are now wondering what’s wrong with you.

There is nothing wrong with you.
You’re just wired differently. And you can honour that.
You are a deep-feeling, beautifully sensitive human, and there’s absolutely nothing weird about that. The world needs you!

Here are a few things I’ve learned (and wish I’d known earlier):

💚 Find the quiet corners.
There’s always a Healing Field, a Green Field, a shady spot under a tree. You’re allowed to retreat. You don’t have to be “on” all the time.

🧘‍♀️ You’re allowed to leave early.
Or not go at all. Or nap in your tent while everyone else is off watching a band you’ve never heard of. That’s not boring, that’s self-trust.

🎭 Let people judge.
They might call you too sensitive, no fun, boring. Let them, that says more about them than it does about you.

🧃 Keep checking in with yourself.
Am I thirsty? Overstimulated? Lonely? Do I want to dance or cry or lie face-down in a yurt for a few hours!? Ask, and listen, then give yourself what you need.

👩‍👧 Parent yourself through it.
Festivals can bring up a lot. Look after yourself like you would a sensitive child in a noisy soft play centre. Gentle, reassuring and meeting your needs.

🎉 Define fun your way.
Fun doesn’t have to mean crowds and chaos. It might be one great conversation, dancing alone at sunrise, or sitting at home watching on BBC iPlayer, feeling absolutely no FOMO.

You don’t have to match anyone else’s energy.

So this weekend, I’ll be at home on the sofa, basking in my JOMO, maybe with some hummus and a lentil crisp or two, Hen the cat judging me, and everyone else, from the windowsill.
I’ll be honouring the part of me that used to try so hard to fit in, and the part of me now that just wants peace, music, and not to absorb ten million emotional vibes, sights, sounds and smells all at once.

So if you’re going to a festival this year, do it your way.
That might mean staying until the last set, or leaving before sunset. It might mean glitter, or no glitter. Dancing, or sitting quietly in the Green Fields with a cup of tea and a cake.

However you do it, just know you’re ok exactly as you are.