So the festival season has kicked off again and this weekend just gone saw 100,000 people head to a farm in Somerset, put up with rain, mud and cold with only a flimsy, paper-thin shelter to protect them, all for a 3-day bender and a week-long hangover. Oh, and some bands played as well.

I'm talking, of course, about Glastonbury, the UK's biggest festival (and probably the world's too), still going strong after 39 years of musical revelry. After last year's controversial decision to give a Jay-Z a headline slot, a move that proved to be a huge success, Glastonbury went back to basics this time around, choosing classic rock icons in the form of Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. Yet every year, people have something to complain about: if it's not the commercialisation of the festival, it's that a hip hop artist like Jay-Z doesn't belong at Glastonbury. In 2009, it was that there was too much dad rock, with the average age of the Pyramid Stage performers being forty something. Be that as it may, it's too big a festival for something like that to be an issue; there's literally hundreds of things going on at the same if you'd rather not listen to 'Born in the USA', most of which you won't have a clue about and you'll end up delightfully discovering.

Another hot topic was the return of a recently-reformed Blur. Closing the festival on Sunday night, everyone was eager with anticipation to see whether the Britpop heroes could deliver. From every single review I've read, they more than delivered a performance to rival those unforgettable musical experiences that only Glastonbury can offer. 5000 miles away, sitting in front of my computer and watching the BBC coverage on Youtube, I can feel the sheer energy of the crowd as every punter left, right, and centre belts out the chorus yelps in 'Song 2'. I remember seeing Blur at Reading Festival in 1999 but it was without Graham Coxon and was in support of their album 'Think Tank'. 10 years on and they give the festival-goers what they really wanted: a greatest hits set full of sing along moments. I can honestly say that watching the videos from this weekend alone in my room has much more impact than that Reading gig did. You can see the smiles on the faces of the four of them and of every single person in the sea of people. It's proof that in no situation other than a festival, more specifically this festival, could a shared experience between so many people be so powerful. Divisions between performer and spectator disappear as everyone sings and celebrates together, with a touch of nostalgia and a teary eye. It's a gig like this that reminds me how incomparable Glastonbury is and how there's simply no excuse to miss out on 2010. I'm packing my wellies already...

Here's Blur's set closer, after two encores. Simply astounding.