Last weekend we made our first foray into the hitherto sneered-at world of festivals en famille. My previous trips to Glastonbury were not a success. The trauma of sleeping in a tent and not having anywhere clean to take out my contact lenses or plug in my hair straighteners was too much for me. And turning to booze to make the experience more palatable wasn't, with hindsight, too helpful. If there's one thing worse than waking up in a tent, it's waking up in a tent with a hangover. Or a stranger, I suppose. Or perhaps a hangover and stranger playing the bongos ...
After an inauspicious start to the weekend, involving an eight-hour journey, four small children, a car that did Torville and Dean figure-of-eights in the mud and pitching a tent in the dark, it all turned out to be rather lovely. We awoke in the morning to the sound of birds singing, a glimpse of sunshine and the infamous festival loos. The kids insisted that the toilets smelled like "dinner ladies' tuna", which would make interesting feedback for Jamie Oliver.
Far too paranoid and uptight about the kids to indulge in any typical festival hedonism, I resigned myself to not getting hideously drunk, lost and spending the night waving my arms around in front of a burger van playing obscure techno. Instead I spent the weekend in the "Kidz" field, lying around on the grass in the sun as my daughters watched "theatre" (well, Bodger and Badger), had their faces painted, clambered over elaborately themed play areas, rode on ecofriendly hand-cranked fairground rides and learned circus skills.
It dawned on me that the reason Glastonbury is so successful as an event, and has become such an institution, is that rather than being another booze-fuelled festival, it has always been more about creating a safe area for people to escape to and play in. Whether it's through music, theatre, dancing, or dressing-up or experimenting with lifestyle choices, it is a place where you really can escape. Glastonbury is an opportunity to put aside our day-to-day responsibilities and to get back to the spirit of play. It is a purely creative, interactive experience which can only enrich our daily working lives.
Work and play are seen as opposites. We are either at work, or we are enjoying our leisure time. In a world where even our leisure time is strictly allocated and then utilised as a way of getting cash out of us, we might watch TV, listen to music, play on the computer, play a bit of sport or go for a walk.
What about creativity? What about challenging yourself to find out something new about your own abilities? What about communicating and sharing with other people? Too often we put so much energy into our work we don't have the energy to make the most of playtime. But used more creatively, our leisure time can enrich our work.
Without knowing how to tell a story, I don't think people can write reports or essays. Without understanding something about characterisation, acting and role play you won't get far in board meetings and presentations. Without a bit of rough and tumble, you'll always be afraid to interact confidently and physically in other people's personal spaces. Most importantly, without some proper playtime, you may take yourself too seriously.
Glastonbury doesn't have to be the only place we should feel free to play. Tell stories, write, draw, paint, run around the garden in a homemade dragon costume as if it's the Green Fields and it's 1992. At least you'll go to work with a smile on your face on Monday morning, even if you've learned nothing else.
· Rebecca Jordan is a co-director and co-founder of pdceducation.co.uk
