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A fire breaking out ...At Glastonbury ?

I would think its usually far too wet tbh ;)

 At Glasto you have to pitch that close or else you would never get the amount of people in there.

Glasto isn't your average camping weekend, i wouldn't worry about it cos if in 3-4 years your kids want to go, you can be assured they are not going to listen to your fears of fire because the tents are a bit close together.

Glasto has 200,000 people in there, the size of a city,so any horror stories you hear have to be put into context.

Looking at the question logically,  it must be legal (despite being poor camping practice from a fire safety point of view). Other wise Michael Eavis would never get the necessary licences to hold the festival each time. He will have to satisy the fire service that adequate plans and equipment are in place, so the distance between tents evidently is not a major part of those considerations.

As for your offpsring and their future festival going - all you can do is make sure that they understand the risks and advise them about sensible precautions. We camp at festies and always make sure we have a bucket of water and fire blanket handy, and check out the fire equipment points too. Although this year the main H&S risk has been from trenchfoot and other mud-borne diseases!!

I saw the same ariel picture in the Guardian and i have to say that i thought exactly the same thing as Rowlands when i saw all the burnt patches between the tents which were clearly campfires. Even without the cramped nature of the pitching i would be concerned about having so many open fires like that so close to so many tents, and even more so when you throw alcohol into the mix, as i imagine it would be at Glastonbury. It looked to me like a terrible accident waiting to happen.

I personally think that Glastonbury has lost its way anyway and is now just a huge 'greedfest' on the part of the organisers. Sooty suggested that the tents have to be that packed in to fit that many people into the festival but of course the other side to that is, don't sell so many tickets. People just go to Glastonbury now as part of 'the season' that people do, its a place to be seen at or to say that you've been to. The event was sold out before the final line up was confirmed which just goes to show that this is no longer a music festival but a 'scene' at which to be seen.

I wouldn't be too worried about your kids going Rowlands, apparently the majority of people there this year were all middle-aged 'oldies' so if that continues they probably won't want to go anyway! Who knows what will be the 'in thing' in a few years time but i doubt it will still be Glastonbury if it keeps on the way its going.