It's an odd thought, as everyone and their grandma seems to have an opinion on the Glastonbury line-up these days, but festivals used to be loci of pure youthful rebellion. The "revels" that took place in the late 16th century before Cromwell turned up and banned everything were occasions for debauchery that threatened to shake Christian society to the core: maypole dances, week-long Whitsun festivities that incorporated "wrestling, leaping, throwing the bar", a lot of "beastly and disorderly drinking", and an activity that would leave even Bacchus himself cowering in the corner.

I'm talking about morris dancing. These revels were described by the Puritan moralist John Northbrooke, writing in Distractions of the Sabbath (1579), as "the storehouse and nursery of bastardy" because of the "unseemly and intolerable" decadence inherent in mixed-gender dancing, and the sexual freedom that the atmosphere encouraged. Some of this summer's best storehouses of bastardy look to be the more obscure affairs.

While you can replay this year's highlights at http://glastonbury.playlouder.com/webcasts, and get the Paul McCartney bits of Live 8 on MP3 from www.itunes.com (no Pink Floyd, alas), it seems that anyone can get a few chart bands together for a festival. You need something special to stand out. La Route du Rock in Brittany boasts Mercury Rev, The Cure and Sonic Youth, but most importantly the crumbling 18th-century Fort de Saint-Pere. The best festival I have ever been to is Spain's Benicassim (this year, 4-7 August), a bastion of European togetherness we won't be seeing in the EU budget rebate discussions: British bands (Doves, Basement Jaxx), Mediterranean weather (30 degrees and above), Spanish food, an Italian body clock (headliners come on at 1.30am - none of this "everyone in bed by 11pm" nonsense), and a beach. Go to www.festival-benicassim.com to book for this year or for videos of highlights, and may the season of beastly and disorderly drinking continue.

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