FESTIVAL VIRGIN

Unless you spend your summer in a cave then you can't help but notice the huge growth in popularity of the music festival. They are popping up all over the place along with countless column inches on which one to choose, what to wear, how to camp glamorously and even on the radio this week how to cook corden bleu style on a camping stove.

When I was 18, the only people that went to music festivals (and that meant Glastonbury) were students or hippies. I never did. It didn't really capture my imagination. I spent a lot of my youth in a tent but I have never been terribly interested in music. I went through the motions - loud stuff blaring from bedroom to irritate parents, NME delivered to door, that kind of thing. But fundamentally I wasn't and still am not interested.

So when, a couple of years ago, my husband suggested taking the two older children off to Solfest, a family friendly festival in Cumbria, I waved them off with a smile, grateful that someone had to stay behind with the little ones.

They had a fabulous time and I listened to the stories and the CDs of the bands they'd seen and looked at the photos and that was that.

Then a couple of months ago my husband said that he had found a new family festival that was near enough to go for the day and should he get tickets? OK I said, although if I'm honest I had not the slightest interest in going. And now it's almost upon us. The festival, Deer Shed, is on Saturday and I'm starting to get uneasy.

There's now talk in the ranks of camping rather than driving home late, which is fine as long as it doesn't rain and I don't have to cook. But I'm not really sure what we'll do for a whole day in a field. The web site says there are lots of activities for the kids and there are three stages and obviously the music. But what do you actually do?

Now I can hear you laughing at me. But I am no good at not doing anything. If it were me I would have done all the activities, heard a band on each stage, had a drink and lunch from a stand and be ready to go by 11 'o clock. Am that is, not pm. I can't just sit there and watch it all happen around me. I'm just not like that. And I have only heard of one of the bands and I don't know any of their music.

Can I take a book?

I shall, of course, do my best. I will endeavour to do nothing for a day and enjoy it. And who knows I might and be scouring the Internet for more festivals to attend before the weekend is out. But even, if I suspect, the whole festival thing fails to float my boat, I know for certain that the rest of the family will have a brilliant time and sometimes that's enough.