Or perhaps that should be determined to nick each other's stuff. Yes, it would seem mud is a good way to combat crime, because this year's sunny Glastonbury saw reported crimes almost double over the previous year, with 489 incidents this year, compared to 263 in 2007, according to Avon and Somerset police. Though that does include drug related crimes, though a sizeable portion were things like thefts from tents, and there was one robbery. Arrests, it should be added, were actually slightly down on last year at 134.
Speaking during the festival, Sergeant Carolyn Crocker told the BBC: "Despite a challenging festival in terms of thefts from tents, 99.7 per cent of festival goers will return home having not been victims of crime. The event remains one of the safest festivals of its kind and we continue to work proactively with festival security to ensure people have a safe final night".
Even if people were thieving on site, the local council seem pleased by this year's festival. There was a time when there were normally tensions between Glasto organisers and some on Mendip District Council, tensions that always caused problems when the festival went to apply for its licence. But that's changed in recent years, leading to that previously reported granting of a four year licence for the festival.
In a press statement yesterday, the Council said they thought this year's Glasto had gone well, though added that there were probably further lessons that could be used to reduce even further the impact of the festival on its locality.
The council's licensing rep Tom Killen told CMU: "Firstly I'd like to thank everyone for their help and partnership work in making this year's Glastonbury Festival such a successful event. It shows that effective working with the festival organisers continues to make this a better event each year. There will clearly be some issues that we have to deal with, and which will form a debriefing process in the Autumn, which will involve various agencies. The Glastonbury Festival is a major event for Mendip and the country as a whole, so it is important that we have a thorough process which gives everyone to chance to discuss this year's event and help to improve it further for next year".