It was with extreme anticipation that I squeezed myself into a rental car filled with rucksacks, beer crates, multiple bags o' wine and four friends, eagerly setting off to Glastonbury Festival on a Tuesday evening despite it kicking off on Friday morning. "If I'm doing Glasto," I had told several confused friends in the weeks prior, "I am doing Glasto." 12 hours later amid a sea of unbearable queueing, torrential rain and unfettered mud, I arrived at Worthy Farm after years of desiring to be one of the fortunate 180,000 ticket holders. My jeans were ruined within ten minutes.

The Worthy Farm site had already been reduced to a wasteland of untraversable terrain by the time I pitched my tent on Wednesday morning, but as my party of five stumbled up the mudslide that was now Pennard Hill like some unwitting Total Wipeout contestants (well, four - we left a man down in the queue), what felt an apprehensive foray into the unknown on day one ended a brutal departure from what had become my home-away-from-home on day five. In less than a week, all inhibitions had vacated my bloodstream and, in its own tangible way, Glastonbury had realigned my world view.

Take this as a fitting example: from my tent, I had a clear view of the famous giant spider that marks the centre of popular nightlife area Arcadia. Hosting DJs blasting out drum and bass music for pretty much 24 hours, I made a silent vow to steer the hell clear of what I had heard was some kind of "rave spectacular." Three days later, I found myself under that very same spider balancing on the shoulders of a heavily inebriated man - dressed up as a Minion - wildly waving a pink glowstick (I know...), not unlike a conductor guiding Andy C towards his flame-bursting beat drop. The palpability of freedom - however beer-goggled - was effervescent.

(Getty)

It fast became clear that the rulebook doesn't exist here. Only at Glastonbury would I be happy to waste 45 minutes trekking to party area Shangri-La - with a crowd of 20 people I don't know - only to be turned away and forced back the way I came. Only at Glastonbury would I get onto the TV singing along to one of my favourite bands of the moment (reassuring my watching parents that I am, in fact, still alive). Only at Glastonbury would you leave your mate watching Fatboy Slim only to return an hour later to find him dancing with Tilda Swinton.

Being privy to the many live music moments as opposed to sneakily scouring iPlayer for highlights at work was an easy treat to take for granted: from Two Door Cinema Club's storming Friday mid-afternoon set and The Last Shadow Puppets' electrifying rendition of David Bowie's "Moonage Daydream" through to Tame Impala and M83's unexpectedly electrifying performances and PJ Harvey's powerful recital of John Donne's "No Man is an Island" amid the result of the EU Referendum vote - these were all moments I would have watched at home, lamenting those organised enough to get a ticket.



Sure, the hefty walk between the many stages, the frustrating bustle of people attempting to navigate their way through the crowds and the heart wrenching realisation you need to embark upon an odyssey to the toilets three minutes before an act you love takes to the stage may irritate in the moment, but it's these small troubles you find yourself pining for once you step through your front door, collapse on the sofa and exhaustedly wonder whether any of it had happened at all.

Music festivals guide 2016 Show all 20 1 /20 Music festivals guide 2016 Music festivals guide 2016 Horizon Where: Bansko Ski Resort, Bulgaria When: 12-17 March Price: From £175 Line Up: Âme, Goldie, Nina Kraviz, John Talabot, Lady Leshurr, Craig Charles Music festivals guide 2016 Live At Leeds Where: Leeds, UK When: 30 April Price: £32.50 Line Up: Jess Glynne, Circa Waves, Mystery Jets, Band of Skulls, We Are Scientists Music festivals guide 2016 Primavera Sound Where: Barcelona, Spain When: 1-5 June Price: €175 Line Up: Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem, Sigur Rós, PJ Harvey, Tame Impala, Beach House, Suede, The Last Shadow Puppets Primavera Music festivals guide 2016 Best Kept Secret Where: Hilvarenbeek, The Netherlands When: 17-19 June Price: €147.50 Line Up: Beck, Editors, Two Door Cinema Club, Beach House, Bloc Party, Caribou, Half Moon Run Best Kept Secret Festival Music festivals guide 2016 Glastonbury Where: Worthy Farm, Somerset When: 22-26 June Price: £220 Line Up: Coldplay, Muse, Jeff Lynne’s ELO, PJ Harvey, Jess Glynne (TBC) Music festivals guide 2016 Roskilde Where: Copenhagen, Denmark When: 25 June-2 July Price: 2,020 DKK Line Up: LCD Soundsystem, New Order, PJ Harvey, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Foals, Tame Impala, Savages, Skepta, Tenacious D Simon Frøsig Christensen / Roskilde Festival Music festivals guide 2016 Hideout Festival Where: Zrce Beach, Croatia When: 26-30 June Price: From £152.90 Line Up: The Martinez Brothers, Joris Voorn, Waze & Odyssey Hideout Festival Music festivals guide 2016 Bilbao BBK Where: Bilbao, Spain When: 7-9 July Price: From £69 Line Up: Arcade Fire, Pixies, Tame Impala, Foals, New Order, Hot Chip, Father John Misty, Years & Years, Wolf Alice Music festivals guide 2016 Open'er Where: Gdynia, Poland When: 29 July-2 August Price: From €130 Line Up: Bastille, Florence + the Machine, Foals, LCD Soundsystem, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The 1975, The Last Shadow Puppets, Wiz Khalifa Open'er Festival Music festivals guide 2016 Electric Love Where: Plainfeld, Austria When: 7-9 July Price: €119 Line Up: Alesso, Zedd, Tiesto, Chase & Status, Steve Aoki, Knife Party Music festivals guide 2016 Melt! Where: Ferropolis, Germany When: 15-17 July Price: From €136 Line Up: Two Door Cinema Club, Disclosure, Jamie xx, Sleaford Mods, Skepta, Jamie Woon Music festivals guide 2016 Sziget Where: Budapest, Hungary When: 10-17 August Price: From €215 Line Up: Bastille, Bloc Party, M83, Sigur Ros, Bring Me the Horizon Music festivals guide 2016 Flow Where: Helsinki, Finland When: 12-14 August Price: €165 Line Up: Sia, New Order, The Last Shadow Puppets, Jamie xx, M83, Chvrches, Four Tet, Stormzy, Daughter, The Kills Flow Festival / Jussi Hellsten Music festivals guide 2016 Rock En Seine Where: Paris, France When: 26-28 August Price: From €119 Line Up: TBC Music festivals guide 2016 Oasis Where: Marrakech, Morocco When: 16-18 September Price: From €110 Line Up: Bicep, Derrick May, Tale of Us, Dixon, Dusky, Hunee Music festivals guide 2016 Latitude Where: Henham Park, Suffolk When: 14-17 July Price: £205.50 Line Up: The Maccabees, The National, New Order, John Grant, Beirut, Father John Misty, Chvrches, Grimes Music festivals guide 2016 Bestival Where: Robin Hill, Isle of Wight When: 8-11 September Price: £190 Line Up: The Cure, Major Lazer, Hot Chip, Fatboy Slim, Craig David, Years & Years, Wolf Alice, Tourist, Katy B Music festivals guide 2016 Isle of Wight Where: Newport, Isle of Wight When: 9-12 June Price: From £186 Line Up: Queen + Adam Lambert, Stereophonics, Faithless, Iggy Pop, Adam Ant, Buzzcocks, Sigma, Jess Glynne Music festivals guide 2016 Citadel Where: Victoria Park, London When: 17 July Price: From £54 Line Up: Sigur Rós, Caribou, Lianne La Havas, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats Music festivals guide 2016 End of the Road Where: Larmer Tree Gardens When: 2-4 September Price: £195 Line Up: Joanna Newsom, The Shins, Animal Collective, Bat for Lashes, Teenage Fanclub, Devendra Banhart, Savages, Cat's Eyes Sonny Malhotra

Converging with disparate souls in a giant field provides you with a sense of unification at the best of times, but at Glastonbury, it carries a different weight. This festival is a celebration, not only of art, but of togetherness, and one that felt even stronger in light of the departure of a Britain we all knew we would never see again.