NJ - // But I doubt very much that it will encourage many black people from Peckham or Tottenham to make the trip to Somerset to camp in a field to see them. It’s not their thing and that’s something Lenny Henry seems unable (or perhaps unwilling) to grasp. //
I think 'unwiling' is the point.
Mr Henry is not a stupid man, but he is being foolish in trying to hook his worthy efforts to increase diversity to the nonexistent bandwagon that is the virtual absence of ethnic minorities at Glastonbury.
The simple economics make it accessible only to a certain strata of society who can afford the money for tickets and travel, and that places it outside the means of a large proportion of music fans.
But as we agree, it is not that Glastonbury is too elitist to appeal to a diversity of ethnicities, it is simply that they are not interested in living like refugees in a war zone for a long weekend, queuing , getting sunburned and / or soaked to the skin, eating lousy food, walking miles and getting blisters, and paying three figures for the privilege.
///So no, they don't pay to 'squat in Farmer Giles' field'.
Happy to straighten out that popular misconception.//
Thanks Andy. I was being a little flippant! :-) //
Indeed, I did leap in and bang on with equal vigour, apologies!!