It's like, Glastonbury man, like, cool

In just a couple of hours pre-registration for the Glastonbury Music Festival closes - and we're signed up! Glastonbury is the UK music festival, 3 June days and nights of rocking out in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere, to some of the biggest names in UK and international music. Rumours are everywhere about who will be playing this year (it won't be confirmed until the tickets actually go on sale on April 1) but there's always a good bunch - last time the list included Basement Jaxx, The White Stripes, Coldplay, Brian Wilson, James Blunt, The Killers and Elvis Costello. Hopefully the weather will be nice, last time there was a freak storm which turned the entire event into a mudpool. As I'm not much of a tent fan at the best of times, 3 days of camping is going to test me enough without having to bale water out of my sleeping bag!

A little while back we went and had a look at the actual town of Glastonbury, which is only about 45 minutes from Bath. It's a pretty sleepy little place but it's really latched onto the "alternative lifestyle" thing - almost every shop sells positive-energy crystals, Wicca stuff and/or scented wellbeing thingies. Hippies seem to be drawn to Glastonbury due to its possible legendary connection to King Arthur, plus proximity to various ley lines and mystical sites like Stonehenge.

The main connection between King Arthur and Glastonbury centres around Glastonbury Tor:

This strange lump of land is visible for miles around and many centuries ago was apparently surrounded by flooded wetlands - giving rise to the legend that it was the Isle of Avalon, birthplace of Excalibur and burial place of King Arthur. Another legend says that the rough terracing (you can just make it out in the picture) was part of a huge labyrinth that led to the top, upon which you could enter a secret castle carved inside the hill.

Whatever it is, it's a big climb - we only got this far before our hopelessly inadequate footwear forced us to stop. We'll have to come back to get all the way to St Michael's Tower on the top but even from half-way the view is quite good.

Groovy man!