Spirit of Place - Glastonbury - Marketing Mysticism - Genius Loci
Glastonbury has long been a place of wonders and I don't just mean the past 50 years or so since the festival at nearby Worthy Farm began.
When we first came across this Somerset town some 40 years ago the commercial exploitation of the beliefs of the free-thinking had just begun to infiltrate the High Street with a dozen or so small shops selling joss sticks, kaftans and crystals. Peddling their wares in tiny premises to those who came to the festivals, decided this was a place of magic and mystery and decided to stay.
Some are still here, there are more tye-dyed, patchwork coats - and trousers, and tops - per head in Glastonbury than in any other place not on the hippy trail across the Indian sub-continent.
We visited a week after the Festival and some of the customers may have extended their stay in the area, but Glastonbury has a full-time population of those who adopted the mystical faith in magic, crystals, meditation and peace and love, to say nothing of the joys of the odd spliff.
And, of course, the years have passed for many of them, as they have for the rest of us, and there is now a distinctly grey tinge to the ponytails, and the faces are lined with more wisdom than before.