What can Glastonbury 2022 teach us about our post-Covid world?

The festival reminds us that although increasing wealth and protecting the environment might be in conflict in the short run, in the longer term they are aligned, writes Hamish McRae

Glastonbury has defined what is so special about live performance (Getty)

Glastonbury’s triumphant revival tells us a huge amount about the post-pandemic world economy – what is really pretty much the same, and what can we learn from this.

No, I have not been there but a team of colleagues, far better qualified than I, can tell you all about it. The overriding story, though, is that people have to get together. It’s the magic of the real thing.

Paul McCartney’s headline performance with his string of surprise guests, including Bruce Springsteen, showed the world that an 80-year-old can speak across generations. The 20-year-old Billie Eilish and, in a different way, the 19-year-old Greta Thunberg showed how the young can teach the rest of us important truths about human relations and the environment. And the rest of the music was the music of humanity – music that reaches into the souls of us all.