"Good morning, how are you?" beamed the steward checking wristbands by the entrance to the main stage.
"Not too mad" smiled a thirty-something beardie in response, toddler perched contendedly on his shoulders.
Welcome to Green Man, which celebrated its fifth year of lo-fi weirdness in the rolling parkland of Glanusk Park in the Brecon Beacons at the weekend.
Here, hippy eclecticism reigned supreme. Fancy a crash course in water divining? Head to the Healing Field and turn left at the Radical Midwives tent. Eager to let off steam about global warming? Try the Open Mic Stage, where the PA is driven by a solar-powered milkfloat. And if an afternoon spent dowsing wasn't your cup of chai, how about a gong massage to soothe away the strains of the day?
And then there was the music. Split across three stages, the weekend's bill saw headliners Joanna Newsom, Robert Plant and Stephen Malkmus entertain a crowd who had clearly got their mojo working. If the huge crowd attracted by gloom-rockers Dead Meadow at the, erm, Folkey Dokey Stage suggested it wasn't all love'n' Haight Ashbury, the upbeat mood never wavered, even when the inevitable downpour on Friday night turned the site into a vast bowl of chocolate icing-sugar.
Instead, a particularly British stoicism kicked in. Even the most fiendish SAS instructor would have marvelled at the sight of ten thousand revellers cheerily negotiating trip-wire heavy camping fields to get back to their tents, whilst the mediaeval washing facilities were shrugged off by Arran-jumpered types eager to get to a lute workshop.
Oh, and there wasn't any feudal hanging in the backstage bar either - there wasn't one. Instead, everyone ate, drank and got merry together, just like it must have been in the old days, and all without a corporate logo in sight.
"Hey, we're real sorry about the weather" drawled the guitarist from US folk-rockers PG Six during one downpour.
"It's only mud - get over it!" bellowed a punter to general approval.
Green Man - not too mad.
