Spare yourself this ... Glastonbury campsite in 2005. Photograph: Yui Mok/PA
I'm flying my symbolic, desk-bound flag here for the passing of the Triptych festival. The line-up for the eighth annual edition of this three-day, three-city (Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen) event in late April was announced last week, along with the unwelcome news that sponsor Tennants is pulling the plug. In Triptych's place will stand a new scheme called Tennants Mutual, which will "empower music lovers to shape, create and dictate gig provision across Scotland".
As a festival, Triptych was rivalled in the UK only by Meltdown and ATP as a rallying point for those whose tastes went beyond Zane Lowe's playlist. In those eight years, fans of eccentric preferences from Scotland and beyond have been treated to exclusive sets by Grace Jones, Wire, The Fall, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sun Ra Arkestra and John Peel, as well as gigs from bands such as LCD Soundsystem and Franz Ferdinand in sweaty shoebox venues. RIP Triptych. Whatever replaces you had better be good.
Yet might there be a bigger issue to consider here? Such as how, from Triptych and Meltdown to In the City, the Camden Crawl and Go North, city-based festivals are very much the poor - or at-least niche-market - cousins on the UK festival scene, when they're not just an excuse to lump a few spread-out gigs together under one sponsored banner. After a lifelong training course in what happens when soil meets pouring rain, why is the traditional pilgrimage into the country still our festival experience of choice?
Look at the world's most successful cosmopolitan music events, like Barcelona's Sonar or Austin's just-finished SXSW. Why does our idea of a good time still involve meteorological Russian roulette, long queues for poor quality lager, indistinct sound unless you're right in front of the stage, and Satan's own leisure pastime (ie camping)?
Bearing in mind Thom Yorke's recent "did he/didn't he slag off Glastonbury on ecological grounds" affray, and the other great Glasto misquote of 2008 - that this year's will be the last - isn't it time Britain started to rethink its idea of what a festival is? Other events are following Glastonbury's lead in trying to hack away at their carbon footprint, but you're never going to eradicate the effect of what amounts to placing a small town on the side of a hill for a week or two, then dismantling it.
Even those of us who just keep on top of the recycling will note that cities are simply there, and that their many venues are in use every weekend. Filling every one in London, Manchester or Glasgow with specific programming for three or four days isn't going to have any appreciable affect on the environment, while the local tourism industry surely wouldn't complain (and yes, people would have to travel - but they have to travel to the country, too). So, without wishing to hurry the demise of a grand tradition like Glastonbury, can we all move our music festivals back to the city when it does go?
