While I appreciate that Emma Brockes’ article was slightly tongue-in-cheek, I do reject the premise that there are aspects of modern culture that should be “off-limits” as you get older (Justin Trudeau at Coachella? That’s just wrong: at a certain age, things must change, 16 April).
I am 57, absolutely love dancing and clubs (although I rarely go), and I think this raises the question of whether it’s OK to maintain what is, essentially, a product of societal expectations and mores which are moving on. I went with my wife and 16-year-old daughter to the Reading festival last year. We left our daughter to enjoy the festival with friends as she wanted independence – we were on hand “just in case”, and it meant she had a safe tent to return to at whatever time of night she chose.
Meanwhile, my wife and I saw a great variety of performers, danced (well) in the EDM tent, sang (badly) in the after-hours “silent karaoke”, and enjoyed being in a vibrant, happy atmosphere – engaging respectfully with anyone and everyone around us. Happily, a large number of adrenaline-fuelled 16- and 17-year-olds came up to us and said it was great to see older people enjoying the experience with them.
Taking the opportunity to understand festival and pop culture brings us closer to the world our children are living and growing up in – and a better understanding means we can connect and communicate more easily with younger people. The more we reinforce the “you’re too old to do that” view, the more barriers to understanding and empathy that we create between generations.
Peter Antolik
London
Thank you, Emma Brockes, for your article on midlife and music festivals. I can’t remember the last time I threw back my head laughing while reading a newspaper.
I too have an 11-year-old, and I distinctly remember crowdsurfing the year before he was born at Lollapalooza (I’ll admit for the first and only time), knowing that it would probably never happen again.
Somehow I always imagined that I would pick up certain pieces of life, maybe sans surfing, and join in the festivities again. Thank goodness I don’t have to. I’m not sure I could wait four hours for a bathroom! Your blend of wit and political commentary warms my jaded heart.
Naomi Jensen
Pacific Grove, California, US
People over a certain age shouldn’t go to Coachella, Emma Brockes suggests. I guess Iggy Pop didn’t get the message, given that he performed at the festival this year.
RJ Remington
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
The sight of Justin Trudeau and Katy Perry eating noodles on a log at Coachella has apparently triggered a minor crisis in certain corners of the commentariat. The horror: people in their 50s, enjoying live music.
This kind of age-policing is as tired as it is misguided. The implicit argument – that festival attendance has an expiry date – rests on nothing more than cultural snobbery dressed up as social observation. There is no rulebook that reassigns your love of music at 50, and there is certainly no evidence that joy becomes less appropriate with age.
In fact, the evidence points firmly in the opposite direction. A 2023 systematic review published in the European Journal of Public Health found that active music participation supports wellbeing and health in adults over 40, with benefits including reduced depression and improved cognitive and psychosocial functioning. A 2025 study specifically on attendance at electronic dance music events including festivals found that 91% of older participants said the experience contributed positively to their wellbeing, with many describing it as both a spiritual experience and a vital social reset.
Glastonbury is my Coachella. Like Trudeau, I am in my mid-50s, and I make no apology for it. The music, the joy, the community – these things do not lose their meaning because of a birthday. If anything, you appreciate them more.
We live in anxious, fractious times. When people – of any age – find something that brings them genuine happiness and harms nobody, the appropriate response is surely to leave them to it, not reach for the red pen of social propriety.
Perhaps your columnist might consider finding her own Coachella. The tent is big enough for all of us.
Sarah Munro
London
Whatever happened to the idea of happiness, enjoyment and “filling your cup” that the Guardian’s staff love to espouse, whatever your age? I’m 52 and regularly get out to live music events.
This year I’m taking my son to Primavera for three days of live music. I want to be there, not just to be part of his experience, but to experience it for myself.
Music has been a source of joy, sadness, a salvation, a crutch and a constant in my life. There are few things better than feeling the goosebumps appear at a live event or shedding a tear at a festival when you hear something that moves you. The wonder and discovery of live music shared with others never disappears.
Ignore Emma Brockes’ article and get out there.
Andrew Mack
Leederville, Western Australia
I was disappointed by Emma Brockes’ article on the attendance of middle-aged people at music festivals such as Coachella. It relied on tired tropes that suggest an arbitrary age limit on cultural participation, painting men over 50 as intruders in spaces that are supposedly reserved for the young.
Has Brockes ever heard of Iggy Pop, David Byrne or Norman Cook (Fatboy Slim)? All icons of the music industry and 79, 73 and 62 years old respectively. And guess where they performed recently? Yes, that’s right: Coachella 2026. To suggest that the audience should be age-gated when the performers themselves are veterans is a glaring contradiction.
Suggesting that people should stop engaging with music or public events once they reach a certain age and leave it to the “enjoyment of young people” is insulting and is a form of cultural ageism that has no place in progressive discourse.
Ally McDermot
Huon Valley, Tasmania, Australia
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