Well my mobile serves not only as a phone, but (amongst other things) as a Sat Nav, camera, sound/video recording device, and Source of the Internet.

At a festival I might be wanting to take pictures as a souvenir – is this OK, or should we ban cameras at festivals? At a workshop, with the permission of the tutor, I might want to record examples of things they play – is this OK, or should recording devices be banned at festivals? If I'm at a session that's starting to really kick in is it OK to text my mate who's a brilliant fiddle player to come and join us? I might use my phone for all these things in a festival context.

I dunno, I've got mixed feelings. I hate the things going off during a session (and it's ten times worse during a concert). I've no problem in a session asking people to put their phones on 'silent'. And people fiddling with the things during a conversation is somewhat ill mannered. But then there's the time I remember that a fantastic singer happened to be in and was asked for a particular song she used to do. She wasn't sure of all the words, so ten years ago, that would have been the end of it As it was, someone found the words within seconds using their internet phone, and it turned into one of those magical moments.

Festivals seem to be less formal affairs than regular concerts. People wander in and out, take their knitting, kids run hither and thither, impromptu self expression from the strangely trousered Lone Dancer down the front breaks out, there's noise from generators, the smell of fried onions drifts gently on the breeze, roistering crews of beardy fellows might gather in the beer tent to bellow sea shanties long into the night, while youngsters with earnest expressions half hidden beneath their voluminous fringes will find a quiet corner, and play the most complicated tunes they can, hoping to impress someone of the opposite sex without the trauma of attempting to speak to them.

Demanding that people don't use their phones in a festival setting seems to me to be a bit impractical, and perhaps unnecessarily churlish.