The following is about goings-on in late June, taken from a story that wasn’t posted until the end of September, and here it is now almost Thanksgiving (a U. S. holiday). Oh well. It’s a great article.
Author is Richard Collins, familiar (or notorious) to some naturist netizens, at least in the UK. Richard is known for riding his bike nude in Cambridge (UK) and generally getting around in a lot of places without the encumbrance of clothing. He also moderates several Yahoo! groups (Go Bare, Naked Walk, British Naturism) and manages several Websites too (Go-bare.org, Nakedwalk.org, Naturists-UK.org).
Here he writes about a week in June he spent attending the Glastonbury Music Festival and then meeting up with Steve Gough, Melanie Roberts, and others to spend a few days rambling through the English countryside.
(Nearly) all without wearing clothes.
After a breakfast of muesli and long-life milk, I set off with ring-pull can of sausages and beans, fruit, biscuits, a litre of orange juice and a can or three of beer, my daily sustenance for the foreseeable future. Being well prepared saves a lot of queuing and money at festivals. Boldly going where I had not walked naked before, I set off. Nothing to it really. I had been naked at Glastonbury before, but never walked about with such confidence. This time I was determined not to let thoughts of “I might offend someone” stop me. This is Glastonbury. If you can’t be naked here, you can’t be naked anywhere.
To hear Richard tell it, he was warmly received from the start:
I could write reams about the various people I made friends with for an hour or two or a whole evening, on each of the three days, but I don’t want to bore you. Suffice it to say, nudity is very much appreciated, and a great icebreaker to get people talking, as those around me in the crowd really partied.
I will mention one young woman who’d been encouraged by friends to go, despite not liking crowds. She was standing next to me as she said this, and I said that being naked one gets a little more space to move. She replied, “That’s good. I’m going to stick with you all evening. I feel safer.” It’s almost inconceivable that a woman should say that to a naked man she’d only just met!
Eventually Richard linked up with Steve and Melanie and several others, and he tells of various pleasant encounters, like this one at a stop in Brampton:
I put my backpack on the floor just inside the door and approached the counter where hot pies and sandwiches were on display. A very nice lady served me and told me which aisles I needed for fruit, more biscuits, and juice. Nothing out of the ordinary it seemed, except when I came face-to-face with two giggling young women, they ducked back behind the end of the aisle! I returned to the counter where the lady happily continued to serve me while other staff looked on and smiled warmly. I made a brief comment about the walk and, as the last to leave, said cheerio to the staff who’d been so pleasant and helpful. Shopping au naturel there, wasn’t any different to Euronat, except that we were the only nude shoppers ever!
So go read the whole article. It’s very upbeat. But you will be very jealous.
Originally published November 22, 2005