British rock music festival keeps crime figures down

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2005

LONDON (AFP) — Far from being the den of vice popularly imagined by concerned parents, Britain's massive Glastonbury rock music festival is in fact an effective anti-crime measure.

Despite the presence of around 120,000 people consuming large amounts of alcohol at the annual event, which takes place next weekend, crime figures were actually lower than for a similar-sized nearby town, Baroness Peta Buscombe said Thursday.

Buscombe, a member of the House of Lords for the opposition Conservative Party, was speaking during a debate on the arts in the unelected upper chamber of parliament.

Government figures showed a clear link between binge drinking and crime, she noted.

"I believe passionately that much of that risk can be diverted by the promotion of...