Glastonbury Festival enjoys a relatively crime-free existence and some parts still hark back to the early days of peace, love and free milk. However, there will be 178,000 people at the festival, plus all the staff, volunteers and media. This is bigger than plenty of towns across the United Kingdom and no-one would question why those towns had police officers stationed there.

In a gathering of such size, there are unfortunately one or two bad apples and the police would be remiss not to have a presence at the festival and make sure that the vast majority of people enjoy a happy festival, with crime the last thing on their minds.

In all seriousness, a policing presence at the festival is essential to the granting of the licence needed to hold the festival.

After historic problems including public order, overcrowding, crime and safety problems, the festival had questions to answer from the police before a licence would be granted for another festival.

The solid steel fence which now surrounds the whole site was a massive step forward in public order and safety of those inside and outside the festival and has done a lot to make policing the festival an easier task.

However, the need for policing is still there, unfortunately there still is crime at the festival. There needn’t be though – with your help, we can make Glastonbury Festival all about peace and love, and not about who might nick your iPod. Keep it safe, keep it hidden, keep it.