Tim Dowling: I’m at a cashless festival – it feels like a dystopian future

It took me half an hour to add 30 to my wristband and buy a pint at a festival - no wonder the fiddle player looks dazed

The band I'm in is playing a festival, our first in three years. We were first meant to play here in 2020, but it got cancelled because of Covid. We were rescheduled for 2021, but the festival was cancelled again. It is strange to be keeping this appointment after so much time has passed - it's like being catapulted into a future where everything is the same, except there is no money.

You have to pay for everything with your wristband," says the fiddle player when I arrive. He and his wife have been camping at the festival for three days, and he looks like a man possessed of hard-won experience. His eyes have a glazed, faraway look, and he's basically dressed for skiing.