Last summer I found myself caught in a three-hour tailback of traffic that marked the exodus from the Glastonbury Festival site.

Much to my envy, my eldest son had spent the weekend rocking away to Bruce Springsteen and Neil Young, while the only brush I had with the festival was the mass getaway.

Sleep deprivation meant my son immediately lost consciousness once in the car, surfacing again only when we pulled up outside our front door.

The Glastonbury Festival is a well-planned event in the countryside and the locals know exactly what to expect from the influx of people.

Imagine then the impact on farmers who are given no warning that thousands of people will invade their fields, upset their livestock and have no access to proper toilet facilities for three days.

Farmers in the Dale area have endured this unwelcome scenario on more than one occasion.

Some of the 2,500 people who turned up for the illegal rave on the Whitsun Bank Holiday weekend were interviewed on television professing to be responsible people whose sole intention was peaceful fun. There were no drugs, they insisted, and they would leave the site as they had found it. Yeah, right.

There was as much rubbish in those sentiments as the filth the revellers left behind when they finally evacuated the area. Had they not noticed that they had pitched their tents in the working environment of a busy farm?

Judging by the demeanour of one of the women interviewed, viewers would be forgiven for surmising that she may well have consumed something illicit.

Music pulsated through the speakers around the clock, shattering the peace of this beautiful area.

The revellers claimed they were there because the cost of attending organised festivals had become so prohibitive that they thought they would turn up uninvited on private farmland and party for free.

Festivals are expensive for lots of reasons. Aside from the cost of the music acts, toilets need to be provided and the site cleaned. Then there is the cost of policing, normally borne by event organisers.

Pembrokeshire County Council took responsibility for clearing up the rubbish left at Dale.

For this and the cost of the massive police presence, the ravers will surely want to thank the council tax payers of Pembrokeshire for subsidising their weekend of fun.