As Glastonbury festival nears, we reveal why there’s more to grass roots style than the right pair of wellies

...Glasto anorak Karen Dacre braves a perfect storm 
Karen Dacre7 June 2016

If your plans for the end of this month involve four hours spent sweating it out in traffic on the A303 and numerous trips to Sainsbury’s to stock up on Red Stripe (#pricematch), you’ll be familiar with the concept/fairy story that is the long-term Glastonbury weather forecast.

Nothing short of fantasy at this early stage in the game, the predictions (thanks, Metcheck) currently suggest a dry and mild start to festivities followed by a spot of low-lying cloud and a few rumbles of thunder.

But what is a good, clean spectator sport for us is a matter of critical importance for wet-weather gurus Hunter, where every raindrop could equate to increased sales.

While Pimm’s has picnics and Coca-Cola has Christmas, Hunter has Glastonbury - a weekend that is surely as important to the welly-boot brand as the Sunday afternoon “legends” slot is to the four-day line-up (ELO this year, FYI) .

Hunter SS16 at London Fashion Week

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It is a sensible awareness of its unofficial links to the festival - and the fact that Worthy Farm has been known to get more rain than the Amazon - that means Hunter goes to great lengths to capitalise on its role as the British welly-boot brand.

This year that includes a pop-up store in the Oxford Circus branch of Topman - opening next weekend - and, somewhat amusingly, the launch of its own festival, an event housed within a Portaloo and billed as the world’s smallest festival.

Ellie Goulding at Coachella
Kevin Mazur/Getty

As well as offering festival-proof freebies - socks, wet wipes, ponchos - from its tiny Tardis, which will be unveiled in Hunter’s Regent Street store on Thursday, the brand also plans to take over the media airwaves with a high-tech GIF photobooth. A Hunter festival app, launched in collaboration with tech start-up GIPHY in time for Glastonbury, will also ensure that hot rubber is all over your Instagram feed this summer - whether (weather?) you’re Pilton-bound or not.

What all this confirms is that for Hunter, festival fashion is now about much more than sticking the boot in. And its plan is working because while a pair of wellies in your colour of choice were once a festival status item, an affection for sensible style as a prerequisite of cool means it no longer ends there.

Parka, £175, Stutterheim

It is here that the cagoule (you heard) comes in. Once as enchanting as a wet weekend, the anorak saved for geography teachers is something you’ll notice if you partake of any festival frolics this summer. Namely because the options for those who like their jackets to be as sharp as they are waterproof has never been better.

Hunter, not surprisingly, is among the leaders in the field. So much so that during the brand’s London Fashion Week show last September, creative director Alasdhair Willis ensured that a candy-coloured homage to the humble cagoule was the headlining act.

Rains jacket, £89, Asos

Of course, Hunter is not alone. Look at the masses descending on Victoria Park’s Field Day next weekend (forecast: soggy) or at LoveBox in July and you’ll see them: anoraks are everywhere.

Among the most interesting purveyors of this functional phenomenon is Danish label Rains, which offers a breaker and nicely cut parka coat that looks great over a pair of denim shorts and a hoodie. Swedish label Stutterheim - which recently unveiled a collaboration with Whistles - offers its classic Stockholm parka in a festival-friendly palette that spans from sugary lemon to deep burgundy.

The result of this renewed affection for good old-fashioned - albeit crafted from technical fabrics - outerwear is a playing field that looks better than ever. Gone are the novelty T-shirts and leopard-print pac-a-macs and in their place stand a new generation of style anoraks. At least, that’s the dream.

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