I tried fine dining at Glastonbury - Scottish festivals must do this

A swing band is playing in the corner, there's a menu full of seasonal – including some excellent Scottish produce – as well as a brilliant selection of wine.

But I'm not in a restaurant. I'm about the have a three-course lunch at Deluxe Diner at the Rocket Lounge at Glastonbury Festival.

Deluxe Diner has been offering the festival's fine dining experience for more than ten years and was back this year, serving a two or three-course lunch and dinner as well as Sunday roast.

The pop-up restaurant, located in a diner themed red and black striped tent near the Unfairground in the South East Corner, is headed up by chef Andy Evans, winner of the Observer's Sunday Lunch Award.

The pop-up diner at Glastonbury

Diners need to book months in advance and choose their dishes, which this year included starters of lightly cured Scottish salmon, with chopped spring onion, a chilli and ginger dressing, and broad bean and Dorset wasabi puree; and slow braised pigs cheek, served with a ham hock croquette, chicory and burnt apple.

There were mains including roasted Sussex chicken breast, Tunworth cheese potato puree, braised leeks and apple cider jus, and Scottish halibut, cuttlefish and white bean casserole, braised baby gem and ink aioli.

Finally for dessert you could choose from black forest gateaux, buttermilk pudding with strawberries, elderflower and gooseberry fool, and Jamaican ginger cake.

Every sitting was a sell-out and, when we visited, it was a lovely mix of ages and the mostly communal dining tables. There are diner style booths for two at the back of the tent.

Given the popularity of experiential dining, could we see a fine dining pop up at a Scottish music festival?

Chef and restaurateur Dean Banks thinks so, saying: “Yes I feel we would do something like this. Trends have changed, events are on the up and I feel everyone is looking for quality products when having a nice day out.

"For example I feel selling lobster rolls at Glastonbury would be mega and we would sell absolute thousands of them. You can see even down in Cornwall chefs like Paul Ainsworth and Tom Kerridge have food trucks. Food trucks and shacks are trending and I feel more great chefs should get on board with it.”

While food at festivals has come on leaps and bounds in recent years – Scotland's biggest music festival, TRNSMT, will play host to an array of street food offerings including Dirty Bird Fried Chicken, smash burgers, fish and chips, and wood fired pizza – I think they’re missing a trick in not adding a pop-up restaurant to their line-up.

At the Street Food Festival in Glasgow, which launched in 2017, Scottish restaurant Ardnamurchan ran a pop-up in a shipping container serving a restaurant style meal in a festival setting, and it was a huge success.

As people look to spend their money – and time – in a more mindful, experiential way, now is the time to offer something more than burgers, chips and mac and cheese at Scotland’s music festivals.