Glastonbury comes second to this

"This has the same feeling. It's peaceful, everyone is so friendly, there's no trouble, no aggression, no one's trying to rob you and there's no amphetamine. Where else do you get 4,000 people together with none of that happening?"

The man talking is a Manx from the Isle of Man but now from Reading. He is in a team in wedding dresses called Aysum (Old English for Evesham) Scrumpy Bumpkins who are making their (and his) 11th visit. His name is Jon Clucas, 31, with a close-clipped beard and wearing a Bumpkinish hat.

He continues: "How old am I? You can't ask me that. It's my wedding day. I look forward to this for 362 days a year. It's my Mecca. I can remember people's names. We drink 60 hours non-stop and when you get hot you can have a swim. And there's no morals '” except last year, when we played pool to Bankok Rules and got banned from every pub in town.

"Last year there was a band here, too, they were just great. There are seven other tours we make around the country. This one's the best."

Team-mate Danny, from Stoke, also bearded, is in his mother's 1978 wedding dress. It does fit. "I do feel like a lady. Just a bit hairy. My mum has helped provide me with the costumes for the last few years here.

"No one puts anything on you here. Someone's always there to talk to."

Left-winger Kev, 22 is fetching in a puffy, peach bridesmaid's dress.

I meet a Hungarian girl, 24, just in from Budapest, called Nori Ilkei. She plays for Vansittarts, a Windsor pub team including Barry Smeagol, on his 21st visit. Last year he met and fell in love with a German girl from the Mertz School team, absent this year after their head banned touring after none in school owned up to the theft of some money. They may well marry at next-year's Penguin Festival, he hints.

I meet an England European lacrosse champion international, Liz Kennerly, from Clapham Junction. She is ex-RAF Intelligence and charmed on her maiden visit, with General Strollers of Raynes Park.

The Barbados Cockspur promoters are again here with their island's tourist board's backing, dispensing rum. They pick this festival for their British operational visit.

Wight Dynamite, proven costume experts, are here as a herd of cows, complete with udders.

A close second, were there prizes awarded, are Druklins of Leicester as Ninja Turtles in brilliant home-made outfits.

There is evening entertainment for all ages of festival participant, including families, at set venues in town and covers band Magic Taxi raise the tented village marquee roof on the Sunday.

Caroline is from Belfast, with Old Bristolians Hockey Club, Lickers of Dribbly, on her first visit, and delighted: "This is better than Guernsey. It was really serious hockey there."

Here at Penguin, it's fun every year. The participants make sure of that. That's why it survives. And thrives.