Vacuous police surrounding free festival (5)
I believe the answer is:
pride
'festival' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both acts as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps they are linked in a way I don't understand?
'vacuous police surrounding free' is the wordplay.
'vacuous' means to remove the middle letters.
'surrounding' is an insertion indicator.
'free' becomes 'rid' (to be free of something is to be rid of it).
'police' with its middle removed is 'pe'.
'pe' placed around 'rid' is 'PRIDE'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for pride that I've seen before include "sense of satisfaction" , "big cats" , "Vanity" , "group of animals" , "Dignity" .)