Good (and a few bad) vibrations

Wow, what a weekend. Fantastic in places, frightful in others. Wednesday and Thursday were both so hot we could barely do anything, which was great because we didn't have anything to do anyway, and then Friday morning, after we'd been complaining how hot it was for two days, the heavens opened. Apparently one man was struck by lightning in the night, while leaving his tent to use the toilet. I assume he survived, or how would they know what his intentions were?

Pennards Field, a mildly sloped area that ends with a large bank at the foot of the slope, collected around three feet of water, and firemen searched every tent in the area, in the night, to make sure no-one had drowned, which they hadn't. Apparently only one person died during the weekend, and it was unrelated to the rain.

I myself woke up to a relatively dry tent, amazing as it was single skinned, and had already taken 5 hours of intense rain. This was at about 8am. It continued to rain for a further three hours. My boots held up well though, and I watched incredible sets from The Killers, John Butler Trio and The White Stripes on Friday, as well as half of a set I would have loved to see all of, from Doves. Jack White apologised for the rain, the mud, and for being American. And he called Meg his sister. Again. But he can't half play that guitar.

Then on Saturday, the mud still glueing our feet to the floor, we saw Taj Mahal, GLC ("I'm not like other people you might see or you might know; I made love to a BBC micro") Kaiser Chiefs (who invited an enormous inflatable dinosaur onto the stage), New Order and Coldplay (I know, but the light show was incredible, and he's such a nice young man). Sunday brought out Soulwax (not bad, but not Soulwax of 2000, to my mind), Brian Wilson (jaw-droppingly good for every minute of his set, criminal that he couldn't have played another hour or more of those songs, and wonderful to see people crowdsurfing on actual surfboards. If I have to choose 'Heroes and Villains' of the weekend, then Brian was my hero, and the weather the villain.) and some other people, probably. The Wailers closed my weekend, with that poor man having to stand in for Bob Marley, and then an hour or two of comedy (which is another post or two in itself, especially the ball-sucking audience member).

My legs ache so much from all the walking in the sticky mud, and I still feel dehydrated. I think I'll need the break in 2006.

Photos are at Paul's site, as I didn't use my camera once...

Edit: I will be posting lots more about the weekend, but there's too much to write in one day, especially my first day back at work!