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Rain, Rain, Go Away, Come Again Another Day

I’m still adjusting to being back: as it always does after the Glastonbury weekend, it feels awfully odd being back in civilisation, where the roads are paved and it is possible to get about without having to wade through 6 inch deep mud.

This year was definitely the rainiest of my 6 Glastonburies. Perhaps there was more rain by volume in 2005, but that all fell in one big go, whereas this year it was spread out over the whole weekend, which did put something of a dampener on proceedings. I think it was Rob who described it as a slightly schizophrenic experience: one moment I was queueing in the rain for what turned out to be some very disappointing vegetarian Mexican food wondering what I was doing there; the next, I was standing in the sunshine enjoying Ed Harcourt and Lou Rhodes in The Park, thinking about how great it was to be back at my favourite festival.

Lou Rhodes, The Park

We didn’t really let the rain affect our festival too much, although I probably didn’t see as many bands as I might have. It’s hard to summon up the energy to wade through the mud to see a minor indie band you’ve vaguely heard of at the best of times, but even less so when it’s pouring with rain.

On the occasions when I did brave the elements, though, I was glad I had. Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly on Sunday afternoon, for example, were a band I almost missed: We’d been sitting up at the tent trying to decide whether to trek through the mud all the way over to the Other Stage, but luckily I decided to go over in the end, and they turned out to be great. Not what I was expecting at all, but in fact I somehow knew a handful of their songs, and theirs is an album I will be getting hold of.

I also enjoyed stumbling across The View on Sunday night, and seeing them play all the songs we know at the end of their set. It was odd to have them bookending our festival, as they’d been one of the first bands on The Pyramid on the Friday morning. We hadn’t been aiming for them when we wandered off in search of food after the watching the excellent Manics/Kaisers double header from down the front of the main stage, but somehow we ended up standing at the back of the Other Stage field enjoying them from our muddy vantage point.

The View, Other Stage

I should probably refrain from mentioning the two hours we spent queueing and shivering in the pouring rain on Monday morning, waiting to get on a bus to take us away from the site, as it isn’t exactly an experience that I am keen to remember.

The rest of the photos are in the usual place.