Much of a muchness

Well, here I am back from my last Glastonbury Festival. We arrived at Glastonbury on Friday in a torrential downpour, so we were soaked and covered in mud right from the start. The site was a quagmire and over the course of the weekend, with each successive downpour it gradually changed from wet, slippery mud to wellie eating stodgy mud and every state in between. The last time I went in 2005, it was muddy but didn’t rain on the Saturday and Sunday at all. This time it veered from hot and sunny to torrential rain in moments, which meant you were either boiling hot and peeling layers off or rushing to get them back on as the heavens opened. Highlight of day was watching Kasabian and the Arctic Monkeys.

On Saturday, the friends I was staying with were leaving to go to a polo match so I found myself (after a shower, hair wash and quick change back home) driving from Somerset to Knepp Castle in Sussex to watch polo and eat a very nice meal in a marquee, accompanied by very tasty raspberry martinis, before piling back in the car and driving home to get changed back into muddy clothes and heading back to Glastonbury to watch the Kooks and the Killers. Talk about the sublime to the ridiculous!

When I eventually made it home and peeled off my mud crusted clothes, I came to the conclusion that Glastonbury and I have seen the last of each other. I enjoyed the company and the energy and sheer exuberance of the festival but not the food or the mud or the sheer effort of getting around or the rain or the crowds (I don’t think increasing the number of tickets available was a good idea as it seemed so packed this year). I think I have finally grown up.