no rain....

We're leaving for the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Arts first thing on Wednesday morning. Needless to say, I'm quite excited about this, and I'll happily spend the next few days rounding up my gear and making sure that I've got things like waterfree soap, batteries for my torch and plenty of wet wipes. I'm sure it's hell on earth for some people, but the few days I spend down in Somerset every year are definitely amongst the highlights of the year.

Of course, when most people think about Glastonbury, they tend to think about the weather. The enduring image of the festival always seems to be that of people slogging their way through mud. The festival gets saturation coverage (no pun intended) whatever the weather, but it's the muddy ones that really seem to capture the imagination of the people watching the event from afar.

The 2008 festival will be my seventh, and the score for me is 3 - 3: I got very lucky to start with and 1993, 2002 and 2003 were all dry years, even if only 1993 was really hot and sunny throughout. After that, my luck and the stormclouds broke, and 2004, 2005, 2007 were wet, even wetter and absolutely sodden.

2008 is going to tip the balance one way or the other.

The forecast is reasonable - not very hot and not very sunny, but not especially wet either. I'm not especially bothered about this one way or the other and I take a pair of wellies with me whatever the forecast.... but after three years wading through the sludge, it would be really nice to be able to sit down on the grass and enjoy the music.

Less of this:



and this:



and a whole lot more of this:



Is that so much to ask?

Ah well, whatever we get, one thing is for sure: there will be pies......plenty of pies.