An email despatch from the blog's Glastonbury correspondent, a.k.a. Victoria a.k.a the power behind the Sports Desk throne.
Well I was doing quite well until the large bloke belly flopped in the lake of mud in front of me, I have just had to stand under a hose pipe to get the mud off me. But it never fully goes.
Went to bed at 3am last night because of the big day ahead (we wanted to get a bit of a kip before working). We were woken up by the largest clap of thunder I have ever heard, and the lightning lit up the tent as if it were midday. Three hours later and no let up so we decide to evacuate the tiny two man tent. The field was a swimming pool, I have never seen anything like it. Streams became rivers that then burst their banks and cut their way through campsites; lightning hit the dance tent and - rumour has it - the BBC Radio One Stage. In a few fields the tents and portable toilets are completely submerged. The odd inflatable mattress floats past. One guy keeps diving under water into his tent until he finds his beer, a child floats past in a canoe (I am not kidding).
The Greenpeace field where I am working is closed due to flooding, the Guardian Soulmates tent where I am supposed to be working is awash. We spent the morning trying to salvage things and keep what we can dry until the rain stops. It's a bastard kind of rain which relents for periods long enough for everybody to creep out from their hiding places and get just far enough out into the open before the heavens open again.
Blimey.
Oh. Here's an update.
It's gone 3pm now and the rain has stopped. We are hanging the stuff in the Soulmates tent out to dry and seeing if the computers are working. People were still coming in to enquire about getting married on Sunday or to be matched up with the partner of their dreams.
I have now finished my shift and am hiding from the oppressive heat in the press tent. I cannot see where all the water is going to go if it rains again today (which the weather service are predicting).
Am off for a beer.
And, we presume, some cool music.
