Our festival weekend got off to an interesting start. We chose to camp at a local campsite in preference to the festival site and the weather had been fine as we pitched our tent.

However as we drove up to Wickham a large black cloud hung over it and the heavens opened as we drove onto the field which served as the car park and campsite. The field was already well soaked from the wet summer and it was cutting up really badly. We decided to try and leave but the way out was uphill and we were soon stuck in the mud.

Shortly after this they stopped any further cars entering the field and a couple of 4x4's started to tow off cars that wanted to leave. Unfortunately we didn't have a towing eye in our car and it took a while to try and borrow one, during which time my wife managed to get the photo of the rainbow over the big top. Eventually a towing eye was procured and after a slightly hair-raising tow we were free.

We got to the stage just in time for the start of the Jethro Tull set. There were a lot of people in attendance but more than half of them had only come for the evening for the Tull performance. Presumably most of them were parked in the field so goodness knows how they got them all off.

The rest of the weekend was just fine. The sun shone and the mud on the festival site was baked to a strange consistency, crusty on top, spongy underneath. The acts were mostly good, some were excellent and the sound guys did a great job. Food stalls, beer tent and loos were all reasonable by festival standards. Next time I'll do a review of the acts.