Episode 5: In which Mother Nature takes her revenge

Location: SoulClipse

Date: 27/03/2006

 

The grand opening was scheduled for 5pm on the main stage.  We went back to our tent around 4.45 to get some warmer clothes and just as we were about to leave, the rain started. 

 

Big, fat rain. 

 

Then thunder, lightning, wind. 

 

And hail. 

 

The storm got closer and Erin and I gave up on any hope of leaving the tent.  We commisserated with biscuits and huddled on my sleeping mat.  We decided that nobody else would be at the main opening either, and as it turned out, every spare bit of shelter was crowded with people and they were using inflatable rafts to negotiate the flooded "streets" of the market place (the sheds of the sheep farm we took over for the week). 

 

Eventually the storm abated, and, encouraged by some water seepage into the tent, we ventured out to sit under the tarp outside (rain always sounds worse from inside than it is).  We heard through the grapevine that the main stage had collapsed under the stress of the storm.  Not believing the news, we took a wander to have a gander.  True enough, the main dancefloor (or field) was completely flooded, and the stage lay in ruin.  They had, without any foresight (or engineering consultation), built the stage with a flat roof, and the pressure of the water had compressed it, twisting the struts and turning the stage totally in on itself.  When we arrived, speaker stacks rested in the huge mud puddles and people stood around taking photos for insurance purposes.

 

I was talking to an ex-volunteer (who quit due to mistreatment by the organisers), and she suggested that if you try to make money from nature, she will strike back ... I tend to agree with her!