There are 5 types of Glastonbury mud (at least)

1. It's been raining a bit, so the grass is wet and getting a bit muddy but you can still see a bit of green and it's all very manageable.

2. It's been raining some more, more folks have walked on the grass and now you can't see green and looks like a rugby pitch after a match in the rain and it's a bit splashy.

3. It's been raining so much that the ground is just one large mud puddle - a bit like mud slush - and it's at least ankle deep.

4. In places, the mud soup gets a bit thicker and turns into mud slurry. Still, it's easy enough to get round as long as you have wellies as it's very sploshy and slippy. Very easy to slip on this stuff when you're trying to catch up with your mate with cider in one hand and food in the other. I survived though.

5. And then you get the evil, Glastonbury, wellie-eating mud which for many is a Glastonbury deal-breaker. Sucking at your wellie heels, forcing you into that workout you've been promising yourself at the gym for months (you get buns of steel after a muddy Glastonbury weekend), and it takes an age to get anywhere, and then some. There's no getting anywhere quickly in this stuff. And sometimes, you're just plain stuck. It brings a whole new meaning to the kid's game 'Stuck in the Mud'! I nearly went for a burton more than once, but managed to hold it together. I was only told on the last night though, very late on, that the trick is to walk on tip-toes through the mud. Which is all well and good as long as you've found some big bloke to hang on to at the same time! But even the big blokes fell in it sometimes and I heard tell of many sprained ankles and gashed knees.

Of course, there are also variations on these themes when you make the addition of straw, wood chips and gravel and various states of inebriation...

Bring on 2008!