'Ales include (in increasing order of alcoholic strength) Confession, Absolution and Redemption. Of course it’s essential to experience these in the right order.

Overnight storms make for an interesting second day for Philip Purser-Hallard

When I finished yesterday’s blog I was hoping to spend the evening in a combination of comedy, beer and worship. I’ve managed all three since, although the worship had to wait until this morning. 

It has to be said, though, that the Organic Beer Tent is unusually liturgical in its emphasis, with an annual ‘Beer ‘n’ Hymns’ session (scheduled for 7pm tonight). 

The beers provided by Glastonbury Ales include (in increasing order of alcoholic strength) Confession, Absolution and Redemption. Of course it’s essential to experience these in the right order. Nor, of course, are any of them things which can be done by halves. 

When it was originally instigated a couple of years ago, the beer tent was a calm and relaxing space, for sitting quietly with friends and contemplating the Festival through a pint glass. 

Every year since then it’s been getting more popular and packed, and this year it seems to have been turned, , in the evenings at least, into an ’80s retro club.  Which I can’t help feeling is a bit of a loss. 

The beer’s still very decent, though.

Spinsta rapper

Prior to last night’s beer, our comedy needs were met by the sublimely funny Jude Simpson – stand-up poet, singer and ‘spinsta rapper’, one of whose pieces comprehensively summarises the breadth of her influences by mentioning, for perhaps the first time in music history, Eminem alongside M&S. 

A regular Radio 4 guest, Jude is enough of a renaissance woman to have also written a serious account of an urban youth project in Bradford, about which she and a project member are speaking tomorrow morning. 

Her self-deprecating, witty style (accurately described in the show’s title, ‘Charming and Sideways’) kept last night’s audience thoroughly cheered for 50 minutes, although a late start caused by the queue’s length sadly meant that she had to be cut short to make way for a Wild Goose worship. 

And so to beer, where the late licence at the Jesus Arms enabled us to keep talking to various friends and random strangers until well past midnight. 

Comedy at Greenbelt is always popular, regularly attracting queues too huge for its venues, but is often overlooked in summaries of the festival.  Other comedians whose acts I’ve enjoyed in past years include the Malawian Daliso Chaponda and the Cornish Paul Kerensa – both of whom, by happy coincidence, are doing gigs tomorrow.

Twister

This morning I attended an all-age alt-worship service organised by the London emerging church group Moot, in whose hands a gigantic game of Twister combined with various more sedate activities to form possibly the most relaxed communion I’ve ever attended. 

The title was ‘Trinity Twister’, and the worship accompanied by a slide of the Rublev Icon doctored to show the Father, Son and Holy Spirit embarking on their own session of the popular party game. 

The serious focus was the relational nature of the Trinity as an exemplar of Christian community ­(and indeed communion), and the inclusion of children in the service brought this home very effectively. 

I’m under instructions from my wife not to turn this blog into an extended whinge about camping.  (‘Everybody will have a husband who’s always complaining about camping,’ she claimed, possibly allowing personal experience to colour her opinions.) 

But I do feel to mention the massive night-time storm which shook our tent from side to side, turned the ground across the site into a slick of mud, and kept me awake until 5am. 

If only because it means that today I’ll be mostly sticking to the concrete areas, and drinking an awful lot of coffee. 

• Back to Greenbelt index