David Best's Temple of Truth, Electric Picnic 2008

It was scheduled to burn at midnight in memory of and in forgiveness for those who took their own lives. It was delayed several times until finally it was set as 2am burn time.

I sat down on a barrel bin at about half one waiting and setting my spot to see it burn. Me being me I had left the tents earlier that evening without my rain jacket or a poncho. First time all weekend I had done that. So predictably it got cold as the night went on. In my usual form I decided against trekking all the way back and instead bought a woolen blanket. This was fine cos it was still dry. However as I sat on the barrel the first drops started to fall, soon it was monsoon like weather and the blanket weighed twice what it did with the water.

The rain was heavy enough to keep the flames small and it took some time for the temple to catch fire properly. After twenty minutes of uncertainty the flames reached the second storey and started burning properly. Still it was a further 25 minutes before the fire really won out. When it did a sectin of the lower leg gave way and the entire temple flared up and collapsed in a flaming wreck. The temple that had looked out on the magic of the last few days was lying burnt and broken on the ground. The end of the festival had come.

Emotions made me fight to stay to the bitter end of the temple while the rain bucketed down on us. Sodden but defiant I wasn't going anywhere until the temple was down. When it did fall, I actually unerstood why it was built and why it had to burn. It really was quite stunning to see the messages, that had piled up on small pieces of wood and were scratched into every available surface, burn away.

I was sleepily lying on my sofa on the tuesday after we got back and there was a documentary about David Best, the man who designs and builds these temples and has done so for the past few years for burning man. He said something very powerful and meaningful when he was addressing his workers out on the playa in Nevada's desert. I can't capture what he said properly here but he made the point that the more the world wants to stop these works of art, and the more difficult their construction and burning is made; the more meaningful it is. The heavier the rock we carry, the greater the release when it is left behind. For him the huge windstorms that make his job so hard out on the playa are part and parcel of the process. I think we aw a little of that at the Electric Picnic in Stradbally this year. The rain held off all weekend, and only when the burning was imminent did the heavens open, but burn it did.