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People camping in Bendigo after Groovin the Moo got a fright overnight as the weather turned wild.
Matilda Stapleton and her friends were among the hundreds of people trying to sleep in tents pitched at St Peter’s Primary School.
“We just woke up, bolt upright, in the middle of the night because it was the loudest thunder and lightning we had ever heard,” she said.
“We just packed up and went down to the car until it passed, and then went back up.
“Apparently heaps of people’s tents flooded and some of them collapsed, so we actually had it quite lucky.”
Her group of eight, from Melbourne, was glad they drove to the festival and had an alternative source of shelter during the worst of the storm.
“There were lots of tiny two-man tents – they all seem to be standing today, but I wouldn’t have wanted to be in one of them last night,” Miss Stapleton said.
It was the first time the 20-year-old had been to Groovin the Moo.
“I would definitely come back again because the festival was amazing,” she said.
She was grateful the wild weather hit after the bands had finished performing and said the storm had not dampened her experience.
Mooggee campsite manager Dan Bojko said he had 139 tents pitched at the school oval last night.
“We probably had 380 guests on site, and they were all fine, we didn’t lose any tents or anything like that,” he said.
He said there was no need to enact the wet weather plan, which would have seen campers moved into the safety of the primary school.
“We only had two tents that were flooded, but we got those guys into another tent, no issues there – we had spare tents for them to move into,” Mr Bojko said.
He said the campsite saw the worst of the storm about 2.30pm, and things were ‘real bad’ for about 20 minutes, but calmed down thereafter.
“We have weather apps and things like that, but it wasn’t on there that it would get that bad,” he said.
He said the campers had breakfast at the school this morning before heading back home after an eventful weekend.