Music, madness and mud: Glastonbury kicks off

MORE THAN 100,000 festival goers were recovering from a drenching at Glastonbury yesterday after two inches of rain fell in three hours early in the day.

Torrents of water poured through the 1,000-acre site during the massive thunderstorms and the start of performances on the main stages were delayed as technicians carried out a major clean up operation to ensure the power supplies were safe.

Festival goers reacted with equanimity to the floods: "We just got very wet but we are still at Glastonbury so it is still good to be here," said 24-year-old Kevin Evans from Balham, London.

And festival boss Michael Eavis was still looking forward to the performance by headline band Coldplay today: "They are number one in 22 countries and the best band in the world at the moment," he said.

Parts of the site remained flooded last night and the fire service brought in a high volume pumping system to help drain it.

The rest of the site remained inches deep in mud and health officials warned festival goers against cooling off in the remaining pools of water.

Festival goers splashed their way around the site and one bar manager reported a customer heading for his bar in a canoe to beat the floods.

But only a few performances were lost to the weather and by yesterday afternoon, festival goers were enjoying the music almost unaffected by the remaining water.

Festival officials insisted that the site was functioning fully, though a third welfare centre was opened to help almost 100 people affected the torrential rain.

An ambulance spokesperson said 19 patients had been helped, some for drug related incidents and others for slips, trips and falls.

Meanwhile, police said arrests were slightly up, largely because of tighter security. Most of the 87 arrests were drug related.