Spirits high at rain-beaten Glastonbury
Spirits among festival-goers at Glastonbury remained high tonight despite news of a suspected drugs death and persistent rain.
Two women were being questioned by police tonight after a 24-year-old man was found lying in a car park at the festival at Pilton in Somerset.
The man, who has not yet been named but came from Blackpool, was treated by medical staff but pronounced dead in the early hours of this morning.
The women, aged 29 and 30 and from the Swindon area, were in police custody suspected of supplying drugs after being arrested close to where the man was found.
It was understood the victim had taken ecstasy.
Revellers danced in mud pools and painted each other’s faces with tribal-like mud markings while others cast aside soaking shoes and ran around barefoot.
Festival-goers chose a multitude of waterproof items to keep themselves dry from pink polka-dog wellies to carrier-bags and boilersuits.
Wellington boot stalls ran out of stock despite the inflated prices of £15 a pair, compared with £7 on the high street.
The rain did not stop revellers flocking to various stages to see acts such as Scissor Sisters, Sister Sledge, Lost Prophets and Spearhead.
Paul McCartney, the Black Eyed Peas, Basement Jaxx, Starsailor, Joss Stone and Jamie Cullum were all playing later.
Caked in mud, 19-year-old David “Bean” Franklin from Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, who was enjoying the festival with friends, said: “I’m having the best time and loving the music. We’ve had a mud fight. You don’t need the sunshine to have a good time.”
Forecasters predicted the weather would brighten later.
Away from the music, hundreds took shelter from the rain to see the general secretary of one of the UK’s biggest trade union Amicus address the crowd.
In the Left Field tent Derek Simpson talked about the pension crisis and claimed he was not there to recruit but to promote solidarity.
He said politics “appeared to be dead” and trade unions were the main unifying organisation that could achieve something.
He was speaking next to the new giant steel tower which was recently erected as an icon of the union and labour movement at the festival.
The 70ft structure was designed by festival owner Michael Eavis and Cornwall-based artist Kurt Jackson and Graham Jobbins.
Police said that despite the death, crime remained low at the festival site.
By this evening there had been 151 reported offences, a reduction of 41% on last year’s figures.
A total of 91 people had been arrested compared with 136 in 2003.
Robberies were down 83% on last year, assaults down 80% and muggings down 46%.
A spokesman for Avon and Somerset police said: “Its very heartening to see a reduction in robbery.
We are working well with car park security and hope we can build on this during the rest of the festival.”
