More than 1,200 hurt at sodden Glastonbury

Some 1,200 Glastonbury festival-goers have been injured, with 32 needing hospital treatment, after torrential rain turned the slippery site into a mud-soaked obstacle course.

And last night there was scant hope of conditions improving, with forecasters warning that more torrential downpours can be expected today across southern England.

So are festival-goers downhearted? According to the Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis, the £750,000 drainage works carried out in the grounds last year have been a success.

Taking a break in his farmhouse, away from the 180,000 revellers braving the slippery fields of Worthy Farm, Mr Eavis told The Independent on Sunday that the new system had yielded great results: "We must have had about the same amount of rain this year, roughly three inches in one day, as we did two years ago, and yet there's nowhere near as much mud or water. The rain hasn't dampened anyone's spirits."

The 32 music fans taken to hospital may have disagreed, however. As might the 1,200 who attended the St John Ambulance tents to get other, more minor injuries treated.

In spite of Mr Eavis's protestations, navigating the site yesterday proved a feat of not inconsiderable endurance. Those who sought out the performing artists of the Circus Field risked losing their boots in the cloying mud, which was 10 inches deep.

In front of the main stages and close to the dance tents, the mud had dissolved into something akin to a chocolate mousse lake, through which festival-goers danced and splashed.

But the crowds would not be defeated. They kept marching onwards, from those in fancy dress to determined parents pushing their offspring through the mud in baby buggies.

And come next year they'll be doing it all over again - come rain or shine. "We're the granddaddy of all festivals - we'll be going for another three years straight, before we have to renew our licence," Mr Eavis vowed.