Times Online's Glastonbury preview

Revellers at the Glastonbury rock festival which opened its gates today were bracing themselves for a weekend of mud as torrential rain caused traffic chaos across parts of England.

In the West Midlands commuters were trapped in their vehicles as flash floodwaters rose to the height of car doors.

Ambulances were forced to move slowly in Herefordshire and Worcestershire as the extreme weather conditions made driving dangerous.

BACKGROUND

• Glastonbury squelches to life

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• 'Mudbath ahoy' for Glastonbury

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One paramedic crew was unable to reach a man stranded in his collapsing home in Shrawley in Worcestershire, after first having to turn back because of a landslide and then finding that a bridge had been completely submerged, with one of its parapets crumbled away.

The fire and rescue service were eventually able to reach the stranded man from the other side of the river.

And in Kent several thousand EDF electricity customers were left without power overnight as the stormy weather affected overhead cables. Roads around Margate and Hythe were heavily waterlogged and there were reports of sewage leaks.

Up to 170,000 people are due to descend on festival organiser Michael Eavis's dairy farm near Glastonbury over the next 48 hours, for the three-day music festival based in a large field.

Weather reports for Worthy Farm are poor, with outbreaks of rain this evening developing into heavy and prolonged showers tomorrow, according to Meteogroup UK. Friday will remain unsettled with heavy, prolonged and thundery rain.

Stephen Davenport, senior meteorologist for MeteoGroup UK, said the amount of surface water set to build up this week means mud baths are inevitable.

He said: "With the amount of rain that is about to fall in Somerset, it will be a mudfest.

"We could be looking at a total of 60mm to 80mm (2.4in to 3.1in) of rain between now and the weekend - that's quite a deluge, so mudbath ahoy. Local flooding is likely."

The festival was notoriously transformed into an enormous mudbath in 1997, 1998 and 2005. Two years ago more than 300 tents were washed away from the lower-lying areas of the gigantic campsite next to the performance area, when the equivalent of a month's rain fell in two hours. A single Oxfam stall sold £13,000 of wet weather gear and wellies as the storms hit.

To avoid a repeat mudbath this year, festival boss Michael Eavis has spent more than £750,000 on flood prevention measures, including new barriers.

Gates open at 8am today, with camping fields, markets and performance fields accessible at that time. Smaller venues open tomorrow, and the main stages kick off on Friday morning, finally closing midnight on Sunday. The site closes to the public at 5pm on Monday.

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