Glastonbury gets going

Fans arrived early to pitch their tents

Around 64,000 fans are expected to descend on Worthy Farm in Pilton, Somerset, on Friday as the Glastonbury Festival officially gets underway.

An estimated 36,000 festival-goers arrived on site early to pitch up their tents and soak up the atmosphere of the event before the music starts.

Coldplay, The Charlatans, Ash and the White Stripes are among a host of acts performing during the three-day event.

Special guests also include the Stereophonics, headlining Saturday's Pyramid Stage, and Rod Stewart, who will close the festival on Sunday.

The festival has been going since 1970 when Somerset dairy farmer Michael Eavis decided to organise a two-day music show for 1,500 people on his land, with Marc Bolan as a special guest.

The rain has so far held off

But the event has grown out of all recognition from its days as a free event for hippies and travellers.

It has now become the biggest UK festival, run jointly between Eavis and concerts promoters Mean Fiddler, although Worthy is still a working farm.

Tight security

Because of festival has grown so much in size there have been growing problems with crime and gatecrashing.

This year's festival has seen the introduction of a £1m "super fence" around 800 acres of farmland aimed at preventing gatecrashers getting in without tickets.

A licence was only granted to Glastonbury on condition that security be stepped up to avoid the trouble of previous years when up to 100,000 got in without tickets.

Some 100,000 tickets, which cost £100 each, have been sold, and the remaining 40,000 places were reserved for artists, crew, traders, media and locals.

Eavis has led a high-profile campaign urging people not to come down his farm if they do not have tickets.

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Another security cordon is letting only those with tickets get within five miles of the site.

One group of travellers did break through the outer cordon on Tuesday and gain access to one of the car parks, but left peacefully.

"It's working perfectly. The campaign has worked perfectly well," Eavis said.

But fans desperate to get their hands on tickets, which sold out months ago, risk being duped by ticket touts selling fake ones.

Police on Thursday seized £20,000 worth of forgeries from one car as the crackdown continued.

Festival-goers will also be keeping an eye out for the weather forecast after the last two events saw the farm turn into a mud-bath following torrential downpours.

The good news is the weekend is forecast to be sunny with some cloud.