Wickham Festival gets off to delayed start amid muddy conditions

As music lovers arrived ready up for a night of fun, they were greeted by two-hour delays at the festival’s entrance.

Troublesome mud which had formed after last night’s heavy rainfall was the culprit – with organisers splashing out £30,000 on last-minute efforts to get the grounds festival-ready.

While gates were scheduled to open to visitors at 4pm, some fans faced delays of up to two hours, as a team of tractors laid straw to soak up the mud on site.

Despite the disturbance, Wickham Festival organiser Peter Chegwyn, said: ‘We did everything possible to prepare for this festival.

‘Sadly there is bound to be a problem when you get three inches of rain in 12 hours.

‘We’ve spent £30,000 today to get tractors, extra staff, straw and traffic operators in place to tackle the issue.

‘I have run festivals for 25 years but I have never seen anything like we have had to put up with here.

‘However, we’ve got the show on when frankly I don’t think many other festivals would have.

‘I would like to thank everyone for their patience and I look forward to a fantastic weekend.’

In a statement shared to Wickham Festival’s Facebook and Twitter pages this afternoon, a spokesperson said: ‘We have five tractors working flat out to get people in ASAP.