06-24-2007, 04:04 PM
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Rep Power: 10  | Glastonbury ready for Who finale
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Some 177,500 people are at the festival on a Somerset farm
Veteran rock band The Who are preparing to close the Glastonbury Festival, which has seen 177,500 people endure rain and mud to see hundreds of acts.
Founder Michael Eavis praised festival-goers' spirit in spite of the difficulties getting around the site.
Mr Eavis, who began the festival on his Somerset farm in 1970, said the weekend had "gone very, very well, in spite of the rain and mud".
The Manic Street Preachers and Dame Shirley Bassey also played on Sunday.
"It's a pity about the rain, but it seems to be a regular feature of the English summer, so the festival compensates for it," Mr Eavis told reporters.
"Someone phoned me from Spain and said they would swap all the sun for the Glastonbury culture," he said.
Mr Eavis said he had considered moving the date of the event but found after looking at statistics that "one weekend is no better than any other".
Sound problems
Festival-goers had complained about poor sound from the Pyramid Stage, with The Killers' set on Saturday being punctuated by cries of "turn it up" from some.
Mr Eavis said he had next year's headline acts confirmed
Mr Eavis had earlier told reporters that a new sound system was "not quite strong enough" for the site.
But he later said engineers had been told to turn the sound down by local council officials.
"Having investigated further into the sound level problems, I've been informed that very unusual meteorological conditions caused abnormally high sound levels outside the site," he said in a statement.
"This led to our engineers being directed by the authorities to reduce the output from the PA system. The weather conditions over the site have been changing daily and the PA system and technical team were in no way responsible or at fault for the reported sound problem."
Pyramid Stage sound engineer Diarmid MacLennan told the BBC News website that wind and temperature could affect sound levels outside the site, which were measured from the house nearest the festival site at Worthy Farm, near Pilton.
Mr Eavis revealed that 2008's headliners were already confirmed, but refused to reveal who they were.
"It's not Muse or U2," he added.
Crime down
Avon and Somerset Constabulary said that crime was down compared with 2005's festival, which had a smaller number of people on the site.
Dame Shirley Bassey wowed crowds on Sunday afternoon
By Sunday morning, 236 crimes had been reported, compared with 267 in 2005.
But one man, a 26-year-old from the West Midlands, died after being found unconscious in the early hours of Saturday morning.
"It proves that Glastonbury is a safer event," Sgt Hardy Husain said.
"The organisers, the police and the local authority have worked very well together. Security has been improved everywhere across the site."
But the local council said that an over-run of Bjork's Other Stage set on Friday night, breaking a 0030 curfew by 20 minutes, breached the festival's licence.
Mendip District Council's planning and environment manager Charles Uzzell said: "There could be a review of the licence, and the ultimate sanction is the removal of the licence but I don't see that as a possibility."
He added that the rest of the festival had been a "success".
'Absolutely brilliant'
Some enjoyed the mud more than others (pic: Brian Walker)
Australian festival-goer Travis Banko, 26, from Melbourne said it was his first time at Glastonbury.
"It's been absolutely brilliant, it lived up to the hype. Every day has just got progressively better," he said.
"I've managed to catch a lot of bands, and I don't think any one of them has really disappointed."
Mary Laken, 50, who attended the festival with her 13-year-old daughter Lucy, said: "We are staying in the tipi field, and I'm glad we are there because the mud has been worse this year than it has ever been.
"But the tipis are pretty well sorted and people are bringing their own instruments in the evening and staying up all night."
Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian, Iggy and the Stooges, The Kooks, Paul Weller and Bjork are among the acts who have already played the festival.
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