There’s muddy and then there’s muddy – which is something Download Festival attendees are finding out the hard way this weekend.
The annual event is currently taking place in Donington Park, Leicestershire, where the mud is so bad that some ticket-holders have reportedly called it a day and headed home, despite paying more than £200 each to be there.
Fans began arriving at the event on Wednesday and soon found that recent torrential rain had led to unenviable levels of mud building up.
And sadly, by Friday afternoon – when the music officially started – things had not improved.
Luckily festival-goers are trying to take in their stride, renaming the event ‘Drownload’:
But for some, it’s understandably proved a little too much and the BBC reports that a handful of fans have been left with no choice but to leave, after suffering injuries after falling over in the mud.
John Hawkins told the BBC he left after suffering a slipped disc while walking across the site on Thursday morning.
“I spent the next 24 hours crying in my tent,” he said.“It’s not [been] communicated there would be such a distance between the car park and the campsite.”
A post on the festival’s official account thanks fans for attending despite the “biblical rain”.
Explaining that there have been a series of changes to the routes into the festival, they add: “No one is tougher than you guys.”
The event is due to continue this weekend, with acts including Slipknot, Slayer and Smashing Pumpkins taking to the stage.
Download is one of the first UK festivals taking place this summer, with Isle Of Wight festival also taking place this weekend.
Glastonbury will return later this month while Reading and Leeds will open their gates as usual for the August Bank Holiday weekend.