Rain stops wheelchair at Glastonbury

The BBC's Colin Patterson reported on BBC Radio Five Live this morning that he'd spoken to several festival-goers who were packing up and leaving before the festival had begun due to flooding and the resulting mud bath.

So, amidst this chaos, how have disabled people been faring? Ouch's Flash Wilson - who has been attending Glastonbury for a number of years, and also works as a moderator on the festival's online messageboards - is at the scene. We spoke to her at about 1.00pm on Friday. This is a transcript of what she said.

"Yesterday I managed to get across the site with my partner pushing me in a Red Cross hire chair - the ground was absolutely baked solid.

"Today there's been a downpour since half five in the morning. It's absolutely drenched; there's puddles everywhere. Luckily we're camped on a hill in the disabled camping area, so it's just a bit wet."

Of the 100,000 present at the festival, it's hard to ascertain how many disabled people are there. There are 130 disabled people camping in the disabled camp. According to on-site festival organisers this is easily the tip of the iceberg as, for varying reasons, not all disabled people present are in the camp. Many more have applied for access to the viewing platforms and there are many temporarily disabled peple with broken legs etc who are not permitted to reside in the disability area.

Churned-up mud and wet conditions are an obvious hazard and access barrier to many people with mobility impairments, not least to the general infrastructure of the festival.

"I've heard stories of tents flowing away, bridges being under water," Flash told us. Our own BBC portakabins, studio sets and broadcast quality lines are down too, thanks to an electricity cut.

"A lot of [disabled people] have got that sort of trike attachment that you put on the front of a manual wheelchair to power it, so they're still getting about. I haven't seen too many people with manual wheelchairs this morning I have to say. Most people are using crutches and sticks instead, which is exactly what I'm going to do.

White Stripes are set to headline the Pyramid Stage tonight, with Coldplay, New Order, Primal Scream and Basement Jaxx due to appear across the weekend.

"At the moment everyone's just gone back inside their tents. There's not much movement today.

"Michael Eavis came on the radio recently and he said he was expecting it to dry up - and the sun did come out for a bit - but it started raining again. All the forecasts I look at said maybe there'd be a bit of light rain, but no torrential rain like this. So I've got no idea when it's going to stop. I hope it's going to stop quite soon."