Rain and high winds cancel festival's first acts

Festivalgoers have been told not to arrive at the Solfest site until Friday

Acts due to perform at the first day of a festival have been cancelled due to the bad weather.

Heavy rain and high winds which battered Cumbria on Wednesday night meant the organisers of Solfest, which takes place at North Lakes Country Park, near Silloth, made the decision to delay opening the stages until Friday morning.

Festivalgoers were being allowed in the camping area on Thursday afternoon, but performances which had been scheduled from 17:00 BST were cancelled.

Festival director Sam Johnston said: "We just need a little bit of extra time, make sure that the festival site arena is safe before we allow the public in."

Earlier in the day, he had said they may have had to delay opening until Friday, however they later decided to let people arrive for camping.

One of the stages - The Lagoon - was also damaged in the weather and organisers were working to accommodate acts on other stages across the site, as well as rescheduling some of the Thursday acts.

Organisers said they expected other performances to go ahead as planned over the weekend, with the festival running until Sunday.

This year's line-up includes De La Soul, Hybrid Minds and The Wailers.

"The ground in the arena is actually in quite a good condition, we just need to do some more safety checks - it's about safety before anything else," added Mr Johnston.

The festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

Mr Johnston said: "It's an absolutely incredible achievement for all involved.

"Many people over the years have kept this festival going, it's got through various committees, various directors, various stages, but the heart of the festival keeps beating on."

He added he was proud of all of the 1,500 people who make the festival happen each year.

Last week organisers of Wannasee Festival in Penrith were forced to cancel their event, which was also due to take place this weekend, due to the ground conditions.

They blamed the "the almost continuously wet summer" for the state of the site at Hutton in the Forest.

A yellow warning for wind was in place until 09:00 BST today.

Stretches of the Cumbrian coast and some rivers are covered by flood alerts today - the lowest level of warning issued by the Environment Agency.

The Keswick Campsite was also under a flood warning.