Concerns raised at overcrowding at Glastonbury Festival

More than 100,000 festival-goers were said to have watched England play on the Wednesday

Concerns about overcrowding at Glastonbury Festival have been raised by Mendip District Council in its annual report on the event.

About 137,500 fans and 40,000 staff attended this year's event at Worthy Farm which marked the festival's 40th anniversary and saw Stevie Wonder play.

The council report said "subjectively the site felt extremely busy".

But it added it was an "unqualified success" and that all recommendations were about building on good practice.

The council said the Shangri La and Block Nine areas, which were popular with festival-goers after the main music stages had closed, were a victim of their own success.

It said although the capacity of the area had been increased, free flowing crowd movement was impossible.

Complex factors

The opening of the car parks a night earlier than usual was successful and helped to ease traffic congestion on the roads, the council said.

By 1000 BST on Wednesday, there were 13,872 festival-goers on site compared with 4,000 in previous years.

The good weather and screening of the World Cup on the Wednesday afternoon were believed to have encouraged people to arrive earlier.

However this was said to have put pressure on the smaller venues on the Wednesday and Thursday nights as the main stages do not open until Friday.

The council recommended extra entertainment on these nights to help prevent overcrowding in these areas.

It said: "Glastonbury Festival is a safe event, but that safety is achieved because of a number of complex factors and relationships and cannot be taken for granted."

The council's report also stated it received one complaint during the festival about the lack of water and the long queueing times to get in on Wednesday morning.

Glastonbury Festival organisers were unavailable for comment.