Glastonbury organiser Emily Eavis has shared a touching thank you message after this year's festival , hailing it “surely the best one yet”.
The co-organiser of the star-studded spectacle, alongside her father Michael, shared a selection of pictures on her Instagram account from Sunday night, which saw Kendrick Lamar close the festival.
She wrote: “Sunday rounding off an incredible weekend… thank you to everyone who came here and made it so special.
“It surely was the best one yet!
“A remarkable feat by all artists and crew, thank you to everybody who played a part and everyone who came and created such an amazing atmosphere of joy and love. Safe travels home. See you next year!”.
Her message came as the clean-up operation on the site was under way to return it from a pop-up city of 200,000 people to a Somerset dairy farm.
Beginning in the early hours of Monday morning, volunteers were shifting rubbish strewn across the 800-acre site as revellers began to make their way home following headline performances by Lamar, Billie Eilish and Sir Paul McCartney.
The clean-up crew tackled overflowing waste bins with big items such as camping chairs, blow-up mattresses, slippers, flip-flops and shopping bags needing to be disposed of.
They were also left picking up thousands of discarded items including paper cups and food containers after people descended on Worthy Farm for the festival.
Volunteer Sean Kelly, 32, told the PA news agency: “I’ve been litter picking every day for hours. In the whole recycling team there are 2,500 of us and I’ve done it 10 years on the trot.
“It’s very similar to 2019 because it is dry, it is a lot easier to pick when it is dry.
“As a rule, everything is pretty much done early this year. There’s been a huge reduction in gas canisters this year, but there’s been a lot of vape bars and they are the only things you can’t recycle.
“Most things get recycled here.”
Campers packed up their belongings and left the Somerset site on Monday morning to brave traffic queues to get home as the rain descended following a festival that had defied ominous forecasts of thunderstorms and a yellow weather warning from the Met Office.
Highlights from the festival’s special 50th year include history-making headline sets from Sir Paul and Eilish as well as Lamar’s dramatic demonstration for female rights which saw the singer chant “Godspeed for women’s rights” before dramatically exiting the Pyramid Stage.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning rapper, 35, ensured his debut at the festival would be memorable, with his performance reaching a theatrical peak at the end as the lights came up during his rendition of new song Saviour, to reveal fake blood pouring down his face from a crown of thorns.
Earlier on Sunday, Diana Ross reeled off hit after hit when she took to the stage for her Glastonbury debut in the Sunday teatime legends slot.
