THE main arena at Bestival was yesterday evacuated over safety fears.

Visitors to the music festival, which is now based at Lulworth Castle, faced days of high winds and heavy rain.

The site became swamped in mud.

On Sunday afternoon, performances on the main Castle Stage were halted before the main arena was completely evacuated.

A post on the festival's Twitter page read: "Due to current high winds and safety of all our festival-goers the Castle Stage and Ambient Forest are both temporarily closed.

“We’ll reopen the stages and areas as soon as possible. Due to high winds and for everyone’s safety the main arena is temporarily closed. Please make your way to the campsites until we reopen gates.”

A statement released by organiser Rob Da Bank after the closure reads: "Yes, it’s true, we had a short show stop today when the winds got up high - we didn’t want to stop the party but we had to take the advice of the safety guys here.

"Thankfully we only lost less than an hour out of an otherwise amazing weekend.

"We’re happy everyone is still here to enjoy the rest of the weekend safely."

Motorists have also been warned that the bad weather has affected car parks.

A festival spokesperson said: "Due to the adverse weather conditions we’ve experienced over the weekend, car park and campervan fields have been affected by the rain so it may take longer than expected to exit.

"We have staff at all car parks and campervan fields to assist, and Lulworth Tractors and Wessex 4x4 Club working in the fields to help anyone who gets stuck."

Those with cars or campervans are asked to find the towing eye, encourage passengers to get out and to a safe distance if a vehicle becomes stuck in mud and avoid wheel spins.

Those who do become trapped should put their hazard lights on and wait for assistance.