Glastonbury organiser Michael Eavis has said that he's happy to pay the £3000 fine that will be enforced because of a broken curfew, because the final minutes of Bruce Springsteen's over-running set at the weekend's festival “were worth it”.

The US headliner went over the 00.30 limit by nine minutes in a performance that lasted two hours and forty minutes. Eavis said: "I gave him 10 minutes and he took 9. Paul McCartney (the 2004 headliner) paid me back, [but] I'm going to pay the Bruce Springsteen one myself. It's not a lot because it was fantastic. The last nine minutes were spectacular" although a festival spokesperson confirmed that the festival always tried to stick by curfews adding that the limits were enforced “because a lot of people live nearby and it is right that things draw to a close at a reasonable hour.”

The Festival is also looking at six possible cases of swine flu which were apparently discovered during the course of this year's extravaganza which attracted 177,500 attendees. Amongst them are a student from Edinburgh University, a student from Exeter and a ten year old from a family of four. Dr Chris Howes, the festival's medical services director, said: "We worked very closely with the Health Protection Agency and NHS Somerset in monitoring the situation. The cases of swine flu are suspected but not confirmed because formal testing takes longer, but we gave these patie nts anti-viral drugs. Everyone had mild symptoms and none required hospital admission. Everyone else was advised to continue with normal hygiene precautions, such as frequent hand washing". 

30/06/09