Glastonbury 2015: Festival Opens with Rain and Mud

Rain doused Glastonbury Festival’s first day as fans enjoyed music on the main stages.

A heavy shower on Friday afternoon brought out the wellies, ponchos and umbrellas and created puddles on site.

Friday’s acts include Florence and the Machine, Motorhead, Mark Ronson and an unconfirmed band, rumored to be The Libertines, on the Pyramid Stage.

Physicist Stephen Hawking is unlikely to attend the event for an appearance in the Kidz Field.

A spokesperson for Prof. Stephen Hawking told The Telegraph he had pulled out “for personal reasons”.

Feminist punk band Pussy Riot made an appearance in front of the Park Stage, using a theatrical protest to convey their anti-government message.

The appearance began with an actor posing as a Russian soldier standing atop a military van and declaring Glastonbury a pro-Russian republic.

Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, who were imprisoned in Russia for almost two years for their protests, then climbed up, tied him up and put one of their trademark multi-colored balaclavas on him.

Nadia Tolokonnikova told the crowd to “develop a culture of rebellion” and, in a remark possibly aimed at other bands, said they could not just “sit on a comfy coach and drink some beer”.

They were then interviewed on top of the van by singer Charlotte Church, who described them as “one of the most important movements this century”.

A total of 177,000 people are due on site. The weather is expected to brighten up later, with Saturday expected to be sunny but more rain likely on Sunday.