One of the hottest places – apart from the scorchers we had earlier in the week – for this festival has been Fanzone, which has attracted big crowds, especially for meet-and-greets with the big stars, guest performances and signings.

While observers say the early invasion of festival fans has been ahead of the last few years, organisers are waiting to see if the expected big influx of final weekend visitors will match that trend.

While camping figures have run ahead of previous years for the past 10 days, yesterday’s arrivals slowed considerably.

There were 897 sites occupied at the Riverside sporting grounds early yesterday – exactly the same number as at the same time last year.