Glastonbury festival kicks off as thousands of fans stream in

Thousands of people began pouring into Worthy Farm in southwest England as the Glastonbury music festival kicked off on Wednesday, with hundreds of artists including Dua Lipa, Coldplay and Shania Twain set to enthral fans.

The festival, which sells out of tickets within minutes even before its line-up is revealed, will close on Sunday with R&B singer SZA slated to perform hits such as Kill Bill and The Weekend on the main Pyramid stage.

This year's edition will also feature Afrobeats sensation Burna Boy, rapper Little Simz, American electro-rock group LCD Soundsystem, English singer PJ Harvey and K-pop group Seventeen, in one of Glastonbury's least rock-heavy line-ups in recent years.

Sunny weather welcomed fans who arrived at Worthy Farm carrying rucksacks and camping gear.

Known affectionately as Glasto, the festival was started by dairy farmer Michael Eavis in 1970, opening the day after guitar legend Jimi Hendrix died, with artists performing to 1,500 people who had bought £1 tickets which included free milk from the farm.

More than 50 years since and with its current capacity of over 200,000 people, the site becomes a colourful and sometimes muddy little city of tents for five days almost every June.

Fans spent £355 ($450) for tickets this year, which sold out in under an hour in November.