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GLASTONBURY, England: Veteran rockers the Who close the final day of Britain's massive Glastonbury music festival Sunday, where festival-goers are in high spirits despite rain reducing the site to a mudbath.
The band, which formed in 1964 and are known for hits such as "My Generation," have never played the festival in its 37-year history but are set to headline the main Pyramid stage.
They will have a tough act to follow after United States band the Killers received a rapturous reception Saturday night with a blaze of light and fireworks accompanying hits such as "All These Things That I've Done."
As the festivities continued, police announced that a 26-year-old man had died after a suspected drug overdose, adding that there had been 134 arrests, mostly over drug allegations.
Hundreds of people have also sustained minor injuries after slipping in the muddy quagmire.
Rain fell again on Saturday, the second day of the world's biggest performing arts festival, which annually takes over the 800-acre (320 hectare) Worthy Farm in Somerset, south-west England.
But up to 180,000 revellers who have flocked to the site, many of whom are now caked in a thick layer of dirt, were not deterred, with some even mud-wrestling during British band Maximo Park's set.
Maximo Park were performing after a turn by Pete Doherty's Babyshambles, who were joined on stage by Doherty's supermodel fiancee Kate Moss, who provided vocals.
Elsewhere on the site, some 30,000 attendees were attempting to break the world record for biggest mass kiss late Saturday night to a soundtrack from 1980s British pop/ska band Madness.
"It's my first Glastonbury and it's been even better than I expected," Therese Stanghelle, a 25-year-old student from Norway, told AFP.
"I was worried about the hygiene and swimming in the mud and everyone told me I would never survive.
"But there's a really good atmosphere, even though you can't get where you want to go, it takes forever in the mud."
In 2005, the last time the festival was held, hundreds of tents were swept away in flash flooding, but organisers insisted that the conditions are not as bad this year and stress they have installed flood prevention measures.
"Everyone seems to be having a good time and it's not washed out the spirit," Michael Eavis, the 71-year-old farmer who founded the festival in 1970, said.
Big sunglasses, hot pants and muddy tights are the look of choice for many female festival-goers, while several men donned the mucky t-shirt, sunglasses and hat combination.
But super-hero costumes, leather kilts, sombreros, peacock feathers and skinny dresses were among the more outlandish outfits being worn - by the men.
"People seem to be going with the flow and not bothering to run to cover when it rains, just standing there braving it out," Simon Besley, a 32-year-old Internet site worker from Somerset, told AFP outside his muddy tent.
Britain's Met Office weather headquarters predicted the rain would return Sunday to soak festival-goers again.
Forecasters say up to 80 millimetres (more than three inches) could fall before the close.
Other big draws from Sunday's line-up include Kaiser Chiefs, Manic Street Preachers, Shirley Bassey, James Morrison, Marley Brothers (Bob Marley's sons) and The Waterboys.
Friday's opening-day highlights included Arctic Monkeys, Kasabian and Bjork. - AFP/yy
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