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During th flood the website was down through overload and was giving misleading info as it was being transferred to a new server http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilh97yZcLOw Local people come through with support for flooded Sunrise festival The Sunrise Celebration Festival, due to take place last weekend nr, Yeovil in Somerset was called off due to flash flooding and extreme weather conditions that took South Somerset by surprise. Festival organisers struggling to cope with the extreme conditions have been inundated with offers of support both locally and nationally as people club together to assist in disastrous conditions. The event was scheduled to be from the 29th May-- 1st June 2008 for 10,000 people. The forecast was initially fine for the festival, which has been fortunate with weather since it began in 2006. However that changed and the event was called off on Thursday night due to a storm aggravating the already tricky conditions on the site. Local people have rallied round assisting those trapped in these terrible conditions. Touching gestures have been made. Residents delivered bowls of hot stew to the cold wet festival gate staff. "Its amazing how lovely people have been. In these conditions people need to support each other, and it is gestures like this that really help boost morale and give a sense of camaraderie in difficult conditions. We are really grateful for this." Said one festival employee. The river that runs through the middle of the site burst its banks, and a lot of areas became flooded. Flash Flooding has happened across the county and the weather has been extremely unpredictable. Despite all the measures that were taken; extra metal track way, straw and wood chip shipped in to soak up the water, it was impossible for the crew to keep the situation under control and organisers deemed the site a risk to public health and safety. Local farmers and the young farmers club came to the assistance of festival-goers stranded in the mud. Tractors were the only vehicles that could move across the site that had been devastated by the conditions. "Without the tractors we would have a lot more people still stranded here. We are overwhelmed with the support we have had. Messages are constantly coming in from Stall holders, our artists, Milk Street Brewery, people who came to the event and other festival organisers offering assistance." Said a spokes person for the event. Severe weather warnings hung over the area necessitating the organisers get everyone off site as quickly as possible. Emergency Planning went into operation and the festival organisers have been working with South Somerset council to clear the site as quickly and smoothly as possible in conjunction with the onsite medical and welfare team. Extra blankets were ordered to keep people warm and the council supplied space blanket and assistance. "We are really sad that we couldn't go ahead with Sunrise. We would like to thank everyone involved in the festival for all their hard work and support through this very difficult time and we thank the people for being patient with us and we are so very sorry that this has happened" "We apologise for anyone who had difficulty accessing the information put out when the event closed to the public. Our server went down due to the excessive amount of traffic and the website was migrated to a new server by our IT team overnight, whilst we were actioning emergency plans, getting dry blankets to people and trying to manage a very challenging situation. People have been brilliant." The Sunrise Celebration 2008 was set to be a really successful event. Sunrise is the UK's leading Sustainable festival, often compared to Glastonbury in the old days was in its 3rd year going to be a sell out for the first time. Difficult weather conditions affected many festivals in the UK last year, and this weekend events all across the country have been cancelled. What is the future of Sunrise? The organisers intend to honour all tickets purchased, for policies on this ticket purchasers are asked to visit the website or contact the agent they bought a ticket from. However it looks like Sunrise will be rescheduled for later in the summer. The festival have been offered some land adjacent to the Big Chill in Herefordshire and will be hosting the Sunrise there and existing ticket holders will be able to use their tickets to go to Sunrise and The Big Chill who have a line-up including Leonard Cohen and Roots Manuva. People are advised to check the website for developments. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ilh97yZcLOw