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Glastonbury Festival Kicks off as Thousands of Fans Stream in 

Festivalgoers arrive on the opening day of the Glastonbury festival at Worthy Farm in the village of Pilton in Somerset, southwest England, on June 26, 2024. (AFP)
Festivalgoers arrive on the opening day of the Glastonbury festival at Worthy Farm in the village of Pilton in Somerset, southwest England, on June 26, 2024. (AFP)
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Glastonbury Festival Kicks off as Thousands of Fans Stream in 

Festivalgoers arrive on the opening day of the Glastonbury festival at Worthy Farm in the village of Pilton in Somerset, southwest England, on June 26, 2024. (AFP)
Festivalgoers arrive on the opening day of the Glastonbury festival at Worthy Farm in the village of Pilton in Somerset, southwest England, on June 26, 2024. (AFP)

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 enthrall 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.

James Trusson, 30, a sound engineer from Somerset who had queued overnight to be one of the first to arrive, said he had been coming to Glastonbury for 11 years and he would keep coming back because there was something going on in every field.

"It's just that magic you just don't get at any other festival," he said. "There's not a better feeling really. It's magical."

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-pound 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 colorful and sometimes muddy little city of tents for five days almost every June.

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

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Naomi Campbell Barred from Being Charity Trustee in England and Wales

British model Naomi Campbell cries after being awarded the 'Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres' (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) title at the French Ministry for Culture in Paris on September 26, 2024. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)
British model Naomi Campbell cries after being awarded the 'Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres' (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) title at the French Ministry for Culture in Paris on September 26, 2024. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)
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Naomi Campbell Barred from Being Charity Trustee in England and Wales

British model Naomi Campbell cries after being awarded the 'Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres' (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) title at the French Ministry for Culture in Paris on September 26, 2024. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)
British model Naomi Campbell cries after being awarded the 'Chevalier de l'ordre des Arts et des Lettres' (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) title at the French Ministry for Culture in Paris on September 26, 2024. (Photo by Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP)

British supermodel Naomi Campbell has been barred from being a charity trustee in England and Wales for five years after the poverty charity she founded nearly two decades ago was deemed Thursday to have been “poorly governed” with “inadequate financial management.”
Following a three-year investigation into the financial activities of “Fashion for Relief,” the Charity Commission, which registers and regulates charities in England and Wales, said it had found “multiple instances of misconduct and/or mismanagement,” and that only 8.5% of the charity’s overall expenditure went on charitable grants in a six-year period from 2016.
For example, it said that thousands of pounds worth of charity funds were used to pay for a luxury hotel stay in Cannes, France, for Campbell as well as spa treatments, room service and even cigarettes. The regulator sought explanations from the trustees but said no evidence was provided to back up their explanation that hotel costs were typically covered by a donor to the charity, therefore not costing the charity, said The Associated Press.
Campbell, 54, said she was “extremely concerned” by the findings of the regulator and that an investigation on her part was underway.
“I was not in control of my charity, I put the control in the hands of a legal employer,” she said in response to a question from the AP after being named a knight in France’s Order of Arts and Letters at the country's culture ministry for her contribution to French culture. "We are investigating to find out what and how, and everything I do and every penny I ever raised goes to charity.”
The commission, which registers and regulates charities in England and Wales, also found that fellow trustee Bianka Hellmich received around 290,000 pounds ($385,000) of unauthorized funds for consultancy services, which was in breach of the charity's constitution. She has been disqualified as a trustee for nine years. The other trustee, Veronica Chou, was barred for four years.
“Trustees are legally required to make decisions that are in their charity’s best interests and to comply with their legal duties and responsibilities,” said Tim Hopkins, deputy director for specialist investigations and standards. “Our inquiry has found that the trustees of this charity failed to do so, which has resulted in our action to disqualify them.”
The charity, which was founded in 2005 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, was dissolved and removed from the register of charities earlier this year. On its website, which is still active, the charity said that it presented fashion initiatives and projects in New York, London, Cannes, Moscow, Mumbai and Dar es Salaam, raising more than $15 million for good causes around the world.
The charity had been set up with the aim of uniting the fashion industry to relieve poverty and advance health and education, by making grants to other organizations and giving resources towards global disasters.
The commission said that around 344,000 pounds ($460,000) has been recovered and that a further 98,000 pounds of charitable funds have been protected. These funds were used to make donations to two other charities and settle outstanding liabilities.  
“I am pleased that the inquiry has seen donations made to other charities which this charity has previously supported,” said the regulator's Hopkins.