Tramlines clear up: This is what Hillsborough Park, Sheffield, looks like today - and what people think

Vehicles including lorries and fork lift trucks were yesterday seen heading inside the giant blue fence used to cordon off the festival site.But through gaps, residents could see the amount of mud covering the site, after this year’s festival was hit by torrential rain, turning much of the ground in the park to mud as tens of thousands of revellers braved the wet weather to attend the three-day event.

Music fans enjoyed a line-up including big names like Paul Heaton, Kaiser Chiefs and Sugababes, making the most of the popular festival, which was a sell out.

The tidy-up appeared to have started yesterday with many workers in hi-vis on the site. And festival organisers said they started the assessment of how much now needs to be done to restore the popular park to normal.

Timm Cleasby, operations director of Tramlines has said the assessment has started, with work set to start on restoring the site next Monday.

He said their responsibility to return the park to its usual condition is taken very seriously by the entire management team, with resources already committed to achieve this as quickly as possible. Tramlines will pay the cost of returning the park to peak condition.

Children were playing in the park’s playground today, which is outside the fence, as work on the festival site went on, and people were out and about walking in the bits and the park that are still accessible.

Among those walking past the immaculate flower beds was Daniel Coll. He was in no doubt the disruption caused to the park by the festival was a price worth paying.

He said: “Money well spent. It’s great for the economy. We were all locked up with covid not long ago. Thank God we’re all out there enjoying it.

“My daughter came down here, she’s 19, and it was a fantastic rite of passage she said, covered in mud. What a memory she’s got.

" It was great to see in the Wetherspoons this morning (Monday), they were cleaning up, cleaning all the stools and everything, they were all smiling, they’d all had a great time. I think it’s fantastic. Stop complaining about a bit of mud, it will get better.”

Hillsborough resident David Wood, walking along the road next to the park agreed. He said of the big clear-up: “I think this year’s was obviously especially muddy with the rain, but generally, it’s not an issue.” He said the festival was “definitely good for the city”.

Others had different views. Brian Winfrow said he could not see how local business had benefitted now that people cannot not leave the festival site and re-enter.

“When it was in the centre of town, we used to wander round, going from cafe to cafe, and you could do in the venue and come out,” he said.

He said it was a nice festival but he thought it was too big now, and preferred it in town.

Lynne Winfrow said she thought the timing was bad, as it meant large sections of Hillsborough Park are not available for youngsters to use this week, during what is the first week of the school summer holidays.

“It’s very bad for the beginning of the school holidays – children wanting to go in the park, it’s just going to be a big mess,” she said.