July 8, 2007 13:55

T In The Park traffic problems 'unavoidable' T In The Park Tickets

Festivalgoers are still being advised to use public transport

T In The Park organisers have said the problems which saw thousands of fans turned away late on the festival's opening Friday night (July 6) were unavoidable.

Many ticket holders were turned away after torrential rain forced festival bosses to close down public car parks, which had become extremely muddy.

As a result, many missed Arctic Monkeys' set, T In The Park's first ever Friday headliner.

Despite the sunnier conditions which have prevailed since, punters heading for the event in Balado, Perthshire, today are still being urged to travel by public transport.

Festival director Geoff Ellis said: "Friday’s traffic and parking difficulties were extremely regrettable, however, completely unavoidable due to the very bad weather that we have been experiencing over the last few weeks.

“We did everything that we could yesterday to try and get fans into the car parks.

“However, in the end we could not control the weather and unfortunately we had to take the decision to close down the car parks and ask those still waiting in queues to come back today.”

The car parks were eventually closed at 10.30pm, after fans had experienced tailbacks of up to 12 miles approaching the festival site.

NME.COM will continue to bring you all the action from the T In The Park and Oxegen festivals this weekend.

Go to NME.COM/festivals for news, blogs and pictures live from both sites.