The first of the 177,000 revellers heading for the Glastonbury festival began arriving this morning amid unprecedented security.

British Transport Police greeted revellers at stations with sniffer dogs while other officers patrolled the grounds with helmets fitted with cameras. For the first time the pictures will be fed live back to a control centre, rather than recorded and viewed later.

Also for the first time, police will be laying a trap for would-be criminals with a tent rigged up with CCTV cameras ready to record any opportunistic thief.

Almost 100,000 music fans, who will be treated to sets from the Arctic Monkeys, the Killers, The Who, Kaiser Chiefs, the Kooks and Dame Shirley Bassey, were busy setting up their camps this morning as forecasters predicted heavy thunderstorms over the farm in the tiny village of Pilton, Somerset.

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While they were subjected to light drizzles forecasters warned festival-goers they would be “extremely lucky” to avoid anything more.

Michael Eavis, the festival organiser, said that record numbers had arrived early for the world-famous music and arts event, which officially gets under way tomorrow.

He said that despite the weather forecast of possible thunder storms he was optimistic that his Worthy Farm site would avoid the worst of the weekend’s wet weather.

Mr Eavis said: “This is the best place in Britain to be at the moment. We have been so lucky with the weather, I promise you.

“It’s not even raining - there was some drizzle for about an hour-and-a-half.”

He added: “The amount of early arrivals has doubled from 2005 and I am delighted because it is better value for them.

“We were walking around the site at about 12.20am and they are all so excited.”

Tickets were snapped up in a record 90 minutes.

Sunny spells with intervals of heavy rain has been predicted throughout the weekend.

Michael Dukes, forecast manager for MeteoGroup UK, the weather division of the Press Association, said: “Low pressure is dominating so it is not good news for festival goers.

“Today will be brief sunny spells with heavy showers - and revellers should not be surprised to see a thunderstorm at some point.

“These short-sharp thunderstorms are the type that are likely to produce local flooding. So muddy scenes are likely.”

Traffic has been building around the site, bringing nearby Shepton Mallet to a standstill this morning.

Mr Eavis said festival-goers travelling by car would be better advised to use the East Side car park where there is less traffic.

The festival confirmed that an estimated 70 to 80 people whose tickets went missing in the post will receive duplicate passes at the gates.

Thousands of fans heading for the festival stopped off at Stonehenge for an all-night party on Salisbury Plain to celebrate the summer solstice.

More than 24,000 people were present at the 5,000 year-old stone circle, one of the most famous prehistoric sites in the world.

Revellers wearing antlers, black cloaks and oak leaves huddled at the Heelstone -- a twisted, pockmarked pillar at the edge of the monument -- to cheer the rising sun.

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