The South West's first big music festival of the season has been wiped out by heavy rain and flash flooding that left thousands of eco-conscious hippies stranded in a water-logged field in Somerset.

Avon and Somerset police called time on the Sunrise Festival last night after a sudden and heavy burst of rain between 6.30pm and 7pm that left hundreds of homes in the area with flood damage.

Although the flooding began to subside quickly, further showers were predicted for today, and the festival site at Bearly Inn farm, near Yeovil, was under water.

"It's a mudbath, reminiscent of Glastonbury," a police spokesman said. "Which reminds me - we've still got that to come."

Some 20,000 people had been expected to attend the Sunrise Festival, for a music line-up including the ambient legends The Orb and electro-pioneers System 7. The festival describes itself as 100-per cent sustainable - its main stage is in a solar-powered big top - and it has been voted the most eco-friendly of Britain's 450 music festivals.

The Sunrise event, only in its third year, has also been compared by Michael Eavis, founder of the rain-plagued Glastonbury event, with his own festival in its infancy.

Police said that around 5,000 fans had already arrived at the Sunrise Festival by the time it was called off.

At the peak of the storm, the Devon and Somerset Fire Brigade was taking calls “every few seconds” from worried residents, with more than 350 emergency calls received in just two and a half hours.

More than half a dozen cars were abandoned after getting stuck in waterlogged roads across the region. Four people were rescued by firefighters when their car was stuck in a flood near Langford Bridge near Honiton. There are no reports of anyone injured because of the floods.

The Royal Bath & West Showground, at Shepton Mallett, was severely hit with visitors stuck in the mud as they tried to leave. A police spokesman said that an RAF helicopter was to have been sent in to pluck show-goers from their roofs of their cars but in the end police and firefighters were able to remove everyone safely.

There was intermittent rain through the region overnight but no reports of any more floods yet. A spokeswoman for MeteoGroup UK, the weather division of the Press Association, said that while some localised flooding could affect South West England today it was not expected to be serious.

Andy Newland, a spokesman for the Devon and Somerset Fire Service, said that last night’s floods were different to those that caused havoc across southern and central England last summer.

He said: “It was a typical flash flood gone almost as soon as quickly as it came. It has quietened down considerably overnight.

“It’s very different from what happened in Gloucestershire because that built up for many days. This was literally that a tremendous amount of water came down with very little warning and the surface water drainage couldn’t handle it.”

Crewkerne, Ilminster, Shepton Mallett and Wells were most severely affected, Mr Newland said, with everywhere from Bridgewater in the north to Crewkerne in the south hit by the rain.

Laura Gilchrist, forecaster for MeteoGroup, said that around 11.8mm of rain had fallen over the Yeovil station in three hours.

She said: “This doesn’t sound like a lot, but the brief nature has caused problems. It’s an area of thundery rain that’s moved up over the channel from France, moving across the south west of the country.

"In terms of rainfall, it’s not unusual for the area at this time of year. The sun should be shining this morning, which will help it dry out and there will be showers throughout the day, so we are not ruling out localised flooding, but we’re not expecting serious problems.”

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