FOR Craig Watson and Fiona Wilkins, Glastonbury Festival was the perfect place to spontaneously tie the knot.
The couple from Hartlepool found themselves taking part in a handfasting ceremony, a spiritual celebration of their engagement and upcoming wedding.
But having missed out on arranging the ceremony beforehand, they were squeezed in last-minute by celebrant Glenda Procter.
Watson, 41, from Hartlepool said: “We’re not really a fan of the traditional weddings, if you know what I mean, so we just wanted something for the two of us, and this was the ideal place.
“There were people there but we didn’t really know anybody, so it was just our own little thing.”
Handfasting is a neopagan ceremony, which involves the couple taking vows and having their hands symbolically tied together.
But after they got engaged in December, Watson and his fiance Wilkins, 33, missed out on securing a ceremony in time for the festival.
“All her slots were gone,” Watson explained. “So we just basically came to see her on Friday on the off chance. She said she could squeeze us in at two o’clock on Saturday.”
Meanwhile, Madness paid a special tribute to the “great, great David Bowie” as they brought their Glastonbury Festival set to a close with his 1971 hit Kooks.
Beneath the Aladdin Sane lightning bolt suspended above the Pyramid Stage, frontman and radio DJ Suggs said he wanted to celebrate the late music superstar.
The band brought their families up on stage to dance along to Kooks, which was written by Bowie to his newborn son.
Suggs handed the microphone to guitarist Chris Foreman, who said he had recently learnt how easy it was to fool 51.9 per cent of people – referencing the percentage of Britons who voted to leave the European Union in Thursday’s referendum.
He then led the crowd in a rendition of the AC/DC song Highway To Hell.
Madness then performed their first ever single from 1979, The Prince.
The band also got the crowd jumping with other fan favourites.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here