FOR Craig Robson 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.

Mr Robson, 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, Mr Robson and his fiance Fiona, 33, missed out on securing a ceremony in time for the festival.

"All her slots were gone," he explained. "So we just basically came to see her on Friday on the off chance. She said she could squeeze us in at 2pm on Saturday."

He added: "I'm not a religious person, neither of us are, and I figure all that with traditional weddings where things get said and they don't really mean much to the two people who are actually getting married.

"But the things that Glenda said yesterday about, even if you're going through trouble and strife, you can always get through it.

"I think it was just perfect, more than we could have wished for really."