Festival-goers faced huge queues of traffic trying to reach Camp Bestival, with drivers reportedly stuck in gridlocked traffic for more than four hours yesterday.

The popular festival, at Lulworth Castle begins today, but the camp site opened at 10am yesterday  to allow visitors to set up their tents ahead of the weekend events.

A spokesperson for the festival confirmed a broken-down caravan had blocked some of the entrance lanes to the festival, causing huge delays to traffic.

Queues were expected heading towards Lulworth Castle, however, one motorist described the traffic as "chaos" and the "worst he has ever seen".

Allan Price was travelling home to West Lulworth after working in Bournemouth.

After trying three separate routes to get home to his wife and children, he ended up spending more than four and a half hours in a traffic jam towards West Lulworth.

He said: "There is no movement at all, it is an absolute standstill.

"I am just trying to get home to my wife and kids and I have been stuck in a queue of traffic for four and a half hours.

"I am considering going to stay with relatives in Weymouth, I am not sure if I can get home."

Allan said that the standstill had tested the patience of some motorists, with many giving up and attempting to turn around.

This caused more issues with cars and motorhomes becoming stuck trying to navigate "50-point turns".

Allan added: "It is absolutely crazy, a lot of the campervans are trying to turn around and have got stuck horizontally.

"Some of them are trying to get out doing 50-point turns.

I saw two campervans collide because they were trying to turn around, the wing mirrors came off as they brushed against each other."

The popular festival always attracts thousands of tourists to Lulworth and traffic is normally heavy on Thursday when the campers head to set up their tents.

Allan said he "had never seen it this bad".

He said: "It is normally bad, it will be slow but at least you can move.

"This is absolutely gridlock, it has never been like this before."

Festivalgoers also took to Twitter (X) to voice their anger over huge queues heading into the festival.

One motorist said:

"This is a joke, we have not moved in 2 hours, what is happening? Followed the signs and not the sat nav, people are starting to overtake the traffic jams and there will be an accident, really disappointing start."

Another said: "Any updates on the entrance situation? Absolutely shocking! The B3070 is basically a car park."

A spokesperson for Camp Bestival said: "Due to a broken-down caravan blocking some entrance lanes, we are experiencing delays on roads coming into the festival site. The caravan has now been moved and we are moving vehicles in as quickly and as safely as we can."

Dorset Police urged motorists to "drive carefully and considerately at all times".