PARTICIPANTS at an adults-only festival raised more than £600 for the county air ambulance after a staff member at the event was flown to hospital.

The air ambulance was called to the Swingfields event near Ledbury on Friday after the female staff member was taken ill.

She was flown to hospital for treatment and later released, a festival spokesman said this week.

The spokesman said: "She had been working hard and was felling unwell, and someone who had medical experience recognised what was happening and called the ambulance.

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"After she was taken to hospital, the festival goers raised £650 for the air ambulance in two hours. That's the kind of people we have at the festival."

The spokesman said that festival organisers would be deciding in the next three or four weeks whether they would be bringing the event back to Upper Welland next year, for the third year running.

And he berated national media outlets who branded Swingfields a "sex festival".

He said: "These people who raised money for the air ambulance are the same people who are being vilified in the most bigoted manner by some of the national media.

"This is adults-only event that attracted people from the trans community, people from the LGBTQ+ community and people from various other lifestyle communities.

"We have worked closely with the police and the environmental health authorities to make sure this event is fully licensed and properly approved.

"Anyone at the festival would have seen people barbecuing, people listening to the bands and sitting in the sun. There is probably more sex taking place at the average big music festival.

"I have had lots of people who live locally contacting us, telling us that they don't mind us being here at all."