A second car park is going to be opened to ease scenes of chaos outside the Isle of Wight festival- as 400 gridlocked motorists are still trying to get into the site.

The chaotic scenes unfolded due to severe flooding at the festival site main car park.

Many festival-goers last night resorted to sleeping in their cars after they were stuck in paralysed traffic for hours.

Some reports say it took motorists over EIGHT hours to get from the island's ferry terminal to the festival site at Seaclose Park in Newport.

Others say they left home up to 24 hours ago to enjoy the line up of live acts but have still not arrived at the site. Some have even given up and are heading home.

Police say they have been giving food and shelter to motorists and have set up a temporary shelter at Newport Football Club.

But some people trapped in cars say they have had no support from anyone and have criticised the lack of information.

The cars that did reach the car park last night had to be towed through the mud by tractors.

But the high winds and heavy rain through the night made it difficult for revellers to put up tents.

Festival organiser John Giddings said this morning he is doing everything he can to ease the problems.

He said the site was ready but the "horrendous" torrential rain has led to flooding.

He added the team are busy laying tracks around the site and announced more car parks will now be opened to ease jams.

Last night ferries were forced to suspend their service because of the traffic backlog. Three boats with about 600 people on board were held in the Solent as ferry passenger Wightlink waited for the traffic to clear so it could discharge passengers at Fishbourne.

Local people on the island have been severely disrupted by the gridlock.

There were reports of schoolchildren yesterday having to walk miles in the rain, buses stuck in queues, patients unable to reach hospital and even hearses en route to funerals amongst the traffic.

Isle of Wight MP Andrew Turner has this morning criticised organisers over the gridlock on the island saying "90,000 is too many."

He said: "The weather has played a part– that is beyond the control of organisers. However the ground was already wet and recent rain has been forecast for some time; expected traffic can also be forecast with some accuracy. Despite all that it appears that inadequate contingency plans and preparations were in place."

The MP raised concerns that the traffic mayhem could be repeated as revellers leave the festival site. He added: “Most people are not killjoys – they expect some inconvenience over the Festival weekend – but there must be a limit. That limit has been reached. The permitted Festival size was increased to 90,000 this year – that is too many and not all the tickets have been sold; if they had been the problems would be even worse."

Have you been caught up in the festival traffic chaos? Contact the Daily Echo newsdesk on 023 8042 4522 or email newsdesk@dailyecho.co.uk.