From left: Rolling Stones band members Ronnie Wood, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards performing on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury on Saturday. Photo: Anthony Devlin/PA Wire

British folk band Mumford & Sons brought the annual Glastonbury festival jigging to a close on Sunday, capping three days of music, good-natured mayhem and minimal mud.

The bluegrass-inspired set completed a trio of headline acts after British indie band Arctic Monkeys and veteran rockers The Rolling Stones played to crowds on the site attended by up to 150,000 music fans on Friday and Saturday.

Rain held off over the 365-hectare farm in southwest England, part of the Vale of Avalon in English folklore, where festival organiser Michael Eavis first hosted 1,500 hippies in 1970.

Mumford & Sons’ appearance at the festival looked uncertain until last week, when the band said bassist Ted Dwane had recovered from emergency surgery for a blood clot on his brain.

Dwane, distinctive with his full beard and broad-brimmed hat, appeared in fine fettle on Sunday as the four-piece band belted out hits The Cave and I Will Wait.

“We’ve danced together, we’ve celebrated the fact that Ted is alive together, shall we sing together, Glastonbury?” frontman Marcus Mumford asked a cheering crowd.

It was 43 years in the making, 50 years for them, and we’ve finally come together – Michael Eavis on The Rolling Stones

For their final number, a cover of the Beatles classic A Little Help From My Friends accompanied by fireworks, Mumford & Sons were joined onstage by American indie rock band Vampire Weekend, British group The Vaccines, British acoustic trio The Staves and Swedish duo First Aid Kit.

“It’s a great way to end a festival,” said Toby Gugolz, 28, from Stevenage in southeast England.

The main headline act of the event was The Rolling Stones who played to more than 100,000 fans on Saturday in a two-and-a-quarter-hour Glastonbury debut described by Eavis as the highlight of the festival’s 43-year history.

He had tried to secure the band, celebrating their 50th anniversary, for years and said he was not sure how next year’s headliners, who have already been booked, would live up to the Stones.

“It was 43 years in the making, 50 years for them, and we’ve finally come together. We’re on the same page at last,” Eavis said.

Organisers said the event had run smoothly despite rain on the first day temporarily turning the site into a mudbath, but the downpours stopped on Friday and festival-goers dispensed with their waterproofs.

A team of about 300 police officers were on duty at the site, and they reported a 30 per cent drop in crime since the last Glastonbury festival held in 2011.