THE QUIET Hampshire countryside became the beating heart of the dance music world as thousands of revellers packed the Homelands festival this weekend.

A crowd of around 30,000 partygoers from around the country came to Winchester on Saturday for the all-night event at the Matterley Estate.

Police say the event passed without any major incidents of public disorder on site or in Winchester city centre.

A total of 23 people were arrested by police, compared with nearly 50 last year, and were taken to stations in Winchester and Alton for questioning.

Fourteen were arrested for drugs offences, five were arrested on suspicion of theft, two were arrested for robbery offences, and two were arrested on deception related offences.

Homelands is one of the biggest summer music festivals in the UK and an annual highlight of the dance calendar.

After a week of unsettled weather there were concerns rain showers would have turned the greenfield site into the type of mud bath that has blighted Homelands in past years.

But these proved unfounded as the clouds cleared from the sky and bathed the site in warm summer sunshine.

Weeks of hard work and organisation had transformed the peaceful fields next to the A31 into a huge thriving arena, the natural amphitheatre dwarfing circus tents where the DJs played.

Thousands of people arrived by car, with more than half arriving in the city centre by train and using a shuttle bus service.

Some of the biggest names in world music were also on hand to thrill the enormous crowds crammed into 12 different arenas. Radio One brought its outdoor stage and the other stages were packed with heavyweight names. Pete Tong, Judge Jules, Giles Peterson, Carl Cox, Seb Fontaine, Dave Pearce, were joined by UK hip hop stalwart Tim Westwood.

Among the hundreds of other acts at Homelands 2002, notable performances came from South London favourites Basement Jaxx, who packed out the cavernous Muzik Live Arena, X-Press 2 and Ronnie Size.

But Homelands is not just about DJs, there is always a live element to the festival.

Five months of planning went into the policing and from Friday to yesterday around 400 uniformed officers were patrolling Winchester city centre and the site itself.

Operation Cheesefoot Planning officer Sgt Richard Stowe said: "Almost all of the drugs arrests were as a direct result of the work of the ten passive drugs dogs, used to check concert-goers entering the festival."

The music finished at 6am, bringing to an end 17 hours of partying. And so to next year...