Fatboy Slim has praised the 20,000 strong crowd who came to his New Year's Day beach gig.

Despite horrendous weather on the Brighton seafront, The Big Beach Boutique 3 event was not cancelled, and 20,000 fans turned out to see artists perform. Tickets were sold to local residents after a similar, un-ticketed event in 2003 ended in chaos when 250,000 people turned up, as opposed to the expected 60,000.

Fatboy Slim, otherwise known as Norman Cook, said: "I love the people of Brighton - they stood there and took everything the elements could chuck at them and still partied on."