115 replies to this topic

[kevin0410]

just read in the bridgwater times that Melvin Benn, the person in charge of car parking has stated that to ease congestion the car parks could be open from 8pm on the tuesday with water and toilets provided.

has any one else heard about this?

kevin

[Joshuwarr]

id really like that. turn up tuesday evening then have a nice nap before the big wednesday

[Ricochet]

Not a bad idea. Would ease congestion on the roads but the queue at the gates would be epic.

[paulo999]

kevin0410, on Oct 2 2009, 09:42 PM, said:

just read in the bridgwater times that Melvin Benn, the person in charge of car parking has stated that to ease congestion the car parks could be open from 8pm on the tuesday with water and toilets provided.

has any one else heard about this?

kevin

I'd be amazed if that idea flies with Mendip. 10-20k+ people with naff all to do but get pissed. And then sleep in cars (some will leave engines running to keep warm)... or attempt to pitch tents. There'll be people trying to take walks up to the village. Moving cars when pissed/stoned. All sorts of problems.

Car parks open from sunrise could work though. The daylight would make things calmer, and with the gates being open in only a few hours time, most people wouldn't get too battered.

[ivan]

paulo999, on Oct 2 2009, 10:39 PM, said:

I'd be amazed if that idea flies with Mendip. 10-20k+ people with naff all to do but get pissed. And then sleep in cars (some will leave engines running to keep warm)... or attempt to pitch tents. There'll be people trying to take walks up to the village. Moving cars when pissed/stoned. All sorts of problems.

Car parks open from sunrise could work though. The daylight would make things calmer, and with the gates being open in only a few hours time, most people wouldn't get too battered.

Brilliant post ! - there are concerns about opening too early as you say

We drove down from Wakefield last year , through the night to avoid traffic , saw sun come up at
Stonenhenge , but then had loads of time to kill before we could get on site.  Would be nice to
let us into car parks from say 5.00 am.

They did it at Leeds this year and it worked well , they opened at 2.00 am I think !!! , and no traffic
problems reported , I know Leeds is a lot smaller festival but it has had traffice probs in past.

[IamChappu]

I can't see them being allowed to open the car parks on the Tues night.  If you're can't sleep/camp/have fires in the car parks whilst the festival is on, how can they allow it the night before?  

As far as I can see it, if they don't want the seriously bad queues that happened last year (first time I've ever seen it that bad!) don't advertise the festival as starting on the Wed & open car parks a hour or so before the gates open so that those who want to be there for gates opening don't block the nearby roads.

[Cooter]

Doesn't make sense having carparks open but nowhere for punters to go so I'm guessing there will be a follow up statement, possibly involving festival gates being open at some point Tuesday too.

GEETTTTTTTTTT INNNNN!

Thats if the OP info is correct. Was'nt there rumours last year that Traffic Chillout Tuesday was going to become part of the festival for this year?

[ahardbattle]

It would be nice to arrive a little earlier, (of course we always want more), but for me the point that there will be TOILETS outside the gate is a definite step in the right direction -

I've always thought the lack of them was a real shame - especially this year after 7.5hrs stuck in a que I was bustin'    - and on the Monday when everyone leaves it's so sad to see the good natured respect for nature and the environment go down the drain   with everyone pissing in the car park field.

[5co77ie]

kevin0410, on Oct 2 2009, 08:42 PM, said:

just read in the bridgwater times that Melvin Benn, the person in charge of car parking has stated that to ease congestion the car parks could be open from 8pm on the tuesday with water and toilets provided.

has any one else heard about this?

kevin

surely the festival can't sanction 1000s of people in their cars? Makes more sense to have off site camping set up for the night before so people could travel a shorter distance to get there - I've always advocated people traveling long distances travel down the day before to avoid car jams etc on the Wednesday.

[bigsmoke]

we tried this for the first time last year, stayed in a b+b 12 miles up the road from the festival.

unfortunately, it took us almost 5 hours to cover those 12 miles - we got there about an hour before our friends who'd left straight from london!

at least if they said the car parks open at, say, midnight but the gates still won't open until 8 then people might arrive all the way through that time?

who am i kidding anyway - whatever time they say it opens i'll be aiming to get there bang on that time.  can't bear to miss a second!!

[River]

We came down the day before and stayed about 30mins (on a normal day) drive from the site. We left at 6.30, the traffic was okay going into and out of Glastonbury town, we got on the 50mph road just as you leave the Tor in the rearview and hit a traffic jam that took us until nearly 11am go get into the gates and parked.

Then we queued at gate D for another 30mins.

(I hope they plan the parking better this year, first cars in should be near the gate, not three fields over   )


If the gates open at 3/4/5/whatever am this year then I might drive through the night, seems a bit pointless paying for somewhere to only spend a few hours at it.

When do you guys think this might be made 'official'?

Edited by River, 04 October 2009 - 01:19 AM.

[Phil-itfc]

tents + cars cant be a good combination in the dark.

[5co77ie]

River, on Oct 4 2009, 01:14 AM, said:

When do you guys think this might be made 'official'?

At the moment I can't even find this news story in the Bridgwater Times = so it could be sometime before there's anything official.

The latest Festival related news in the paper was this:

http://www.thisissom...il/article.html

no sign of Melvin Benn saying anything there.

[5co77ie]

news here:


http://www.efestival...9/091004b.shtml

[drewsstrat]

I think the organisers have an opportunity to get it right next year after the nightmare of traffic jams last time.

Why don't they allocate every ticket holder a 'earliest arrival time'  - Perhaps by having a coloured Car sticker depending on home addres

All those furthest to travel can have a first arrival slot from 8pm Tuesday  (Outside UK, Scotland , Northern Ireland etc )  Two hours later North England,  Then Cornwall, East England , North Wales
From Wednesday 6am we could have Midlands, South Wales , Devon etc  Then Finally the 'locals' from 8am Wed

Doing this people travelling 10 - 12 hours won't have another 2-3 hours trapped in a car to travel 15 miles and no interference to local residents as not many traffic jams outside the glastonbury perimeter.  Also Car parks would then park the cars so last one in will be first out (IE locals)


I think staggering entry Makes sense - wont cost much (just Different pass colours) ??

[Al the CAT]

Story on Beeb Somerset, with some of the wise words of Mr Eavis
http://news.bbc.co.u...000/8295768.stm

[eFestivals]

Al the CAT, on Oct 8 2009, 10:26 AM, said:

Story on Beeb Somerset, with some of the wise words of Mr Eavis
http://news.bbc.co.u...000/8295768.stm

That implies it's a done deal - it's not. They haven't even asked the council yet if they can do it.

There'll be a more accurate article published by eFestivals very shortly (it's being written as I type).

[5co77ie]

now online here:


http://www.efestival...9/091008a.shtml

[st00ka]

I don't understand.

Surely if you open the carparks the night before all you are doing is starting the traffic problems an evening earlier.



What they need is more buses.

[5co77ie]

st00ka, on Oct 8 2009, 10:30 AM, said:

I don't understand.

Surely if you open the carparks the night before all you are doing is starting the traffic problems an evening earlier.



What they need is more buses.

Are people all really going to rush to get into the car park and sit in their car? Most will measure for a between midnight and dawn arrival I suspect - as there's no advantage to getting to your favourite camping spot - which I guess is why people are there when gates open.

This will be alleviating the everyone turns up at once problems. As far as I know the congestion started because of the numbers there queueing on the roads for the car parks to open - no queue = no congestion.