115 replies to this topic

[st00ka]

Personally I never minded waiting in the car but if I'm standing around for hours with tent, booze, spare underpants and more booze in the rain, I will not be happy.

[Langdale Wolf]

CmdrGravy, on Oct 8 2009, 12:40 PM, said:

It doesn't matter what time they open the car parks it will really make no difference to queues. As was mentioned on another thread the car parking arrangements in general are extremely poor for the size of event that Glastonbury has now become and the amount Eavis is charging for them.

The queues are caused because there are no where near enough entrances and exits to car parks and if someone breaks down or gets stuck in the mud in one of the narrow channels then everything behind them gets backed up as there is nowhere else to route traffic around them.

I think it's a travesty to increase the car parking fee once again without actually doing anything to address the fundamental problem.

The roads get clogged IF there are x thousand cars on the road trying to get in all at once.

By extending that time slightly, and getting some off the road and into the car parks (where the cars will remain) means the roads won't be as clogged.

In 2007 and 2008 we arrived about 10am on the Wednesday - no queue for the car park, no queue for the gate - straight through.  Dead easy.  Hopefully, a similar situation could occur by letting cars into the car parks that little bit earlier.  (Didn't someone - possibly Neil - say that the traffic last year wasn't helped by Glastonbury basically advertise itself as a 5-day festival starting on the Wednesday?).

It remains to be seen if this scheme will be successful - I guess we won't know until after next year's festival.

[Pinhead]

Yeah, as I've said in another thread on this, it has the potential to backfire if enough people turn up early.

Difficult to police as outside the fence, security will be poor. This means that its possible anyone can turn up an cause trouble. Plus can't see the other local farmers who own the car park fields would want to deal with the associated litter, tent pegs, fires, hedge pissing, p1ssheads etc. damage to their land as well. Locals wound'nt be too happy either I expect. They and MDC probably won't like the idea of the festival 'moving beyond' its perimeter either, even temporarily as well, what with turdises and stalls being put up outside the fence as has been indicated.

Stagger arrivals by car park ticket number.

Edited by Pinhead, 08 October 2009 - 11:52 AM.

[shoptildrop]

1st time glasto so excuse dumb question - what time do they actually open gates to the festival site then on the Wednesday?

Personally gonna camp near by with a campsite with hot showers and drive to site around 8ish and see how that goes....

[hope]

as there are 5 of us going in one car (4th year for us) we try to time it so that we arrive at Glasto at 8am Wed...the journey normally takes 4 hours but we allow extra time in case of roadworks/traffic problems...

last year we arrived around 6am, so with 2 hours to kill we found a Tesco and bought some sarnies etc for breakfast...then we headed towards the Glasto site at about 7.30am and got straight in...we must've been lucky (after hearing some of the  nightmare stories on here)...

anyway, in the words of Spandau Ballet (to cut a long story short) we would be happy if they opened the car parks earlier (Tues 8pm) as that would mean we could head straight down on Tuesday evening & try to get there for about 2am, maybe have a nap & then Q up to get in at 8am...

i don't think my mates would want to take an extra day off work just to get to site for 8pm just to hang around for 12 hours...but we'd be happier if the car parks were open at 8pm, which allows people to trickle in for 12 hours instead of all arriving at 8am...

if this doesn't happen though...i've heard other suggestions of opening the campervan fields earlier & letting the buses in earlier too...both of which would ease the congestion and maybe encourage people to get the bus instead of using the car...

[Langdale Wolf]

shoptildrop, on Oct 8 2009, 12:55 PM, said:

1st time glasto so excuse dumb question - what time do they actually open gates to the festival site then on the Wednesday?

Personally gonna camp near by with a campsite with hot showers and drive to site around 8ish and see how that goes....

8am I believe.

Forget about the hot showers - just camp it up properly like everyone else!!  

[Buddhafish]

Surely this scheme gives car drivers an advantage over public transport users when it comes to hitting the ped gates first on Wednesday morning, further discouraging public transport as an option?

[hope]

staggering entry times (either by numbered or coloured tickets as previously suggested) wouldn't work, cos people would STILL turn up as early as possible & then if the steward wouldn't allow them in at 1am cos their ticket said 7am - so what are they supposed to do ?

will they be refused entry & have to turn around and drive round again & join the back of the Q ?

this would be an absolute nightmare to control - impossible i would say.

[eFestivals]

psychology, on Oct 8 2009, 12:01 PM, said:

If you get 20-30k people arriving overnight on the tues then surely the queues at 8am at the ped gates will be huge?

yep, quite probably. But that doesn't cause anyone any bother aside from the people queuing for the pedestrian gates to open.

While yours and my normal life comes to a stop for the duration of the festival, people who live in the area still have to be able to do their normal things - which they couldn't this year, as they couldn't get anywhere.

[eFestivals]

Langdale Wolf, on Oct 8 2009, 12:47 PM, said:

(Didn't someone - possibly Neil - say that the traffic last year wasn't helped by Glastonbury basically advertise itself as a 5-day festival starting on the Wednesday?).

Yep. I believe that's the sole reason for the massive traffic problems that happened this year.

It's very definitely the case that very many more people were in the area at 8am on the Wednesday this year than had been the case previously.

[eFestivals]

Pinhead, on Oct 8 2009, 12:51 PM, said:

Yeah, as I've said in another thread on this, it has the potential to backfire if enough people turn up early.

I can't see how it can make the problems worse, I can only see how it can make things better.

It will help spread the arrival times, because while some people would turn up early and be in the car parks overnight, it won't be everyone. There'd be less other traffic on the roads during the evening and nighttime than there is at 8am (rushhour).

Pinhead, on Oct 8 2009, 12:51 PM, said:

Difficult to police as outside the fence, security will be poor. This means that its possible anyone can turn up an cause trouble. Plus can't see the other local farmers who own the car park fields would want to deal with the associated litter, tent pegs, fires, hedge pissing, p1ssheads etc. damage to their land as well. Locals wound'nt be too happy either I expect. They and MDC probably won't like the idea of the festival 'moving beyond' its perimeter either, even temporarily as well, what with turdises and stalls being put up outside the fence as has been indicated.

the festival is not daft enough to allow things to be a free-for-all.

There might well be some rules, such as no fires. There won't be a problem with this, because Glastonbury is not Reading or Leeds, and it will self-police to an extent, with security to deal with any twats that won't be told by other festival goers.

There's already turdis' in the car parks anyway.

Pinhead, on Oct 8 2009, 12:51 PM, said:

Stagger arrivals by car park ticket number.

That would be a far worse system from all angles, because it would be impossible to administer.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

Will they be opening the campervan fileds earlier then?

If this has been mentioned before sorry.

[MEGABOWL]

I agree with those who say this can't be a bad idea. I don't believe many people would actually queue overnight and if they do, fair play to them. I do think numbers would trickle in though throughout the morning, people who would have aimed to get there at 8 might get there at 6.30 and get in the queue (we're staying at a hotel 12km away on the Tuesday night and may do just that),

However, I think public transport also needs to offer that option. A quick look at National Express reveals that the earliest you can get there on bus is 9.45 am and that's only from Bristol, if you're coming from further afield it's 10.30. Otions that travel overnight and arrive at 6/7 in the morning would be consistent with opening the gates early, and wanting people to use public transport

[5co77ie]

Rufus Gwertigan, on Oct 8 2009, 12:35 PM, said:

Will they be opening the campervan fileds earlier then?

If this has been mentioned before sorry.

If the idea gets the go ahead then yes the campervan fields will open early.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

5co77ie, on Oct 8 2009, 01:56 PM, said:

If the idea gets the go ahead then yes the campervan fields will open early.

Cool, I would get another days work then But then that means getting on site for the Monday, so I will have to adjust my Solstice plans a little


But this could cost a pretty penny, but if they have plenty of money earning interest in the bank at the moment, that would offset that.

Edited by Rufus Gwertigan, 08 October 2009 - 01:06 PM.

[Pinhead]

eFestivals, on Oct 8 2009, 01:31 PM, said:

I can't see how it can make the problems worse, I can only see how it can make things better.

It will help spread the arrival times, because while some people would turn up early and be in the car parks overnight, it won't be everyone. There'd be less other traffic on the roads during the evening and nighttime than there is at 8am (rushhour).



the festival is not daft enough to allow things to be a free-for-all.

There might well be some rules, such as no fires. There won't be a problem with this, because Glastonbury is not Reading or Leeds, and it will self-police to an extent, with security to deal with any twats that won't be told by other festival goers.

There's already turdis' in the car parks anyway.



That would be a far worse system from all angles, because it would be impossible to administer.

It would certainly ease the pressure on the roads by having people arrive off peak and out of commuter hours, yes, and what's less disruptive for the locals is better for us in the long run. Quite agree. However, I think its success pivots on just how popular it is and how many people arrive the previous night. Yes, if if its a trickle of people all the way up until gate opening time, great. However, if thousands arrive en masse then it could be harder to manage and resources such as tudis' etc. might be stretched - its a gamble isn't it.

I agree Glasto is very different to V, Reading etc. in its 'social policing' ethic, but will that work as well in the car parks as it does in site during the festival proper? Also, security may find the car parks far harder to police that the festival behind the fence and outside the normal festival core days. The monitoring infrastructure is currently far poorer in the car parks that it is inside, unless they plan to invest in this for the car parks now as well.

Yes, a staggered arrival by ticket would be impossible to administer really - it could only be more of a guide or a request for people, much like 'try to avoid using the car' . . .

Edited by Pinhead, 08 October 2009 - 01:16 PM.

[eFestivals]

Pinhead, on Oct 8 2009, 02:15 PM, said:

I agree Glasto is very different to V, Reading etc. in its 'social policing' ethic, but will that work as well in the car parks as it does in site during the festival proper?

I would have thought so - for a start, people won't be as mashed. IMO, there's little more chance of any car park issues than they'd be in previous years.

Pinhead, on Oct 8 2009, 02:15 PM, said:

Also, security may find the car parks far harder to police that the festival behind the fence and outside the normal festival core days. The monitoring infrastructure is currently far poorer in the car parks that it is inside, unless they plan to invest in this for the car parks now as well.

The cars will be parked closely together as they are normally. Anyone starting a fire in that very limited space will soon be put right by the owners of the cars that the fire is near - it doesn't take a genius to work that out!

Outside of people stupidly starting a fire, what other issues might there be? None is my thoughts.

[Josie's Cat]

People getting drunk and falling on to cars? Car alarms going off, broken windows, rubbish and pissing I think may be issues.

Probably will be fine, everyone will behave and have a nice friendly time, but you never know. Depend how many show up I suppose.

Actually scotch the windows thing, that's almost certain not to happen. But the rest might.

Edited by Josie's Cat, 08 October 2009 - 01:26 PM.

[tazzyb]

It is an interesting idea. Letting the campervans in earlier is a no brainer, get the largest motors off the road.

Car parks opening at 8 pm.  Personally I am all for it.  We travel all the way from Newcastle, have done it by bus, train, driving over night and last year got a hotel outside Bath on Tuesday night, left the hotel at 7am cos I thought it would be a straight drive al a satnav and take 40 minutes.  

We got stuck in traffic for hours.  At one point I was even out of the car teaching people in other cars Rolfs court of king caractacus dance.  

If this does go a head we will just hire a camper and sleep in it in the car park Tuesday night.  Yes the queues at the ped gates could be massive by 8am but that is better then it being queues on the road.  The less impact the festival has for people who live in the area the better.

I would go and see what the queue situation was like at about 6 am and join just with tents if needs be.  That way not queuing loaded down.  Get wrist band get in and get tent up.  Collect rest of stuff from camper as convenience, its gonna be quicker getting back in for sure.

We were going to get a hotel for Monday night too but could just use the camper again.

[st00ka]

eFestivals, on Oct 8 2009, 02:21 PM, said:

I would have thought so - for a start, people won't be as mashed. IMO, there's little more chance of any car park issues than they'd be in previous years.

Other than the fact that there are now potentially thousands of people hanging around with nothing to do for twelve hours.