145 replies to this topic

[smog]

Actually just read that there are 42000 vehicles parked at the site - thats not even a million taken.  Woukld that even pay for the costs that that much traffic causes over a week - police, parking staff, planning and implementation etc - I doubt it.

Pretty good value really.

edit - its one hell of a list:

1. The proposed event
2. Traffic levels and expected peaks
3. Site
4. Vehicle access onto the site and car parks
5. Emergency access onto site
6. Car parking areas and capacities
7. Caravan Camping Fields
8. Drop Off point
9. Disabled
10. Check lanes
11. Bus services to the site
12. Rail and Ride service
13. Vehicle routing
14. Road Closures
15. Route signage
16. Labelling system
17. Traffic Lights
18. Pedestrian Access
19. Publicity for plan
20. Communications
21. Road Cleaning
22. Avon and Somerset Police
23. Lighting
24. Crime Reduction
25. Tow away Facilities

Edited by smog, 01 September 2010 - 04:48 PM.

[llcoolphil]

sifimaster, on 01 September 2010 - 04:43 PM, said:

Agreed.  If you take it in isolation, it's expensive.  But if like everyone else who actually has to budget for Glasto, and you bundle it in with your total cost and spend, it's an irrelevance.

I dont even think if you take it in isolation it's expensive. Wednesday morning to, say, monday lunchtime. 5 1/2 days. Less that £4 a day. Not many car parks you can park in all day for less than £4. Split that between two and it isn't £2 a day. Split it between 4 and it is less than a pound. A pound? What's a pound? I shit a pound.

[eFestivals]

TheJobbyJabber, on 01 September 2010 - 04:25 PM, said:

As far as I was led to believe the programme was part of the price (and wasn't it the Guardian who actualy made them?).

The Guardian do the round-the-neck mini guide, but not the main programme.

The programmes used to be done by one of the Eavis family (one of Michael's nephews I think it was), tho I'm not 100% sure that they still are. If I'm remembering rightly, I think a lot of the content within the programme is now produced by Q Mag, but the financials on doing the programme are probably still done by the fest.

TheJobbyJabber, on 01 September 2010 - 04:25 PM, said:

The car park pass is seperate to anything else. So £20 for what you get (park in a field) is festival by festival car park wise, a rip.

Yet it's not quite that simple.

Glastonbury has for decades been a leader - quote possibly THE leader - in driving the uptake on green thinking within the UK.

Added to that are the traffic problems created by the festival which cause a lot of hassle for locals, which in turn leads Michael to do a lot - costing money - for the benefit of those locals as a form of compensation.

So from one angle it's quite possibly been done to try and lessen the amount of traffic - which ultimately benefits the festival, and from another it's trying to further the uptake of environmentally-good actions.

And while just going to Glastonbury on public transport probably doesn't make much difference envoronmentally, it stands the chance - as can be seen from some of the anti-public transport posts in this thread - of converting some people to make more use of public transport away from the festival, by giving them an experience of it and perhaps making them realise that it's not necessarily so bad after all.

Within those context of those things, I think a higher car parking charge is a good thing. It probably won't change what I choose to do (so it'll impact on me), but it does at least have me thinking about it, which in itself isn't a bad thing - it puts it forward in my mind as an option, when I'd possibly otherwise keep as the primary thought that it's not an option, in the way that has been expressed by others in this thread.

[THEBOILERMAN]

___S_o_m_a__, on 01 September 2010 - 10:28 AM, said:

No but if I want to go to the festival, which I do, then travelling by car is my only viable option. Therefore I do have to pay it.

   there`s always an alternative, use the lift share option on this forum or do as we did last year hire a minibus then fill it with people from this site via the lift share page. 15 of us worked out £50 pound each (and thats from glasgow) including fuel+parking. with the price for parking going up thats an extra 75p each it`s still great value.

Edited by THEBOILERMAN, 01 September 2010 - 05:02 PM.

[Pogues Mcgogues]

llcoolphil, on 01 September 2010 - 04:44 PM, said:

For goodness sake it's like explaining to a child. Yes it's part of the price and there will be an element in the price you pay for a ticket that covers the programme. However, that means you have to add the price of a programme to the price of a ticket at every festival that charges for a programme to get a fair comparison. Booze at a festival isn't a luxury really is it, for the vast majority it is part of the experience. Thus Leeds can offer free parking because it can offset the income it would raise from charging for car parking with the money it makes from the beer and soft drinks you are forced to buy in the arena. TITP, for example, charges you for car parking (or it did when I was last there in 2008) and you cant take drinks in the arena and you have to buy a programme. No question on where value for money lies when you compare Glasto and TITP and any other large festival in the UK. Kendal Calling charged £5 for parking, £4 for a lanyard programme and you couldn't take your beer in the arena - they wanted £3.20 for a CAN of Carlsburg. So even against some smaller festivals we see value for money in Glasto charging policy.

Now all these fields that people park in - there is rent to pay, lighting rigs to pay for, security and stewarding to pay for, portaloos to pay for, signage to pay for. Do you think that they should lob all those costs on the price of a ticket and split it between everyone, regardless of how they arrive - or do you think those going by public transport should be exempt from contributing?


eta

For a better breakdown of costs read Smog's post after mine.

I would hugely doubt that they wouldn't look at the cost of running the car park v's the expected income from it before lurching into different parts of the fest to see if they can make money back/use money made from it to pay for other things.

Cost by cost car park wise, Glasto is very expensive %wise compared to other fests.

Again, I'm not realy saying that I care much about having to pay it, I said I can understand why they pump it right up, but the fact remains that the facilities you get for the £20 are not anywhere near different to other fests car parks.


And in festival you do usualy take things apart and comapre them to similiar things eslewhere. There's no point in me comparing the food at Glastonbury to the toilets at Sonisphere to try and pick a winner is there?

[sifi]

Pogo, you aren't doing anything to diminish certain stereotypes about folk from north of the border .....

[Pogues Mcgogues]

sifimaster, on 01 September 2010 - 05:06 PM, said:

Pogo, you aren't doing anything to diminish certain stereotypes about folk from north of the border .....

Is this an attempt at being a tad bigoted but using humour to cover it up?

[sifi]

TheJobbyJabber, on 01 September 2010 - 05:08 PM, said:

Is this an attempt at being a tad bigoted but using humour to cover it up?

I'm not being bigoted, so you can stop about even thinking about saddling up that high horse of yours right now.  I'm saying that there is - or was - a stereotype about Scots people being tight.  And you are being tight if you are really that wound up about having to pay and extra couple of quid over the course of a weekend where realistically few people get away with spending less than four hundred notes.

Edited by sifimaster, 01 September 2010 - 05:14 PM.

[jameshunt]

___S_o_m_a__, on 01 September 2010 - 12:09 PM, said:

I do car share and always have done. 4 in the car - yeah it's only a fiver each but that doesn't explain the massive 30% price hike in the ticket. To put the rise into perspective if the festival ticket price rose in line with the car park ticket it would cost £260 this year.

You simply do not understand the motives behind this.  No matter how many posts you make in this thread it doesn't change that fact.

[Pogues Mcgogues]

sifimaster, on 01 September 2010 - 05:13 PM, said:

I'm not being bigoted, so you can stop about even mounting that high horse of yours right now.  I'm saying that there is - or was - a stereotype about Scots people being tight.  And you are being tight if you are really that wound up about having to pay and extra couple of quid over the course of a weekend where realistically few people get away with spending less than four hundred notes.

Far too easy! (although I'd like to point out I said I'd be happy to pay it)

[llcoolphil]

TheJobbyJabber, on 01 September 2010 - 05:00 PM, said:

I would hugely doubt that they wouldn't look at the cost of running the car park v's the expected income from it before lurching into different parts of the fest to see if they can make money back/use money made from it to pay for other things.

Cost by cost car park wise, Glasto is very expensive %wise compared to other fests.

Again, I'm not realy saying that I care much about having to pay it, I said I can understand why they pump it right up, but the fact remains that the facilities you get for the £20 are not anywhere near different to other fests car parks.


And in festival you do usualy take things apart and comapre them to similiar things eslewhere. There's no point in me comparing the food at Glastonbury to the toilets at Sonisphere to try and pick a winner is there?

It's like arguing with a moron at times. You clearly have no idea of how basic economics works (though we already knew this) so if you think you're getting free parking at Leeds, you carry on thinking that. The rest of us who understand that you're only getting 'free' parking at Leeds because they are absolutely fleecing you elsewhere at the festival to offset that cost will laugh at you.

[eFestivals]

TheJobbyJabber, on 01 September 2010 - 05:00 PM, said:

but the fact remains that the facilities you get for the £20 are not anywhere near different to other fests car parks.

but the fact remains that even including the car parking charges Glasto is still better value overall than the other big fests.

If you want Glasto to mimic what other fests do, then add twenty quid for a programme (£20 might be more than other festie programmes, but it's also more of a programme!), add at least £50 on your alcohol spend, and have everything shut down at 11pm.

I know which I'd rather have.

[llcoolphil]

eFestivals, on 01 September 2010 - 05:16 PM, said:

but the fact remains that even including the car parking charges Glasto is still better value overall than the other big fests.

If you want Glasto to mimic what other fests do, then add twenty quid for a programme (£20 might be more than other festie programmes, but it's also more of a programme!), add at least £50 on your alcohol spend, and have everything shut down at 11pm.

I know which I'd rather have.

It really is like saying 'Im going to Leeds to save £20 on the car parking. It'll cost me an extra hundred for a programme and beer but Ive saved that £20 on parking'  

[musiclove123]

It's a rip off but the money goes towards the cars being watched over 5 days and I assume the charities

Edited by musiclove123, 01 September 2010 - 05:34 PM.

[Digi]

incident, on 01 September 2010 - 02:51 PM, said:

Pretty sure it was £15 quid in advance and £20 quid on the gate last year.

People claiming "I can only go by car" are clearly full of crap - everyone will have at least one viable public transport option open to them. Tens of thousands of people can and do travel by public transport from all corners of the country to get to the festival.

People choose to go by car because they want a shorter journey, they want to arrive/depart at a specific time, they want to bring shedloads of beer - well tough shit, you can pay an extra fiver for the convenience. It's clear from the traffic problems of the last couple years that far too many cars go to the site, even if this has a small impact it'll be an improvement.

Twas indeed 15 quid - D'oh!  Is 20 quid really all that bad then?!

I have every intention of taking the car again next year and it really isn't an issue of convenience either - what I took last year could easily have been split with 2 of us to get to the camp.  Its a big issue of cost - particularly with me, hubby and 15 year old son trying for tickets on ticket day.  Public transport then becomes very expensive with 3 fares out of the same pot.  I'd quite like someone else to drive me there and home as being the only driver - its a bit of a ballache and believe it or not, I really do try to reduce our carbon footprint!  It just isn't economical for us to get there any other way and i'll be happy to continue to pay the cost of the car park until its so high that it makes financial sense for me to take the train/coach - and I won't whine about it either!

[llcoolphil]

musiclove123, on 01 September 2010 - 05:33 PM, said:

It's a rip off but the money goes towards the cars being watched over 5 days and I assume the charities

Why is it a rip off?

[Pogues Mcgogues]

llcoolphil, on 01 September 2010 - 05:20 PM, said:

It really is like saying 'Im going to Leeds to save £20 on the car parking. It'll cost me an extra hundred for a programme and beer but Ive saved that £20 on parking'  

Phil, geez I've not suggested otherwise. I'd also like you to point out where I've said anything other than I'm happy to pay it.

I'm pointing out that the cost of the car park will be much higher than it has to for the simple fact it's Glasto and I'm sure it's been said before about enviromental issues and the such. It doesn't stop it being expensive though cost by cost to other festivals in its own right. And if that is accurate, then you should be thanking me and others who took the car option last year for contributing to your extra 'free' things on site.

Now, we're all waiting.

[pie_and_a_pint]

£20 for five days parking is a complete bargain.  There will be four of us in a car again, so £20 + £40ish fr petrol comes to £60 in total for four people and four people's stuff.

If we travelled by public transport it would cost us £60 EACH in bus and train fares for a longer, less convenient journey (bus and changing trains twice, plus arriving the 'wrong' side of the site for where we camp).  So I for one don't begrudge GFL their £20 for our space in the East car parks!!

[llcoolphil]

TheJobbyJabber, on 01 September 2010 - 05:36 PM, said:

Phil, geez I've not suggested otherwise. I'd also like you to point out where I've said anything other than I'm happy to pay it.

I'm pointing out that the cost of the car park will be much higher than it has to for the simple fact it's Glasto and I'm sure it's been said before about enviromental issues and the such. It doesn't stop it being expensive though cost by cost to other festivals in its own right. And if that is accurate, then you should be thanking me and others who took the car option last year for contributing to your extra 'free' things on site.

Now, we're all waiting.

But it makes absolutely no sense to compare the value for money offered by a festival by simply comparing car park charges, for all the reasons Ive already explained. Free parking at other large festivals is an illusion because they are effectively charging you for parking by making you pay for beer and a programme. When you keep telling us what a great job labour did in government, you expect us to see the whole package, why is this any different? I haven't suggested you aren't happy to pay it, Im pointing out that your assumption that it is an expensive rip off is misplaced.

[Pogues Mcgogues]

llcoolphil, on 01 September 2010 - 05:43 PM, said:

But it makes absolutely no sense to compare the value for money offered by a festival by simply comparing car park charges, for all the reasons Ive already explained. Free parking at other large festivals is an illusion because they are effectively charging you for parking by making you pay for beer and a programme. When you keep telling us what a great job labour did in government, you expect us to see the whole package, why is this any different? I haven't suggested you aren't happy to pay it, Im pointing out that your assumption that it is an expensive rip off is misplaced.

Yet it still makes no sense to say 'Burgers at festival A are cheaper than burgers at festival B if you minus the 20p extra cost for cola at festival B'. If you try to work out things into every minor detail it becomes impossible.