Chaos.

[devilman]

Man, this sounds really bad. One girl run over and thousands of unhappy people. t really need to sort this. Get Balado back or find somewhere suitable.

 

https://www.facebook.com/tinthepark/posts/10154142689994968?comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22O%22%7D

[Stuart1000]

It was really unorganised for the buses last night. We waited about 2hrs to get on a bus to Glasgow. One floodlight lighting the entire pick up/drop off area, no stewards to be seen anywhere. Dreading going back up on Sunday now.

[Red Day]

See on FB T are blaming the folks at the unofficial campsite for causing the lack of stewards and signage at their coach park.  Apparently they were walking back to their campsite and this caused all the problems.  Utter bollox

[devilman]

It's a shambles. I'm hearing of people being hit by buses and cars with possibly one fatality. this is what happens when palms are greased and politics over ride common sense. The site isn't suitable. in fact it's dangerous. I hope the HSE fuck them over good.

[OneLittleFish]

See on FB T are blaming the folks at the unofficial campsite for causing the lack of stewards and signage at their coach park.  Apparently they were walking back to their campsite and this caused all the problems.  Utter bollox

 

I saw that, suggesting the problem was down to people using a local business (and also how the local business didn't put a bus on - in my mind the local business has more right to be there than T so T should be putting on the buses to ensure minimal hassle to the local community) but then saying how they're putting on extra security/lighting/signs etc. etc. etc.

 

Just take responsibility and don't point fingers, T.

[OneLittleFish]

Having problems again in getting people away and the mood on the Facebook page appears quite angry tonight.

[found home in 2009]

Our bus has just left the site an hour after we were meant to arrive home.

Shambles getting in too and sound levels really low at main and radio 1 stage.

Also got caught in a crush outside king tuts & missed start of libertines. Site isn't fit for purpose.

[Genghis khan]

And again just home disaster of a site seen someone getting ran over on the shambles they call a road there is no way it can keep going there

If it does I'd like to say no thanks

[crowie]

Been up both days.

 

Friday arrived about 12.30ish, 20 mins to get in. 

 

Getting out however.....our bus driver had been sitting static in a queue of traffic about 2 1/2 miles from East pick up for 50 mins when I spoke to him. I eventually rounded up all our bus and we had to walk to him at about 1am, including one young lass with a broken toe, as he was never getting to us. The entire walk to him was traffic waiting to get to pick up point. He managed to u turn and thankfully (thankfully!) we were home by 3.15 latest - Dunfermline/Dalgety Bay. 

 

 

Saturday arrived about 11.30ish, had a drink outside for 30 mins and then trying to get in can only be described as anarchy. A queue that was going nowhere developed into a scrum as more day buses arrived and people just exited from them onto the first block of people we saw. Felt sorry for the stewards as they were undermanned and there was basically no control or organisation. Barriers pulled down, at one point seen someone holding a crash barrier over their head. It just developed into, well anarchy, surges, crushs, lots of very scared kids. Not proud to admit but I cut a few "corners" at the "queue", everyone was trying, and we eventually got in at about 1.45. If we had't done that I reckon it was a 3pm for getting in. No announcements, no control, nothing. Ohh and checking was like airport security. At one point, while waiting and going nowhere, I was very close to jumping on a bus and leaving as it was soul destroying. A mate felt the same but thankfully we persevered and got in.

 

 

Leaving Saturday night - thankfully my bus driver was on the ball, was at bottom of East pick up/drop off by 11pm. Rounded up the bus and we were out on our way by 12.30, home 2.15. By FB posts, we were very lucky.

 

 

Going today, almost certainly for the last time ever if T remains at Strathallan. 18 T's, won't be back as this site cannot cope with the numbers, both inside and especially outside. The lack of access, staff, planning etc in this site is staggering.

[Red Day]

Sad to read the last post but with only one way in and out it was always going to happen.  

[stu1872]

I took a drive up to the site a couple of weeks ago to scope the place out and i knew then that it was going to be a total cluster fuck. The roads just cannot cope with numbers the size of T and with there being no paths next to the roads whatsoever it was inevitable that accidents were going to happen.

 

Balado was bearable traffic wise and i never had a problem getting in or out as we parked in Milnathort and just walked to the car or even when we used a minibus we were held up for 15-20 mins max to get home. Never that much of a wait to get in either. 

 

Kind of glad i never went this year after all the stories i am hearing now about Strathallen and i hoped it would work as it looks a beautiful site but it just seems too small and inaccessible for the amount of people that attend T.

 

This could kill of T as we know it. They have already alienated too many of the T faithful with shite lineups for years and now they have made a total cockup of the new site it may put alot of people off going back. After having a good swally alll day and jumping about like a dafty you don't want to be spending hours trying to get home to get up and do it all over again the next day.

 

I was out with my mate yesterday talking about the good old times at T and it made me really want to go back but it is looking more of a possibility we will be heading to Glasto  than T in the future as T has went too far down hill over the years to get your monies worth out of it imo.

[Stuart1000]

I'm about to leave to head up again today but worrying just a bit about getting in/home. We practically walked into the site on Friday about 3pm, no issues whatsoever. Think we'll be up about 12ish today so hoping there's not too much trouble getting in.

We were 2hrs waiting on a bus on Friday night but the wait really wasn't that bad. It was quite civilised, good humoured and (most importantly) calm. In fact, I put a blanket on the ground and fell asleep for an hour or so. Hearing it might've been a little bit more raucous last night so fingers crossed they've got it sorted for tonight.

[Red Day]

Apparently it was all the rains fault last night.  Nothing whatsoever to do with the festival site being unable to cope with the numbers attending.  If Friday and Saturday were bad, god help it tonight when you have some of the weekend campers leaving at the same time as day cash cows.

[Jonjo]

Can't imagine this will go ahead next year on the same basis.

They need to do one or a combination of the following

Return to Balado

Reduce the numbers

Introduce decent park and ride

Reduce the number of stages

Have campers only

They've kind of made their bed in terms of only trying to attract youngsters so there's going to be thousands of inexperienced kids who need much more assistance in terms of stewarding and support. Sounds like they haven't even got the basics right.

Part of me thinks Ellis will use this to get back to Balado or will just call it a day.

[Red Day]

Can't imagine this will go ahead next year on the same basis.

They need to do one or a combination of the following

Return to Balado

Reduce the numbers

Introduce decent park and ride

Reduce the number of stages

Have campers only

They've kind of made their bed in terms of only trying to attract youngsters so there's going to be thousands of inexperienced kids who need much more assistance in terms of stewarding and support. Sounds like they haven't even got the basics right.

Part of me thinks Ellis will use this to get back to Balado or will just call it a day.

Some good points there and I think what you say about the audience generally being young naive kids is spot on.  Park and Ride is a good option and worked for Ryder Cup.  TITP would not make as much cash from outside parking and with sales on the decline, they'll be happy for people to pay them to park, regardless of the traffic carnage it causes.

 

I doubt if Balado  is an option now.  Can't see the owner waiting patiently to rent out the area again but you never know.  HSE have a lot of clout and it would be a brave person to go ahead against their objection.

 

The location is shite and they probably know that but can't admit it.  I'd imagine they'll get a roasting after the event from councils etc and promise to improve next year.  I'd guess it'll def go ahead at Strathallan next year.

 

If they continue to target young bairns as their audience, they need to consider they are inexperienced and being stuck in a soggy unlit field waiting for their lifts is a bloody stupid position to leave them in.

[xtrmntr75]

We left early as didn't fancy the headliners. Waited about 15 mins to get on an Auchterarder shuttle at West Pudo. Was back quite early. Won't be the same tonight as leaving at right at the end. Hope the rain stays off. Next yer might be the year for Glastonbury

[WFD]

First time poster, just logged in to report on the car park situation last night.  Chaos doesn't begin to describe it.  On the way out one of the electronic display boards said 'drivers should be aware of ground conditions and pedestrians in roads when leaving site' - and that was it for the official communications.  We were in West car park and we one of the first in the queue at the bottom of the hill to get towed/pushed up, because all of the routes up were undrivable for a two wheel drive, the traffic during the day and the rain had destroyed them.  The tractors were taking cars up, but each pair was taking five minutes and there were dozens of cars already queuing.

 

Eventually someone removed a barrier which opened up and end of the field that had not been driven on so a few cars, including me, got up the hill that way.  And then sat for over an hour while no traffic moved off the car park.  I thought (and from TITP's twitter) that this meant cars were getting stuck in the mud further along, but it wasn't, it was the amount of traffic overwhelming the roads, made worse by vehicles being allowed/required to enter the car park coming the other way (two articulated lorries came in at one point, which was a twenty minute drama). 

 

By the time we eventually got to the road there were still dozens of people having to walk in the dark between moving traffic, but again this wasn't what was holding things up, it was just the poor logistics of getting traffic out through that system.  Don't get me wrong, I expected it to be a challenge getting out, I wasn't expecting to drive straight out onto an empty road, but that was a nightmare for a lot of people, especially those having to walk, and those waiting for buses with no communication.

[Muddyfields]

Whilst i have no doubt that T organisers have totally messed up here with the access arrangements, many of the FB complaints are from drivers going to collect people from the festival. Do they not realise they are actually contributing to the jams? Hindsight being a great thing, why were festival goers without their own transport not maximising the shuttle bus services? If it was only buses going to drop off points, and cars going going to and from the car parks, the traffic may have been a bit better.

I suppose with the crowd getting younger every year, its the school run mentality of being dropped off and picked up everywhere by parents. As for young folk getting soaked waiting on lifts, every year at T you used to see people dressed more akin to a holiday in Ibiza rather than a field in Scotland. I don't see how titp can be held accountable for people going ill prepared. (After all tbey have just been in a field for 2 days, in the same weather!)

As someone pointed out, the Ryder Cup was held at Gleneagles last year. It's not that far from Strathallan. The existing park and ride car park at Stirling plus adjoining land was used. Everyone was bussed to Gleneagles from Stirling. I think if T in the park is to continue at Strathallan this is probably the only workable option. Of course if they do that, they won't get £20 a car parking revenue.

Of course of all of the above should have been thought about by the organisers. It seems all they have done is picked a smaller site, with worse access but just not changed anything else from their Balado days.

[harryomatic]

Having been here all weekend can definitely agree they need to decrease the capacity a bit for next year. Think if it was around 65,000-70,000 rather than 85,000-90,000 the site would cope better. Obviously they'll have to be some tweaks to the set up and layout of the site, but I guess that sort of thing is difficult to truly analyse until after the event. Can't comment on busses leaving until tomorrow, but sounds like that will need looking at too.

[devilman]

Seems my post with the boy getting bottled has been removed. So far there seems to be a blockout of all the negative stuff in the press apart from this in the Sun.

 

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/scotlandfeatures/titp/6540681/Mud-traps-furiouys-T-in-th-Park-drivers.html?CMP=spklr-_-Editorial-_-FBPAGE-_-TheScottishSun-thescottishsun-_-20150712-_-SunScotNews-_-207679252

[Red Day]

Seems my post with the boy getting bottled has been removed. So far there seems to be a blockout of all the negative stuff in the press apart from this in the Sun.

 

http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/scotlandfeatures/titp/6540681/Mud-traps-furiouys-T-in-th-Park-drivers.html?CMP=spklr-_-Editorial-_-FBPAGE-_-TheScottishSun-thescottishsun-_-20150712-_-SunScotNews-_-207679252

Never mind, Geoff will be flogging early bird tickets for the event of 2016 early next week

[davethemonkey]

Who is to blame for the transport chaos of yesterday?, arrived on citylink from glasgow at 10am, had to stand in queue with thousands of others until after 12 and the bands had started to be let onto the site, then on way back had to wait in queue in the car park for 3 hours to get on bus. Had an brilliant day, loads of fun but 3 hours in the cold and dark at the end of it was a real downer. i think 36 quid is a lot of money for a fairly short return bus journey and then arriving in glasow at 4:30 meant the night buses had stopped running so had to spend 30 quid on a taxi to get home. 66 quid on transport which involved spending 5 hours of the day standing in a car park kind of puts me off going again. I imagine citylink is responsible(i want to ask for compensation) seeing as i bought the bus tickets through their website, is this the case?

[devilman]

The clown that stamped the planning approval on a site incapable of supporting an event such as this is responsible. Then DF. The bus company are pretty exempt from any kind of blame.

[jkb1]

Af the end of Saturday, waited in the Glasgow bus queue for around 31/2 hours, with my partner, a friend, and a youngster having her 1st festival experience. It was a little cold, just a little wet at times, and of course it was a pain in the arse.

However, buses did come, we did get home. No real drama of the fake variety that's all over the internet.

Wow. I missed the night bus & had to get a taxi. Or, there were no stewards. Or even my personal favourite, my mobile batteries ran out.

Some people need a reality check on life.

[Stuart1000]

That's me just home from the site. Great organisation tonight! Stayed until the very end and we were on a bus back to Glasgow by 11:30pm. Well signposted, loads of stewards, police presence, no trouble. You'd think it was a completely different festival from what I saw on Friday.