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Gate B madness last year


Stu H
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17 hours ago, incident said:

Off the top of my head, 2013 certainly did. I got off a coach at 7:45 and was through Gate A before 8am even hit so whatever queue there was from the Coach Station had already pretty much cleared.

We were through Gate C well before 8am in 2013, and were pitched on the Big Ground by 8.30am. We didn't arrive in the car park till 6.30am but there really wasn't any queue pushing involved, it was just luck. 

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Although i didn't mind the queue I'm giving my tent to my mate who is doing a first in sleep in the car wednesday morning thing again, he'll set up a primo camp on big ground and I'll just rock up fresh as a daisy Thursday evening.  

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Sorry, slight digression, but getting to the various pedestrian gates from the carparks - do you get a choice, or is everyone marshalled from the carparks to a specific gate depending on how busy each gate is?

Looking at the map, it appears pretty equidistant from, say, car park 6 to either gate B or C... For where I'm hoping to meet up with mates gate C would make more sense.  It looks like there are pedestrian routes to the gates either way.

Definitely don't want to waste energy & time walking the wrong direction! :(

(PS Before anyone says, I do know you don't get the choice of carpark... :rolleyes:)

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1 minute ago, jimmillen said:

Sorry, slight digression, but getting to the various pedestrian gates from the carparks - do you get a choice, or is everyone marshalled from the carparks to a specific gate depending on how busy each gate is?

Looking at the map, it appears pretty equidistant from, say, car park 6 to either gate B or C... For where I'm hoping to meet up with mates gate C would make more sense.  It looks like there are pedestrian routes to the gates either way.

Definitely don't want to waste energy & time walking the wrong direction! :(

(PS Before anyone says, I do know you don't get the choice of carpark... :rolleyes:)

On the West side, it's pretty easy to walk to Gate A or D from any Car Park and is signposted in a few places.

On the East Side, I don't think it's quite as obvious but can be done.

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I'm with the arrive later, stroll in faction. I aim to arrive shortly after lunch on Wednesday and usually just walk straight up to the counter for my wristband. Sorted.

The hassle and crush are not for me and I've got a six hour drive (from the frozen wastelands of the North), I also prefer the leafy delights of Pylon, Bushy or Rivermead to the cramped huddle of Pennards.

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My friend organises a couple of coaches each year for our group of friends. It was a complete NIGHTMARE last year. He got in touch with glastonbury regarding the situation this year and they have assured him there have been changes. They sent him this. Drop off and pick up will be at the Bronze gate, which is on the A361, the road that runs along the top of the site, adjoining the car parks and it is easily walkable to the west side gates.

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On 5/19/2016 at 3:21 PM, Cieran said:

Anyone at gate D? I was wrist banding that morning and I heard very similar stories. Think I remember something about a fence falling down and loads of people being able to skip the queue? This is all what I heard from people coming in

They had the holding pen type area at the top of the hill at gate D, but in that were the snakey barriers... but instead of using the metal gates, they used string.

As soon as the gates opened, everyone just lifted up the string and walked under it, ignoring the snake type system completely and causing a kind of mayhem / stampede towards the bit where you filter in to get your wristbands. They had to shut it off behind us for half an hour whilst the stewards replaced the string with metal gates. 
 

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People do realize that there is no queue ? The reason the car parks are open the night before is to get the traffic off the roads not to allow people to queue to get in the earliest. If you arrive around gate opening time (as we do each year) you will be guided to form additional queue lines so you have just as much chance of getting in at the same time as someone who has been there all night.

I know people seem to think that it should work as get there early get in early but it doesn't work like that and was never intended to work like that. It's simply a mechanism for clearing traffic off the local roads.

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I'm really concerned about it happening again this year. why on earth would they use string instead of metal barriers?! and no security presence was really frightening. I'm thinking of trying gate C but have no experience or knowledge of it and no concept of how many will be queueing or the distance it takes to get in the gate. 

Who can we talk to about whether there will be metal barriers? I'm the sort of loser who was planning my strongly worded letter as I looked angrily at those ruining the system for everyone. 

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Thank Christ we're on the coach this year, so will rock up at Gate A (I think?) and hopefully stroll in. The rest of our posse will be there from the night before and will hopefully have gotten in and set up by the time we arrive

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20 hours ago, Cieran said:

I was wristbanding that morning and we were required to be at our stations for 6am but they didn't open until bang on 8am. We were told it was because they were considering opening them early but that sounds like bullshit. Does Glastonbury ever open early?

They have done in the past, not necessarily on all the gates.  I believe that the helicopters overhead crowd monitoring might lead to decisions to open early if there are many people backed up.  I've certainly been through as early as 7 and was pretty gutted last year when they made us wait right to the last minute, as the last couple of years I'd been in well ahead of official opening times.

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2 hours ago, Nikolai1985 said:

Gate D was shit - people literally stampeded over people, then barriers were pushed over followed by people just walking through the ropes.
Made a long night turn into a shitty morning until the wristband was slapped on and then it was happy days :)

My son is aiming to camp in Dairy/South park so wants to go in by D.  Personally I'm going to do the walk to A instead and leave him to it.  Last year he arrived in the car parks about the same time I arrived on coach and got through the gate 4 hours after me.

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1 hour ago, The_Amazing_Oblong said:

People do realize that there is no queue ? The reason the car parks are open the night before is to get the traffic off the roads not to allow people to queue to get in the earliest. If you arrive around gate opening time (as we do each year) you will be guided to form additional queue lines so you have just as much chance of getting in at the same time as someone who has been there all night.

I know people seem to think that it should work as get there early get in early but it doesn't work like that and was never intended to work like that. It's simply a mechanism for clearing traffic off the local roads.

There's definitely a queue.

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Been reading this thread with not a little dismay.

We do the whole get-there-Tuesday-evening-meet-friends (made at Glastonbury)-get-squiffy (Cava...classy)-enough-to-kip-in-the-car-seats-down-stretched-out-join-the-queue-early-Weds-a.m. thing every year* purely because Gate C queuing is SO organised.

Sure, you're queued in what seems like a random (campervan) field at 6am, but every year there have been stewards to ask or who've told us we'd be moving forward in, say, 20 mins.

Always seem to end up on / adjacent to the Hill of Death at 8am-ish with the gate in sight.

Upon opening we're pitched by 9.30am at the latest.

Great atmosphere in the queue. Wee top up drinkies...the 'I can walk or carry ANYTHING' kind.

This other Gate B shit sounds fucking horrendous.

But yeah, leave Gate C alone.

 

*not this year. Getting there Friday 7am. I need to be there early as I have to get on the case with @Scruffylovemonster's bacon sarnie.

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22 minutes ago, The_Amazing_Oblong said:

Well I would describe it more as congestion at the gate than queue. Queue suggests some kind of order, which there isn't. I get you though, it does feel like queuing.

I'm not too fussed, Some of the banter on the way in is golden.

Yeah, definitely not organised!  I can see when they start filling a new car park there's need for a new queue to leave that car park.  Then when you get to a field nearer the gate it feels like there's already a new queue, definitely new queues do form as you say.  

I think it depends on the gate how straight forward it is.  C seems easy, by the time you've marched through the campervan fields there's only really one route, so by the time you reach a halt it's fairly orderly and relaxed.  I've not used D, but went in and out through there to get gear from a friends car, and seems like the terrain out there's a bit scattered to say the least, so I can see how people would end up approaching from lots of different directions.  Bad form if there's something set up like a rope and everyone just ducks under as is being described - but probably bad form for it not to have been a proper fence thing as they eventually had to stop to rebuild - bad organisation.

What I hate is when there is clearly a queue and people ignore it, and decide to join at the front.  or join at the side and just carry on wide around it, ignoring the people waiting

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I tend to get there early (6:00am ish) on Wednesday morning so we can can get a camp in Hitchin Hill large enough so we can get a camp fire going on a night. 

Always get in the west car parks too as it will generally save you hours when leaving on monday. This is because you dont have loads of people trying to get out the east parking fields onto a single track road.

If you arrive from the east on the A37 (which I do) you may find the stewards try to direct you to the east car parks, but ignore them and drive down the A361 to the west car parks. 

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