Overcrowding this year - "50000 extra let into the site"

[Nobody Interesting]

No busier anywhere than normal apart from maybe the main walking routes and that was simply down to how muddy other places were.

SE Corner might have been busier early as people were being sensible and heading down early due to the mud.

No way would the festival let in extras and risk the future.

[verrymerry]

We all thought Weds was much quieter and assumed people were putting off arriving til Thursday, but perhaps that's because we found somewhere to visit other than can't hack the SE corner 

[Winslow Leach]

15 hours ago, Memory Man said:

was still going off in the bimble inn after 4am on saturday night, really busy! 

Yeah Bimble Inn was still rammed when I left about 5 that night. Had a great time in there too. 

[johnomatic]

It was incredibly busy in SE Corner/Shangri-La on Saturday night, by far the busiest I've seen it having gone pretty much every night for four festivals, but I just assumed that was because everyone was trying to get in to see Ronson and Parker (especially with the Lady Gaga rumour) as oppose to there actually being tens of thousands of extras at the whole festival. I mean, the Hell Stage was packed to the rafters even for The Correspondents on Thursday night and they're nowhere near as well known. 

[Helsbels]

I know they upped festival capacity by a good few thousand people a few years back and in 2013 which was my my last festival before this one everywhere was noticeably busier not just the naughty corner and we queued for things and couldn't get in tents where we previously had no issues. A lot of my friends won't go to Glasto because of this. I steered clear of this area until Sunday night when we headed down around 9pm and it was fairly easy to move around probably because a good percentage went to Coldplay then left the site. They really do need to look at the numbers though. Even if I missed out on tickets I'd rather enjoy the ones I did get to without being in dangerously crowded situations

[budvar]

The idea that there were 50,000 "extra" people let in is obviously nonsense. I can't say the festival felt any busier than it's been since the capacity was raised a few years ago. It's certainly the case that the South East corner is seen as a "must-do" part of the festival. Makes me laugh thinking back to how small Lost Vagueness was by comparison; fair to say that would have felt like a squeeze.

[barcelonista1899]

Balderdash. I don't know what you think happens on ticket gates but they don't just let another 50,000 people in for no reason. Are you sure the steward wasn't confused about the 5,000 Sunday tickets that are sold? 

 

From recollection, Shangri-la was more 'open' this year, and there were less micro venues = bigger queues for the venues.  

[maclauk]

Say by two lads in the green fields. They told us they didn't have tickets and had got in for £100 each. They told us most of the details of how but I'll not post those here.

They claimed to have pulled the same stunt last year as well. No wristbands on either of them at least partially confirmed their story.

There are certainly a fair number who get in without tickets every year. We've bumped into a few most years. I doubt the number is 50000 but it's not insignificant.

[Spindles]

It seemed no more packed than recent years to me.  Sure a few get in without a ticket and fair play to those who do I say, but they are only a really small number, even if that number is slowly rising.

They were rock solid on checking photos at the gates when we went through, similarly all weekend with passouts so I'd say it was harder to get in this year than it has been for a few if you were trying to blag.

[pie_and_a_pint]

I suspect the SE Corner feels busier because it is - it seems to be a tickybox everyone HAS to do in order to say they've really experienced Glastonbury, man. 

[WS_Jack_III]

Never once thought it was over crowded anywhere, I must have got lucky.

[fur_q]

4 minutes ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Never once thought it was over crowded anywhere, I must have got lucky.

I thought it was mostly fine and I was in block 9 Friday and shangrila Saturday after headliners. 

 

The only time issue I had was when I left the glade to go to the toilets along the railway track at about 12:30 as far as I could work out stewards had closed off access to shangrila and one of the access routes to Arcadia through penards this basically meant that everyone turned away from Arcadia was heading to the SE corner entrance along the railway track and everyone turned away from shangrila was heading in the opposite direction to try for Arcadia. 

[Stokesy10]

14 hours ago, FieldOfAvalon said:

There was a real issue with overcrowding this year.

I thought Weds and Thurs night were ridiculous, with a 30 deep queue along the entire perimeter of some venues. No chance of entry unless you'd been there all day.

My friends and I put this down to the fact more people arrived early, the mud slowed everyone down and the fact that some venues weren't ready (Block 9).

However, if anything Sat was worse. Making our way to the SE Corner not only took an eon, but it contained some genuinely worrying moments where we were completely trapped in, like on the back hill to the Common, and because of the mud people were starting to lose balance and go "under" other people. It was one of those where one panicking person could have created something nasty.

We were then told Shangri La was full and not letting anyone in, just by 11 pm. To be honest we were all relieved to escape the crush.

Later that night as were leaving Block 9 I decided to speak to a steward, and said something like "is it me or does there seem like 50000 extra people here?"

To my shock she replied "there is. They let 50000 extra people in today". I first laughed and thought she was joking, but after pressing her repeatedly I soon realised she was 100% serious. I asked her why, she said none of the staff knew, but they were just as angry about it as we were.

 

50,000! What a great guess! 

 

There is no a chance on earth.

[WS_Jack_III]

I never bothered with the SE corner this year but it's always bonkers crazy down there.

[Joshuwarr]

This seems strange to me. Me and my friend were saying how empty Wednesday seemed. If anything, it felt like more people took advantage of turning up later to the festival. 

I think part of the issue with the SE Corner is that they have such huge acts on small stages and that a lot of the other late night areas (Silver Hayes, The Park) either aren't advertised enough or close a lot earlier.

[stuartbert two hats]

28 minutes ago, Stokesy10 said:

50,000! What a great guess! 

 

There is no a chance on earth.

Yeah, that's the most obvious sign it's not true!

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

You simply cannot believe a word any of the stewards or martials say. I tried talking to about 20+ on wed/Thursday about getting into cv east and they are all utterly clueless and most would struggle to tell you what their name is. I'd imagine letting 50k extra people in was actually more to do with the fact more people arrive over the weekend but they massivley over embellished.

[selotape]

I thought it was generally quieter than the last 2 years because the mud was keeping people back. This includes visiting Shangi-la on Friday and Saturday night. Maybe I just got lucky as well!

[RickW]

10 hours ago, rpfranks said:

Are you sure this wasnt on the Sunday ?

Just a thought as they do let locals in on Sunday for the day so it tends to feel busier.

According the the licence as agreed with Mendip District Council there are 5000 Sunday tickets sold to locals, this figure is agreed for 10 years from 2014, so there may have been 5000 more but certainly not 50000! 

[Chawk]

It's true- apparently there were 50,000 Dothraki Warriors encamped outside Blue Gate and Michael just let them all in as long as there was 'minimal pillaging'. 

[stuartbert two hats]

1 minute ago, Chawk said:

It's true- apparently there were 50,000 Dothraki Warriors encamped outside Blue Gate and Michael just let them all in as long as there was 'minimal pillaging'. 

Sounds like the early 90s

[sully1311]

They really need to stop putting massive current house/techno dj's in one of the smallest venues in Shangri-La too (LBHQ). At 5am sunday morning there was still a massive queue for Jamie Jones and the Hell Stage was basically empty!

But yes, they really need to re-think the SE Corner, will probably be way different after the fallow year.

[Dave F.]

23 hours ago, FieldOfAvalon said:

To my shock she replied "there is. They let 50000 extra people in today"

Sorry, but that's just people talking bollocks. It's a game of Chinese whispers & "The fish I caught was.... THIS big". 
It was the same number of people as for the past few years. The reason the SE corner gets filled up is most people like to follow a crowd. There were clear signs on the approaches to the area stating whether it was busy/closed. Idiots just ignored/didn't see them.

[lukemack]

Honestly didn't seem any busier than any other years, with generally shorter ques for every venue I went in the SE corner

[Chimps in Balaclavas]

I don't know about extra numbers added, but I do know that the security scam with people getting let in for a certain amount is still ongoing. I met quite a few people with similar stories of getting in and none had wristbands.

To be fair, I think mud played a part with the overcrowding, with congestion building up in certain areas. I know at certain points it was a quagmire, everyone battling to wade through at a snail's pace.