A note about car parks, security and mud

[verrymerry]

2 hours ago, stuwilky said:

18 hours from Tewkesbury - no complaints (I just wish I stayed at the campsite I had booked for Tuesday night! - kipping against my car window on the A37 wasnt quite as comfy!) 

Christ that's even worse...  But...

2 hours ago, muddychick said:

21 hours from Lincolnshire! We were still laughing at 7 am Wednesday when we got onsite. Not ideal but we were just happy to have been lucky enough to get tickets again. I'm sure a lot of ticketless would have swapped places with us in a heartbeat so we didn't let it get us down. 

Soryy for going off topic slightly. 

What the actual f**k!  You genuinely have ALL my sympathy, and admiration that you were still smiling! I only got downhearted for about an hour, the reminder that we would get their eventually made it less excruciating than I'd have expected.  Still!

[GlastoAwe]

I think when you drive you have to accept that it's always going to be hit and miss and having been stuck in car parks queuing to get out for several hours previously, I understand the frustration when you're knackered and just wanting to be home and you can see some queues moving and others not, but it would be so difficult to manage. 

It does seem a bit mixed to suggest that you ignored the official advice on the way in on the Wednesday to your benefit (advice which I assume is intended to benefit everyone stuck in traffic on their way to the festival) yet suggest an even more official / organised approach to exiting the site because you want to benefit from that?  Just as you exercised on the way in, people will always take chances and try to reduce their journey/queue times when leaving - sometimes it pays off and other times it doesn't.

[philipsteak]

3 hours ago, verrymerry said:

Complain all you like when it takes you 14 hours from BRISTOL! That was the journey one of the bar staff had that I was chatting to on Weds.  It made mine pale in comparison

Some Oxfam stewards got on the shuttle bus in Bristol at 5pm (having traveled from wherever to get there), didn't get in to our field until 10.30 Wednesday morning.

[muddychick]

50 minutes ago, verrymerry said:

Christ that's even worse...  But...

What the actual f**k!  You genuinely have ALL my sympathy, and admiration that you were still smiling! I only got downhearted for about an hour, the reminder that we would get their eventually made it less excruciating than I'd have expected.  Still!

Thanks  Verrymerry! It was a mad journey that woul normally be about 4 hours 39. We actually made friends with a lovely guy in the camper behind us, we stuck together all weekend as camp mates. Gotta love Glasto for this kind of thing.

[Sawdusty surfer]

This might not be very helpful, but hey, take an extra day off work and go home on the Tuesday. Honestly, you won't get grief for this from GFL. Then you can enjoy the multitude of Monday night crew parties.

[FuzzyDunlop]

What time were people leaving to have such issues?

We arrived through Glastonbury about 5am on Wednesday morning and got to just before the Red Lion pub. We got into the car park (pink 51) at just gone 7am. They had opened the gates early. Through gate D by 7:30. No queue, just the walk. Tent pitched and a beer by 8am!

I suppose it did take 2 hours to do 2 miles, but my mate set off from London at 11am. He was pitched with us by 4:30pm.

[Jakeyboy1986]

31 minutes ago, Sawdusty Surfer said:

This might not be very helpful, but hey, take an extra day off work and go home on the Tuesday. Honestly, you won't get grief for this from GFL. Then you can enjoy the multitude of Monday night crew parties.

Would you have to shift your tent from the public campsite or are they really that relaxed?

[MilkyJoe]

1 hour ago, philipsteak said:

Some Oxfam stewards got on the shuttle bus in Bristol at 5pm (having traveled from wherever to get there), didn't get in to our field until 10.30 Wednesday morning.

Yeah I was talking to a girl on gate A and she was telling me about those oxfam stewards. It seems they had a bit of a nightmare.

Really feel for those that struggled this year. I got lucky, I was supposed to set off from Cumbria at 5 but I'd logged onto the main site and read that they were having big delays so I went back to bed for a few hours, set off at half 8 and ended up driving straight in.

[verrymerry]

31 minutes ago, Jakeyboy1986 said:

Would you have to shift your tent from the public campsite or are they really that relaxed?

I wondered this too. I've stayed til late Monday afternoon but security were encouraging us to leave. We took it in shifts to stay at the tent, so I doubt I could enjoy myself Monday night 

[Sawdusty surfer]

10 hours ago, Jakeyboy1986 said:

Would you have to shift your tent from the public campsite or are they really that relaxed?

It would be fine.

[Skoo]

I'd be scared of someone taking my tent thinking I'd abandoned it...

[Pylon_Wanderer]

Pink 54 was chaos and a lot of the queuing could've been solved with 1 sign post or if the stewards who were there in the day time on the Sunday had any knowledge of the car parks. I'll try my best to explain. Below is a picture of the car park site (without the arrows) and there were 2 stewards sat between 53, 54 and 57 during the day time on Sunday (as we had packed all of our stuff and had taken it to the car so we could get a sharpish get away after Earth, Wind and Fire). I asked them the best way to get out of the car park in the early hours of the morning, to which they replied 'we're not sure, cars seem to head that way *points towards Pink Gate 2*'.

Approx. 12:30am we get to our car and there are already cars getting stuck in the mud in Pink 54 and I imagine the situation was the same in all of the car parks. By approx 1am (after helping push a few cars which were stuck out of the mud) we were on the tracks they put down between 54 and 57 heading towards Pink Gate 2. Complete jam. 

I went on my phone (which was being charged by my car) and found the below map which showed another exit (Pink Gate 4). I walked down to where I assumed there would be the metal tracks before the hedge within Pink 54 to find a grassy route which nobody was going down. I asked the cars near the front in they knew what was down there, 'nope'. So I proceeded to sprint down the hedge in my wellies (in case there was movement and I missed my ride!) and saw a completely free exit with one or two cars casually driving out(!). As mentioned 1 sign at the intersection between 53, 54 and 57 would've had all the cars out of 54 and 55 going freely on their way in no time at all. I proceeded to sprint back and inform the cars to head that way... it took some convincing as they had already been queuing for 30+mins at this point with no movement.

The green arrows below show the direction ALL the cars were trying to head causing a massive jam. The aqua colour shows the completely free route to an exit not being used. No stewards in sight at the intersection like there had been in the day.

If you ended up leaving via Pink Gate 4 during the early hours of Monday morning I would like to take an assist 

 

 

Edited July 4, 2016 by Pylon_Wanderer

[MEGABOWL]

13 hours ago, philipsteak said:

Some Oxfam stewards got on the shuttle bus in Bristol at 5pm (having traveled from wherever to get there), didn't get in to our field until 10.30 Wednesday morning.

That's just bizarre. I was on a See Tickets coach from Bristol that left at 7.45 and we were through Gate A by 9 and at our camp by 9.30

[Jugtanion]

I left pink 49 at 5pm on the Monday. There was a long queue to get out but my car was parked near the front of it. I had a debate with my other half about starting up and joining the front, it was either 1) do that, 2) drive across the field to join further back down the queue and probably get stuck feet away from us in one of the several bogs which we could see we'd meet or 3) stay in situe for a couple of hours so we'd 'paid our time' and just guess how long we should be expected to wait. Needless to say we went with 1. This year we were lucky and parked near an exit. Next year (tickets permitting) we might be neck deep in traffic. Just the way it goes.