Your (potentially) Contraversial Changes to Glasto

[liamium]

tend to agree that most of the major crowding issues arise from obstructions to the free flow rather than numbers, and boy howdy there were many of them this year. prams, those massive child caravan things, blanketeers & chair w*nkers. 

don't know what's to be done about this on a large scale. i self-manage it due to anxiety and not feeling entitled to anything at glastonbury. if i get a sense there's going to be overcrowding, problems with quick exits from a situation - i generally bin it off.

see pumarosa at williams green on thurs. got down there to find a sea of people camped out on every square metre of space outside the tent. it was an easy decision to avoid and do something else. 

it's annoying, yes. but reducing the number of people who get to be there isn't a good thing. there are always going to be folk who feel they're entitled to take up as much space as they like. 

[amfy]

For me the issue isn't so much about pinch points and overcrowding - those need better crowd management and have happened for as long as I have been going to Glastonbury (I do think that crowds used to manage themselves better but that's a different issue)

The reason I'd like there to be less people is that I used to love the feeling of space throughout the festival - I.e. - not about 'a few minutes inconvenience' but about the general feel of the place as somewhere chilled out and relaxed, rather than somewhere like Birmingham city centre on a Saturday afternoon. I used to love the headspace that gave me, now even the greenfields can often be really busy. I think that not just me, but everyone misses out on that experience now.

I have experienced missing out on tickets and no doubt I will again. Its my personal view that the festival has lost so much more with the extra numbers, than it has gained with the extra areas/bigger names.

Having said that, I fully appreciate that the Jack is out of the box and it isn't going back in. As has been said, it's not just the ticket sales, it's the knock on effect on the value of trading pitches etc that impacts. The numbers are what they are, and it is still an amazing experience. I just read this thread as a bit of a wishlist really and less people would be my wish.

[MACDrob]

I do understand the comments about wishing there was more space, but it seems wrong to add that space in place of denying other people the chance to experience a place they love or somewhere new.

I'd like to see something employed in the car parks to make the exit system a bit fairer.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

Was the metal path down the centre of the Pyramid new? Don't recall seeing it before but I could well be wrong, what about metal, double width trackway all the way round the pyramid and by the main entrances to the field, with signs saying strictly no chairs or standing? That might create a big enough clear space that people could navigate round.

[rpfranks]

Just now, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Was the metal path down the centre of the Pyramid new? Don't recall seeing it before but I could well be wrong, what about metal, double width trackway all the way round the pyramid and by the main entrances to the field, with signs saying strictly no chairs or standing? That might create a big enough clear space that people could navigate round.

Problem with that is on a wet site that could get very slippy especially down the hill on the east side

[The Nal]

6 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Was the metal path down the centre of the Pyramid new? Don't recall seeing it before but I could well be wrong, what about metal, double width trackway all the way round the pyramid and by the main entrances to the field, with signs saying strictly no chairs or standing? That might create a big enough clear space that people could navigate round.

It was new yeah. People kind of avoided it. I saw an ambulance drill at 2am ish on Friday night. Assume its something to do with the OD during Adele last year. 

[Pinhead]

I, too, noticed the seemingly higher incidences of crushes and numbers of people generally. This may be due to an increase in crew this year (though I don't have any evidence that an increase has been made), or that quite a lot of people were getting in on those fake crew and EPO wristbands that were going about - everyone seemed to be wearing one at one point! Other contributing factors I reckon were everyone wanting to do the same bands or attractions and just the way the timetable worked out in relation to what stages they were on. Also, food stalls often seemed to have ultra long queues this year which doesn't exactly help crowd movement. As others have said, chairs, picnic blankets and so on also have a detrimental effect on crowd density in front of some stages. Some of the crushes getting into SE Corner were particularly bad this year - probably infringing the site regulations in their extent. When I got in though I noticed that the SE Corner was itself relatively uncrowded despite what was being implied outside.....

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

At the risk of repeating myself, I'd scrap Silver Hayes and start again. An outdoor stage dedicated to electronic music to replace Sonic would be welcome. I like the Blues stage but it was such a crush for Kolsch, that central sheltered area in front of the stage looks ok but it takes up space and is incredibly hard to navigate through, both entering and exiting. Same goes for the Wow stage, those large monuments (or whatever they are), although they look nice, create an obstruction. Thursday night's overcrowding put me off and I never went back to Silver Hayes again.

Is it essential that there are food and flashing sunglasses vendors in that area taking up space? Saxon Market is now literally 5 minutes around the corner. 

The whole of Silver Hayes seems like it's style over substance. And the soundclashes continue to be a problem.

This isn't necessarily a moan, more of an observation. I think it's arguably the only area that the festival has yet to get right. I'm sure they recognise the issues and will address them for the next event. I've complained about how tired Shangri-La got in the last year or so but I thought this year they absolutely nailed it. They're so creative, my jaw never left the floor when I was in there this year.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

12 minutes ago, The Nal said:

It was new yeah. People kind of avoided it. I saw an ambulance drill at 2am ish on Friday night. Assume its something to do with the OD during Adele last year. 

I found it quite useful for locating my friends when we were closeish too it and very easy to navigate down. If there was more of it it might make the pinch points less of an issue.

[Matt87]

12 minutes ago, SPTFRE said:

At the risk of repeating myself, I'd scrap Silver Hayes and start again. An outdoor stage dedicated to electronic music to replace Sonic would be welcome. I like the Blues stage but it was such a crush for Kolsch, that central sheltered area in front of the stage looks ok but it takes up space and is incredibly hard to navigate through, both entering and exiting. Same goes for the Wow stage, those large monuments (or whatever they are), although they look nice, create an obstruction. Thursday night's overcrowding put me off and I never went back to Silver Hayes again.

The whole of Silver Hayes seems like it's style over substance. And the soundclashes continue to be a problem.

 

Totally agree. Silver Hayes hasn't been able to create it's own persona. It's had long enough and needs to be radically redesigned. They've shown with The Park that they can be imaginative and create something original that no other festival has, so I'm confident that it would be worth the effort. 

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

1 minute ago, Matt87 said:

Silver Hayes hasn't been able to create it's own persona.  

Perfectly put

[maelzoid]

Introduce cup deposits - help with the litter and give the kids something to do

[pentura]

13 minutes ago, maelzoid said:

Introduce cup deposits - help with the litter and give the kids something to do

I think they had a system like this in 2010?

Seem to recall kids running around with massive stacks of cups, probably getting 20p / 50p or so per cup on return. Could be mixing up with another festival but that sticks out in my mind

[maelzoid]

7 minutes ago, pentura said:

I think they had a system like this in 2010?

Seem to recall kids running around with massive stacks of cups, probably getting 20p / 50p or so per cup on return. Could be mixing up with another festival but that sticks out in my mind

I wasn't there in 2010 so don't know, but I've seen it at other festivals - even at 5p a cup, it seems well worth it for the kids.

Litter remains a huge problem at the festival, and I think every idea should be considered. Also, I think litter begets litter - the less there is to start with, the less likely people are to drop more of it.

[pentura]

4 minutes ago, maelzoid said:

I wasn't there in 2010 so don't know, but I've seen it at other festivals - even at 5p a cup, it seems well worth it for the kids.

Litter remains a huge problem at the festival, and I think every idea should be considered. Also, I think litter begets litter - the less there is to start with, the less likely people are to drop more of it.

Could have been another festival; but definitely an idea to bring into play

Totally agree, I wasn't there this year, but last year the litter was out of control. A lot of it was to do with the mud, someone drops something, cover with mud and it's disappeared forever. Don't even get me started on the state of the campsites of Monday!

Spot on with that last point, if theres litter everywhere then people will have the 'my litter won't make a difference' attitude, if there's no litter around then they won't put it down in fear of being called out on littering

[Bonaneas]

Download is £2 for plastic pint cup deposit. Made huge difference to shite on the floor. 

[pennylane07]

I actually thought the SE Corner was much less crowded this year. In the programme they had made an effort to advertise other areas and mentioned a "south west corner) which included the Park and Arcadia.

Crowds were big, litter was rife. People with glitter on their faces pushing people out of the way on the railway line...

But for every one of those there's more of the guy that gave my husband his RTJ bandanna, the guy that asked me repeatedly during Radiohead if I wanted to go in front of him, our neighbours that donated tent pegs when we lost ours in the dark setting up.

My only very minor ideas would be:

- more compost toilets, couldn't find the ones in Baileys this year 

- yes hand soap at the sinks! Might be to do with saving water

- one way paths in and out of the Pyramid

[Bonaneas]

There were so many prams and baby truck things in whollly inappropriate places & times it baffles me what some parents are thinking. Saw people falling over a big one with two little kids in it during the big crush getting out of Arcadia about 1245 am Friday night. Just bonkers to drag kids to the late night stuff. 

[K2SO]

Wow, this thread has got very political.

Some more things that I have thought today could probably do with changing...
- Make it more clear when/where the fireworks are going to be on Wednesday evening
- Open the gates at 6am, as someone else suggested
- In places where you're "supposed" to sit down, such as Pilton Palais, have a bit of a nicer surface on the floor. The carpet in there was horrible! (Maybe even benches?)
- Regulate the food vendors a bit more. Make the all make it clear what they are selling, and how much it is. I ordered a "breakfast roll" at a van, and got a shitty burger bun, with half a sausage, a cold egg and a cold burnt bit of bacon. They made me pay £7 for that shit.
- Bring back The Growler, obviously.
- KARAOKE BAR!

[Kizzie]

6 minutes ago, K2SO said:

- KARAOKE BAR!

There was some shocking Karaoke going on in the Greenpeace field on Saturday night, made my teeth itch.

[K2SO]

10 minutes ago, Kizzie said:

There was some shocking Karaoke going on in the Greenpeace field on Saturday night, made my teeth itch.

Hey, everyone loves a singsong!

[Untz]

13 minutes ago, K2SO said:

- In places where you're "supposed" to sit down, such as Pilton Palais, have a bit of a nicer surface on the floor. The carpet in there was horrible! (Maybe even benches?)

Never been to the Pilton Palais, but if they use the same stuff as the Cabaret tent and Big Top I imagine it's easier to keep clean in muddier years than anything nicer. The problem with benches I guess would be that they would limit the capacity and that could work for films, but would be a pain for other sitting venues with more frequently changing acts of differing popularities. I've been to Cabaret acts where most people are standing it's been so busy.

Talking of seating in tents, I think I enjoyed sitting on a proper chair with a hard back in Mavericks almost as much as the acts. Would definitely go back even if just for the hard backed chair.

[Purple aki squat]

3 hours ago, battleborn said:

You really think they could keep stuff secret that long?

Don't know but it might reduce demand a bit plus it would be buzz when the festival opens

[oneeye]

Not sure if mentioned already....

do away with Sunday local day tickets. I always feel that the dynamics and atmosphere changes with the Sunday influx.

Maybe offer a full ticket at a reduced rate for locals instead? 

[Wondermum]

I would give stewards the power to remove tickets and evict those peeing anywhere other than the provided facilities. There is absolutely NO excuse for being a lazy arse and not taking yourself off to the toilet, taking into account queuing times if necessary. This is what we, as human beings, manage to do in the outside world. We don't piss in our home. Why piss on someone else's? The amount of people I saw this year not making use of the facilities, and some were really near the urinals but decided a tree would really like a drink, was disgusting. 

On the subject of children, it's important that they are exposed to a lot of the messages glastonbury puts across. There is absolutely no way they can learn them effectively in the classroom. Removing the opportunity for them to spark an interest, will just assist this and future governments in creating a nation of obedient unquestioning robots. I take my 3 young children with me, and yes it's a different experience with them in tow. I find the majority of parents take into account how busy the main areas can get and stand to the edges, usually with the kids safely asleep in some sort of contraption. It's the best of both worlds, and also allows children to experience live music and perhaps develop a passion for it themselves.