Can’t comment on issues raised by people with accessibility needs or with young children, and there are other valid complaints in here, but there’s also so much stuff the festival just can’t win with.
A lot of these gripes can be mitigated by taking a mindset that there are always going to be compromises and challenging moments when a couple hundred thousand people attend a pop up city in the countryside for a massive party.
Can’t help but feel that a lot of this is also driven by people chasing the impossible ideal of their perfect festival, or by unfairly comparing it against rose tinted Glasto’s of yore.
Crowds are always going to be busy entering/leaving big acts or entering/leaving popular areas at peak times. Simply wait for crowds to disperse before moving, or visit areas during less busy times.
Facilities are always going to become stretched at peak times during a massive festival in a heatwave. This was hardly Woodstock 99. Vast majority of the time if there’s a big queue for toilets or water points, you can walk 5 mins and find others completely free.
You could put in hundreds more toilets around the site, but it’s an inevitability that if people are drinking all day in big crowds, some will piss in cups, or find a hedgerow. I wish everyone would use the facilities, but let’s be realistic. It’s a million miles better than at the majority of other festivals.
Again, as much as it would be brilliant if no one littered and took everything home, there’s always going to be some people that don’t. As long as things are trending in the right direction then it’s hard to complain too much, even if it feels incredibly disappointing when you take everything home and the group next to you just abandon their stuff.
On overcrowding. Yes things can feel very busy at times, but in my experience it very rarely feels unsafe, especially if you stay patient and plan things out. There’s also a certain irony that people complain that it’s impossible to get a ticket, but when they do get one complain that there’s too many people here.
I know it comes from a good place but baffled that people are going round the site taking photos of gazebos as if to build a file of evidence. In my mind there’s too much fun to be had at the festival to lose sweat over largely inconsequential things.
It also didn’t take a crystal ball to figure out that the camping chair and picnic blanket brigade at the back of pyramid would be out in full force for Elton, so hard to get upset about it. Kudos to the festival for the standing room only announcements too.
People were rejoicing about Camden replacing Carlsberg, now there’s people complaining about wanting Carlsberg back. It’s festival house lager, it’s never going to be the nectar of the gods.
Sound bleed is inevitable at a festival with 100+ stages.
Also, people do drugs at festivals - shock horror.
It’s certainly not flawless but Glastonbury is a very well planned and managed event. You can almost always rely on them recognise and adapt to issues both at the time (eg announcing busy areas to avoid on screens, introducing queuing lanes) or factoring issues into their planning for next year. Even stuff like keeping part of big ground clear from camping to allow for the bumper Elton crowd was an excellent decision. They don’t always get it right, but you can tell they put a huge amount of careful thought into everything.
As with all festivals, Glasto is always going to have to be endured at times, but that is a small trade off for the magic it delivers.
