Glastonbury to start Tuesday in 2010?

[UEF]

I wouldn't welcome any further disincentives not to come by car - driving to Glasto is absolutely essential for our group and the stuff we bring (trollies, beer etc.) - having to do that on a train would kill us.

[markeee]

I wouldn't welcome any further disincentives not to come by car - driving to Glasto is absolutely essential for our group and the stuff we bring (trollies, beer etc.) - having to do that on a train would kill us.

[daveinafield]

yes please Mr E would mean i would deffo do the tor and be able to chill out above the flags for a longer time

[shangri-la_steward]

a tuesday start would be sweet

but i still dont really see how starting earlier would put an end to everyone trying to arrive as early as possible???

[FrankieX]

I like the idea of public transport users being given early access to the site, it would I think have a lot of advantages to everyone at the festival.

• It improves Glastonbury's green credentials, and hopefully encourages people to use public transport afterwards as well

• It would cause congestion around the site to be dramatically eased which I assume would also make things easier between the festival and local residents/council/police, not to mention the obvious benefits to people who *have* to come by car

• Having fewer people come by car could mean that existing car park fields could be made into extra stages or used for camping

• I think it would mean fewer people taking crates and crates of alcohol, hopefully causing a drop in any alcohol-fueled problems

I'm actually trying to think if there's any reason why there has to be any significant parking on-site. Park-and-rides could be made available from off the motorways nearest the site right to the festival gates, sparing the country roads almost entirely. Obviously some parking is necessary, such as for the campervans, crew who come before the site is open to the public, traders, the various acts and disabled campers to name a few. But for regular campers I can't see anything to be gained by parking off-site unless you take so much stuff you need to keep going back to the car since it's too much for one go.

[UEF]

I took crates and crates of alcohol and didn't cause any crimes...

[nominaomi]

EEEEEEE If it is true, I will pretty much die of excitement and joy!!

[adamski]

I reckon opening on a Tuesday would be great (as long as it doesn't rain), but give it a few years and you'll have exactly the same number of people turning up on Tuesday as on Wednesday!

What's needed is multiple car park approaches and entrances (is there just one approach/entrance for the East and West carparks?), so you can park closer to where you want to camp, for example if you parked in the East carparks you had one hell of a trek to get up to pennards/park camping. Which means that certain camping areas get packed, while others aren't (because people can't be bothered walking any further).

Also more camping space! People don't like being hedged in, and it'd leave room for more communal spaces in the campsites.

[grumpyhack]

I like the idea of public transport users being given early access to the site, it would I think have a lot of advantages to everyone at the festival.

• It improves Glastonbury's green credentials, and hopefully encourages people to use public transport afterwards as well

• It would cause congestion around the site to be dramatically eased which I assume would also make things easier between the festival and local residents/council/police, not to mention the obvious benefits to people who *have* to come by car

• Having fewer people come by car could mean that existing car park fields could be made into extra stages or used for camping

• I think it would mean fewer people taking crates and crates of alcohol, hopefully causing a drop in any alcohol-fueled problems

I'm actually trying to think if there's any reason why there has to be any significant parking on-site. Park-and-rides could be made available from off the motorways nearest the site right to the festival gates, sparing the country roads almost entirely. Obviously some parking is necessary, such as for the campervans, crew who come before the site is open to the public, traders, the various acts and disabled campers to name a few. But for regular campers I can't see anything to be gained by parking off-site unless you take so much stuff you need to keep going back to the car since it's too much for one go.

[andymk]

I'm actually trying to think if there's any reason why there has to be any significant parking on-site. Park-and-rides could be made available from off the motorways nearest the site right to the festival gates, sparing the country roads almost entirely. Obviously some parking is necessary, such as for the campervans, crew who come before the site is open to the public, traders, the various acts and disabled campers to name a few. But for regular campers I can't see anything to be gained by parking off-site unless you take so much stuff you need to keep going back to the car since it's too much for one go.

[hippy linda]

I like the idea of public transport users being given early access to the site, it would I think have a lot of advantages to everyone at the festival.

• It improves Glastonbury's green credentials, and hopefully encourages people to use public transport afterwards as well

• It would cause congestion around the site to be dramatically eased which I assume would also make things easier between the festival and local residents/council/police, not to mention the obvious benefits to people who *have* to come by car

• Having fewer people come by car could mean that existing car park fields could be made into extra stages or used for camping

• I think it would mean fewer people taking crates and crates of alcohol, hopefully causing a drop in any alcohol-fueled problems

I'm actually trying to think if there's any reason why there has to be any significant parking on-site. Park-and-rides could be made available from off the motorways nearest the site right to the festival gates, sparing the country roads almost entirely. Obviously some parking is necessary, such as for the campervans, crew who come before the site is open to the public, traders, the various acts and disabled campers to name a few. But for regular campers I can't see anything to be gained by parking off-site unless you take so much stuff you need to keep going back to the car since it's too much for one go.

[markeee]

I like the idea of public transport users being given early access to the site, it would I think have a lot of advantages to everyone at the festival.

• It improves Glastonbury's green credentials, and hopefully encourages people to use public transport afterwards as well

• It would cause congestion around the site to be dramatically eased which I assume would also make things easier between the festival and local residents/council/police, not to mention the obvious benefits to people who *have* to come by car

• Having fewer people come by car could mean that existing car park fields could be made into extra stages or used for camping

• I think it would mean fewer people taking crates and crates of alcohol, hopefully causing a drop in any alcohol-fueled problems

I'm actually trying to think if there's any reason why there has to be any significant parking on-site. Park-and-rides could be made available from off the motorways nearest the site right to the festival gates, sparing the country roads almost entirely. Obviously some parking is necessary, such as for the campervans, crew who come before the site is open to the public, traders, the various acts and disabled campers to name a few. But for regular campers I can't see anything to be gained by parking off-site unless you take so much stuff you need to keep going back to the car since it's too much for one go.

[Bradders]

Starting on Tuesday is a brilliant idea, but most of the others in here aren't.

I don't drive down just to be contrary. We're all young and pretty skint so can't afford to buy all our beer there, so that's why we bring crates and our own food. Also we're coming from Leeds, so really expensive on trains or buses.

We can barely afford Glastonbury as it is, charging loads of parking or making us go on the train would just make it almost impossible. And detering people from bringing beer is too stupid to bother arguing.

[campin' queen]

If it were to go ahead, I really like the idea of making it "public transport only" tuesday.

I think it would offer an incentive to user public transport - more in line with the festivals green messages. Hopefully in turn it would help focus people minds on what they really *need* to take, and hence hopefully not leave so much rubbish behind.

It wouldn't cause the same kind of "financial elitism" (for want of a better phrase) that a sliding scale for parking might.

[scappaflow]

A few points.

The £10 car parking, definately encourages more cars.

Also, the fact people have so much stuff encourages more cars. I really don't know how you could get a coach on a Tuesday or Wed and manage to carry enough stuff for the week.

Also, the whole gazeebo / space issue encourages people to go early. People like their site and want to make sure they get it so they turn up early each year. If gazeebos were automatically banned / removed from site then this would def free up a lot of space.

Final point... easy way to reduce the Wed population. Do what some of the other festivals do and have a seperate ticket to get in on the Wed. Just allow for a certain number of these to be sold at £10 a pop, hey presto...

[Bradders]

It wouldn't cause the same kind of "financial elitism" (for want of a better phrase) that a sliding scale for parking might.

[5co77ie]

my personal thought are that they'll bring in 'early bird' tickets with only say 50,000 available.

[markeee]

A few points.

The £10 car parking, definately encourages more cars.

Also, the fact people have so much stuff encourages more cars. I really don't know how you could get a coach on a Tuesday or Wed and manage to carry enough stuff for the week.

Also, the whole gazeebo / space issue encourages people to go early. People like their site and want to make sure they get it so they turn up early each year. If gazeebos were automatically banned / removed from site then this would def free up a lot of space.

Final point... easy way to reduce the Wed population. Do what some of the other festivals do and have a seperate ticket to get in on the Wed. Just allow for a certain number of these to be sold at £10 a pop, hey presto...

[markeee]

Starting on Tuesday is a brilliant idea, but most of the others in here aren't.

I don't drive down just to be contrary. We're all young and pretty skint so can't afford to buy all our beer there, so that's why we bring crates and our own food. Also we're coming from Leeds, so really expensive on trains or buses.

We can barely afford Glastonbury as it is, charging loads of parking or making us go on the train would just make it almost impossible. And detering people from bringing beer is too stupid to bother arguing.

[sinhala]

The simple solution is to drop the extra 25,000 tickets that were introduced in 2007.

Let's face it, the site is just not able to comfortably deal with 175,000.

[markeee]

The simple solution is to drop the extra 25,000 tickets that were introduced in 2007.

Let's face it, the site is just not able to comfortably deal with 175,000.

[FrankieX]

I'm not saying ban alcohol on site, I myself went this year by rail and took my own tins of cider, and when I referred to problems from excessive drinking I must confess I was mainly thinking of guys peeing against walls/hedges/streams. If you absolutely have to spend the weekend in a drunken stupor which requires more beer or cider than you could carry, you could just as easily take more weight-efficient booze such as wineboxes or spirits (not in glass bottles, of course).

As for early-bird tickets, I can't say I like the idea personally. As I said, I used the train this year and if I left my home town on the first train on Thursday morning I would have arrived on site at about 5pm (barring massive queues at Castle Cary *cough*). I only live in East England, using trainline.com it seems like someone from Inverness would arrive at about 8pm if they left at 6.46am. This doesn't even begin to consider people using coaches, a cheaper but slower form of transport. If public transport users were stopped from entering the site on Wednesday because they hadn't been able to get early-bird tickets they would miss much if not all of Thursday's entertainment. As this year's Wednesday crush shows, people want to be there for Thursday's gigs and so people who would otherwise have used public transport will either have to use cars (making the roads and car parks even more congested) or stay overnight somewhere like Bristol (increasing the amount of money they have to spend, I'd guess by about £30-40 if not more). I suppose you could do a compromise, offering say 5,000 early bird car park tickets (ie per car so that there aren't groups where some people were able to get early bird tickets and some weren't so they have to split up) while allowing all public transport-users in. This would hopefully encourage the use of public transport, lift-sharing, and somewhat stagger the car arrivals.

[abu hamster]

£50 for parking right thats that one sorted.

If your gonna be silly why not charge for the loo's or for every child on site!

Open the site earlier spreads the arrivals over a longer period making it safer and on the whole more relaxed.

No xtracharge should be made for this

[markeee]

i think it probably would stagger it too, if the site opened from tuesday, so tuesday - monday

meaning people would need tues-mion off minimum to be there from the start, and as i said i like to get a few days off either side - now people have a hard time getting time off for the festival as it is, with people coming on the thursday/friday after work

it could work,if we assume a lot of people wouldn't be able to get extra time off?

i dont know:0

[scappaflow]

I think a Tuesday opening would stagger arrivals slightly, but you would still have issued on Sunday / Monday leaving.

Also, I really think this would be a cost for the festival. Surely they would not make that much extra money from a few thousand people being onsite on the Tues to warrant an extra days stewarding, toilet cleaning etc.