car parks could open 8pm tuesday

[psychology]

Ah good point

[st00ka]

Yup, but it won't effect the surrounding area.

[Mardy]

I really can't see how this is going to work. I hope it does, anything which spreads out the arival time should be good news, but practically, I can't see how the l;ogistics of it will work.

[MyTwistedWords]

The queues at the gates will be huge no matter what... but at least this way the roads stay clearer for those arriving by public transport like the shuttle busses etc.

could be a winner!

[Langdale Wolf]

Yup, but it won't effect the surrounding area.

[Josie's Cat]

People will arrive at 8pm, then get out and camp near the gates to be first in! It'll be like the January sales - imagine if it's raining, people standing in Q's to get in for hours.

I've only got a tiny car, can't sleep in that!

I think going on a bus is a good idea, agree with the atmosphere thing - but if you are carrying gear for anyone except yourself, it's just not practical to do it.

Edited October 8, 2009 by Josie's Cat

[Glasto Mart]

If people are arriving the night before purely to make sure they are one of the first inside (to get the best camping spots etc), then surely a lot will start queuing at the gates hours before they actually open at 8?

And those that DON'T start queuing during the night will have come early for nothing, as the length of the line around 8am will be mad.

[cejx]

People will arrive at 8pm, then get out and camp near the gates to be first in! It'll be like the January sales - imagine if it's raining, people standing in Q's to get in for hours.

I've only got a tiny car, can't sleep in that!

I think going on a bus is a good idea, agree with the atmosphere thing - but if you are carrying gear for anyone except yourself, it's just not practical to do it.

[Josie's Cat]

Actually now I'm a bit worried, because I really want to get to camp in Cockmill Meadow this year, to be near the Kidz field, as we were miles away last year having finally got in around midnight Wed and Cockmill was full - but I don't obviously want to Q in a field with two kids to make sure this happens.

Maybe I should just lock them in the car and fetch them later!!!

[Langdale Wolf]

People will arrive at 8pm, then get out and camp near the gates to be first in! It'll be like the January sales - imagine if it's raining, people standing in Q's to get in for hours.

I've only got a tiny car, can't sleep in that!

I think going on a bus is a good idea, agree with the atmosphere thing - but if you are carrying gear for anyone except yourself, it's just not practical to do it.

[mikeb]

"Festival organisers are also hoping that more people will consider travelling to the Festival by public transport as it saves "a hell of a lot of traffic and saves a lot of space."

is somewhat undermined and almost mutually exclusive to

"The plan is to let campervans and cars arrive on the Tuesday night before the gates open on Wednesday morning."

There's absolutely no shortage of peeps who want to be there first thing for one reason or another so it seems to me as though this is pretty much encouraging such peeps to come by car

It might have a positive effect on the traffic situation, but I doubt it will have that much of an effect TBH because almost everyone really wants to be there ASAP no matter what ! Something needs to be done to help alleviate the potential for chaos like last year ... but I'm not entirely sure that this is the 'right' something.

Edited October 8, 2009 by mikeb

[bigsmoke]

somebody mentioned a while ago that leeds run this system, with the car parks opening at 2am

does anyone know what the queues at the pedestrian gates were like there this year when the actual site opened?

(accepting that leeds is a lot smaller)

i, for one, would be up for rocking up late evening, trying to get some kip in the car and then join the queue when it goes down a bit, would still be there earlier than after a 4 hour traffic jam like this year!

[Josie's Cat]

perhaps they should issue numbered tickets like at the deli counter at the supermarket, so people can arrive, sleep, then get in the queue!

LW I would hope people would be sensible and not arrive until nearer the time they can get on site, but I doubt it - I think if the car parks open at 8pm, people will arrive then, and camp out by the gates.

The only way round it has to be some sort of staggered arrival system, can't see how else to avoid massive Qs and pissed off people.

[CmdrGravy]

It doesn't matter what time they open the car parks it will really make no difference to queues. As was mentioned on another thread the car parking arrangements in general are extremely poor for the size of event that Glastonbury has now become and the amount Eavis is charging for them.

The queues are caused because there are no where near enough entrances and exits to car parks and if someone breaks down or gets stuck in the mud in one of the narrow channels then everything behind them gets backed up as there is nowhere else to route traffic around them.

I think it's a travesty to increase the car parking fee once again without actually doing anything to address the fundamental problem.

[bob parkhurst]

somebody mentioned a while ago that leeds run this system, with the car parks opening at 2am

does anyone know what the queues at the pedestrian gates were like there this year when the actual site opened?

(accepting that leeds is a lot smaller)

i, for one, would be up for rocking up late evening, trying to get some kip in the car and then join the queue when it goes down a bit, would still be there earlier than after a 4 hour traffic jam like this year!

[st00ka]

Personally I never minded waiting in the car but if I'm standing around for hours with tent, booze, spare underpants and more booze in the rain, I will not be happy.

[Langdale Wolf]

It doesn't matter what time they open the car parks it will really make no difference to queues. As was mentioned on another thread the car parking arrangements in general are extremely poor for the size of event that Glastonbury has now become and the amount Eavis is charging for them.

The queues are caused because there are no where near enough entrances and exits to car parks and if someone breaks down or gets stuck in the mud in one of the narrow channels then everything behind them gets backed up as there is nowhere else to route traffic around them.

I think it's a travesty to increase the car parking fee once again without actually doing anything to address the fundamental problem.

[Pinhead]

Yeah, as I've said in another thread on this, it has the potential to backfire if enough people turn up early.

Difficult to police as outside the fence, security will be poor. This means that its possible anyone can turn up an cause trouble. Plus can't see the other local farmers who own the car park fields would want to deal with the associated litter, tent pegs, fires, hedge pissing, p1ssheads etc. damage to their land as well. Locals wound'nt be too happy either I expect. They and MDC probably won't like the idea of the festival 'moving beyond' its perimeter either, even temporarily as well, what with turdises and stalls being put up outside the fence as has been indicated.

Stagger arrivals by car park ticket number.

Edited October 8, 2009 by Pinhead

[shoptildrop]

1st time glasto so excuse dumb question - what time do they actually open gates to the festival site then on the Wednesday?

Personally gonna camp near by with a campsite with hot showers and drive to site around 8ish and see how that goes....

[hope]

as there are 5 of us going in one car (4th year for us) we try to time it so that we arrive at Glasto at 8am Wed...the journey normally takes 4 hours but we allow extra time in case of roadworks/traffic problems...

last year we arrived around 6am, so with 2 hours to kill we found a Tesco and bought some sarnies etc for breakfast...then we headed towards the Glasto site at about 7.30am and got straight in...we must've been lucky (after hearing some of the nightmare stories on here)...

anyway, in the words of Spandau Ballet (to cut a long story short) we would be happy if they opened the car parks earlier (Tues 8pm) as that would mean we could head straight down on Tuesday evening & try to get there for about 2am, maybe have a nap & then Q up to get in at 8am...

i don't think my mates would want to take an extra day off work just to get to site for 8pm just to hang around for 12 hours...but we'd be happier if the car parks were open at 8pm, which allows people to trickle in for 12 hours instead of all arriving at 8am...

if this doesn't happen though...i've heard other suggestions of opening the campervan fields earlier & letting the buses in earlier too...both of which would ease the congestion and maybe encourage people to get the bus instead of using the car...

[Langdale Wolf]

1st time glasto so excuse dumb question - what time do they actually open gates to the festival site then on the Wednesday?

Personally gonna camp near by with a campsite with hot showers and drive to site around 8ish and see how that goes....

[Buddhafish]

Surely this scheme gives car drivers an advantage over public transport users when it comes to hitting the ped gates first on Wednesday morning, further discouraging public transport as an option?

[hope]

staggering entry times (either by numbered or coloured tickets as previously suggested) wouldn't work, cos people would STILL turn up as early as possible & then if the steward wouldn't allow them in at 1am cos their ticket said 7am - so what are they supposed to do ?

will they be refused entry & have to turn around and drive round again & join the back of the Q ?

this would be an absolute nightmare to control - impossible i would say.

[eFestivals]

If you get 20-30k people arriving overnight on the tues then surely the queues at 8am at the ped gates will be huge?

yep, quite probably. But that doesn't cause anyone any bother aside from the people queuing for the pedestrian gates to open.

While yours and my normal life comes to a stop for the duration of the festival, people who live in the area still have to be able to do their normal things - which they couldn't this year, as they couldn't get anywhere.

[eFestivals]

(Didn't someone - possibly Neil - say that the traffic last year wasn't helped by Glastonbury basically advertise itself as a 5-day festival starting on the Wednesday?).

Yep. I believe that's the sole reason for the massive traffic problems that happened this year.

It's very definitely the case that very many more people were in the area at 8am on the Wednesday this year than had been the case previously.