Proposed Changes to the Licence

[grumpyhack]

dont have time to read all this coz im at work, but what exactly is the point of opening on tuesday?

The problem is too many people are arriving early wednesday. opening tuesday will solve this....

because everyone will arrive early tuesday instead. What on earth is the thinking behind it?!

I'm not taking another day off work for it, sod em, but most people will. Its added cost, added tiredness come monday - especially if it's a muddy one, and its one less holiday day for the working population.

[eFestivals]

dont have time to read all this coz im at work, but what exactly is the point of opening on tuesday?

The problem is too many people are arriving early wednesday. opening tuesday will solve this....

because everyone will arrive early tuesday instead. What on earth is the thinking behind it?!

I'm not taking another day off work for it, sod em, but most people will. Its added cost, added tiredness come monday - especially if it's a muddy one, and its one less holiday day for the working population.

Why do you think that "everyone will arrive early tuesday instead" when you get to then prove that they won't by you saying "I'm not taking another day off work for it, sod em"?

The simple fact is that while being there as early as possible is attractive to some, that 'some' will be very much a minority. The majority simply won't want to turn up early for what is essentially no reason - nothing is happening.

The proof of this is shown by what has happened in the past. People have been able to turn up on the Wednesday for 15+ years (and very probably an awful lot longer, I forget) yet they didn't.

The only difference with last year to previous years - and what made people arrive early - was the festival advertising itself as starting on the Wednesday, causing people to feel that there was a reason to arrive on the Wednesday.

That reason does not exist for why they'd arrive over Tuesday night. The festival opens on Wednesday, and starts (at a low-key level) on the Thursday - most people will need to see a good reason for their choice of arrival time, and spending the night in a field with nothing happening is not that good reason for most people.

On top of that, each car-load will need to convince all of their passengers that it's worth arriving that early. While the majority of posters here are the more obsessive types who might want to arrive early that doesn't apply across all of the Glastonbury attendees.

In fact, I wouldn't be hugely surprised to hear that a significant number of those who did arrive on Wednesday last year wondered why they'd bothered when the festival hadn't started.

(and if the weather forecast is crap there defo won't be too many).

[eFestivals]

For some of us an extra day before the music begins and fewer queues will be a great bonus.

Yes, you're spot on.

But the key word in what you've said is "some".

[ivan]

Could we attribute some of the problems last year due to the 1 st Glasto World Cup ?

and the desire of thousands not to miss it !

[Nixy]

Someone should put up a poll to see what time everyone on here would aim to arrive if this goes through

*picks up her wooden spoon and toddles off&

[eFestivals]

Someone should put up a poll to see what time everyone on here would aim to arrive if this goes through

*picks up her wooden spoon and toddles off&

it would only be any good tho if there was some way of ensuring that only those in control of their own/other people's arrivals were voting (so those on public transport, or the car driver) - otherwise it'll be a 'want to' result and not a 'will do' result.

But even then the result would be hugely skewed, as the obsessives here are far from typical for the whole crowd.

[st00ka]

The proof of this is shown by what has happened in the past. People have been able to turn up on the Wednesday for 15+ years (and very probably an awful lot longer, I forget) yet they didn't.

[eFestivals]

Rubbish, people have always turned up on the Wednesday and the traffic has always been ridiculous, I remember sitting in a queue for 8-9 hours in 1997.

eh? I've been turning up on the Wednesday since at least 1995 (and probably a whole lot longer, I forget) and not once have I queued for more than 15 minutes to get into the car parks aside from last year.

(I wasn't very clear - I wasn't meaning that no one turned up on the Wednesday, just that comparatively few did compared to last year. But I'm well aware the numbers have been growing steady but slowly year-on-year).

All I see this doing is moving the traffic problems a few hours forward, so instead of massive queue building up at 8-9am, the queue will build up at 3-4am.

The problems last year were, to my mind, mostly caused by there being a 10+ mile queue before the gates had opened. Once that queue was there it was always going to be there all day.

I can't see anything similar happening with an early opening of the car parks - while they'll of course open at a specific time (probably 9pm, if the early opening actually happens of course), there's no good reason for everyone to be trying to arrive for spot-on 9pm as they were doing for 8am last year.

I would think that that alone would be enough for there not to be a queue like last year ever form, meaning that the traffic flow into the car parks should be comparatively easy (compared to last year) at all times.

[st00ka]

eh? I've been turning up on the Wednesday since at least 1995 (and probably a whole lot longer, I forget) and not once have I queued for more than 15 minutes to get into the car parks aside from last year.

[eFestivals]

That is true arrivals will be more staggered and I think I'm with you thinking that people won't bother arriving the night before to sit in the carpark - unless we are in the middle of a heat wave then I can see lots of people turning up just to sit drinking under the stars - but I do think that a large number of people will leave home with the aim of already being on site time for the opening of the festival gates, that's why I think it will just move the queue a few hours forward.

I suspect that you're right about people planning to turn up very early morning, but I'm not sure that'll lead to much in the way of queues - as the gates would be open, there shouldn't be too much of a build-up on the roads.

But if it did lead to earlier queues that's probably still an improvement, as the issue is more about the locals being able to get about than having the punters avoid car queues, and an earlier starting queue (in the very early morning) should mean smaller queues thru the main parts of the day.

Edited January 14, 2010 by eFestivals

[lord stradmor]

The only way that these traffic problems are going to eased is by organising lots of cheap public transport and giving it priority over cars.

[ministe2003]

have to hold my hands up about my post, I misread the plans and thought it was going to open at 9AM not PM! silly me...

[Billy09]

You're not wrong. A truly radical solution would be to not allow any cars on site till thursday, but bring the coaches in on Wednesday.

That'd sort out yer carbon footprint.

[paulo999]

I think the offence is 'Drunk in charge of a motor vehicle'. Similar offenses exist for bicycles, horses etc if I remember rightly.

[Paul ™]

Surely you are on private farm land, they can't prosecute for that no?

[ivan]

Someone should put up a poll to see what time everyone on here would aim to arrive if this goes through

*picks up her wooden spoon and toddles off&

[Billy09]

Surely you are on private farm land, they can't prosecute for that no?

[ivan]

I don't know, aren't most car parks private land? I'm probably talking nonsense.

[ivan]

Surely you are on private farm land, they can't prosecute for that no?

[eFestivals]

On a different note I thought that if you were over the drink drive limit and in your car with your keys you could be prosecuted even if you weren't driving. I would imagine the police would not enforce this, but nightmare if they did. Guess the same applies to camper vans though, anyone know the rules?

I'm pretty sure you're right (tho a copper could use his discretion I guess) - but that the vehicle would need to be on the 'public highway' for them to be able to prosecute.

Bringing the stage curfew back to midnight seems like an odd decision, unless this is directly linked to the increased noise limits.

I think the reason for it is two-fold - it allows a higher volume (and low volume has been a complaint of recent years, so that'll make lots of people happy), plus will help lessen issues to do with crowding around Shangri-La and elsewhere as they'll be fewer people all arriving at once (as all other stages outside of the three main ones will run till 00:30, apart from on Sunday).

[Sawdusty surfer]

Surely you are on private farm land, they can't prosecute for that no?

[st00ka]

Surely you are on private farm land, they can't prosecute for that no?

[st00ka]

I'm sure the relative harm of a car with 2 or 3 people in it driving to the festival before, and then away afterwards versus a half full old bus (as I understood the reality was) delivering people to the site, then driving back to base, before driving back to the site to pick up passengers for the return journey after the fest, was debatable. 2 journeys versus 4, and likely more modern engines in peoples own cars.

You may be right, but too late to do it this year now that parking permits have been sold.

[psychology]

On a different note I thought that if you were over the drink drive limit and in your car with your keys you could be prosecuted even if you weren't driving. I would imagine the police would not enforce this, but nightmare if they did. Guess the same applies to camper vans though, anyone know the rules?

Edited January 15, 2010 by psychology

[ivan]

I have a camper and was worried about this. Apparantly you can be arrested for being drunk in charge of a motorhome and the law requires the person to prove they weren't going to drive (e.g. by not having access to the keys). However, if you read a lot of drink drive case law the "not likely to drive" statutory defence is argued around the person's actions to back up his intention not to drive. In other words, the police use their discretion and dont tend to arrest people for being drunk in charge of a camper if they are satisfied that there is no intent to drive.