Arriving on Thursday - experiences please?

moogdroog · May 23, 2013

Afternoon!

Normally arrive on Wednesday but this year childcare dictates that we need to leave on Thursday morning after school drop off. Could anyone shed any light on what the traffic is typically like on Thursdays coming from the West? I'm hoping that it'll be a bit quieter than the Wednesday, which last time we went (2010) entailed a very slow moving queue the minute we left the motorway, all the way to Pilton.

Would appreciate your experiences, so that I can prepare myself (or a case for my lovely babysitting mum to be on duty from stupid o'clock instead). Ta!

Krazypinkminx · May 23, 2013

We came in from Torbay on Thursday last time, was diverted to east, took 5 hours of walking to get to a free space to camp for all of us in the heavy rain that morning, but traffic was fine, went straight in, but parked at furthest car park possible.

ghandi · May 23, 2013

The first year i went 2009 and we arrived at about 12pm on Thursday, got in not a problem, no cues etc but the reason why was that everyone was already there! No camping space left, i would get someone to pitch for you if you have friends arriving earlier, we did mange to get out tent pitched next to a burger van up near the park after coming in from gate B!

moogdroog · May 23, 2013

Thanks guys. Have camping arrangements under control. Posting my tent to the otherside of the country for my lovely friend to bring it and pitch it for us, so thankfully that's not a worry. I'd be right miffed if we get diverted to the east side though!!!!

russycarps · May 23, 2013

I arrived that late the festival before last, traffic was fine, and you wont have any queue to get in at all!

moogdroog · May 23, 2013

Ok, I'm liking the sound of this. I can just about handle not being there on Wedsnesday (and this is after a just-given-birth absence last time), but the thought of missing most of Thursday due to traffic is too much to bear!

**dingbat2** · May 23, 2013

Because of work and family commitments, we also arrive Thurday afternoon between 3 and 4 ish

Never had any problems with traffic queues at all (expect many years ago when most people used to arrive on the Thursday of course!) Although we come in from the East I usually drive to the West car parks to come in via Gate A, through Pilton, and never have any problems with the traffic. Usually park quite close to Gate A for some reason. We also come in from this end because it seems to be the best side to come in from when most of the camping areas are full. We have camped in Pylon Ground the last couple of times which still had quite a bit of camping space free at that time, and its really handy to get to JP / Dance Village from (its right behind the JP stage)

olive123 · May 23, 2013

As far as camping goes I'd head down River mead sorta direction, we moved there in 2011 after waking up with the tent in a puddle by John Peel tent. There was loads of room, we had easy 5-10 metres between tents all weekend. I never knew there was that much space anywhere!!