Wednesday queues

[shoptildrop]

Yep. But I'm a bit reluctant to reveal it on a public site for fear of clogging up the route I take every year Google maps is your friend. Just remember that some of the back roads around the site are closed to non-local traffic and you can easily find yourself trying to do a 3-point turn on a single lane road - not fun in a minibus I can tell you.

The reason the car parks were opened on the Tuesday night in 2010 was (I believe) because of the chaos caused on the roads in 2009. I recall hearing of 20+ miles of queuing traffic on the A361 back towards the M5 and similar in other directions. This obviously caused a major headache for the locals, businesses etc etc. and counted against the festival and it's usually positive economic effect on the local area.

So to allieviate this they opened the car parks on the Tuesday night in 2010 which had the effect of moving the queue from the roads to the gates. Queuing is inevitable for those arriving before midday-ish on Wednesday and it's better to have it at the gate rather than on the roads (certainly from a green/traffic point of view anyway).

[Keef]

So if you come down the A37 and want to turn right onto the A361 is this possible or will they block the route? As we are in a BB just off the A371 before you get to A37 so I just hope we can get to the west carparks as camping in dairy

[shoptildrop]

I have done this in previous years (2004-08) at about 11am on the Wednesday. There will be signs at the junction saying "no right turn except for local traffic" but there was no one there to enforce it. That was a few years ago though. You might be better off heading west to Wells and then turn left and go through the back roads through North Wotton, but some of these may be closed too so you may end up going further and coming out at West Pennard. As I said, Google maps is your friend. It's also good to "drive" the back roads via street view so you have a reasonable idea of which turnings to take etc.

[gooner1990]

Seems like a lot of people will be arriving Tuesday night......wondering if the nightmare queues will just be pushed even earlier so the people arriving at gate opening time of 8am will get the full force of it?

[keeno]

Just done some research on our route from Liverpool. There's roadworks between junction 15/17 on the M5 just before Bristol. Does any one in the area know the extent of the work/delays/impact you think Glastonbury will have on the roadwork traffic. Apparently it's lasting until 29 June.

[_jojo_]

Just done some research on our route from Liverpool. There's roadworks between junction 15/17 on the M5 just before Bristol. Does any one in the area know the extent of the work/delays/impact you think Glastonbury will have on the roadwork traffic. Apparently it's lasting until 29 June.

[frostypaw]

Seems like a lot of people will be arriving Tuesday night......wondering if the nightmare queues will just be pushed even earlier so the people arriving at gate opening time of 8am will get the full force of it?

[efcfanwirral]

We're staying at the premier inn Glastonbury on the Tuesday night, so practically on the road into the festival. We aim to get out the hotel onto the road at around 7am on the Wednesday morning. We expect to queue, but do we think it'll be back that far by that point? As we're a little off the main road can we even turn onto it?

[caroldecker]

We did a few trips to and from the car in 2011. We got there at 3am to massive queues so we had to get in line straight away, then when bypassing the queues at midday ish because we had wristbands and a load of stuff, we were greeted by others saying "i hate all these people with wristbands getting in before us!" so i can only presume they had been waiting a while at that point to.

If you get there on Thursday youll get in no problem. But the general theme for the past few years has been people arriving earlier and earlier to avoid the queues. Soon therell be people camped on the roads in Pilton the week before!

[Rio]

We're staying at the premier inn Glastonbury on the Tuesday night, so practically on the road into the festival. We aim to get out the hotel onto the road at around 7am on the Wednesday morning. We expect to queue, but do we think it'll be back that far by that point? As we're a little off the main road can we even turn onto it?

[shoptildrop]

I've sacked B&B off and gone for camping at Greenarces as know will be able to access right onto the A361 near the yellow route for west carparks.

[Keef]

We aim to get out the hotel onto the road at around 7am on the Wednesday morning. We expect to queue, but do we think it'll be back that far by that point? As we're a little off the main road can we even turn onto it?

[efcfanwirral]

I'm sure you'll be fine getting on to the road. The past couple of festivals (since the Tuesday car park opening) we've joined the A361 at West Pennard at around 5-6am on the Wednesday and there is queuing traffic, but it's moving and only(?) took about an hour to do the 3 or 4 miles to the car park entrance. How far back along the A361 the queues went, I don't know.

[lukeyboy]

Anyone travelled to the fest via National Express from Bristol before?

In 2010, we got an early coach from Birmingham on the Wednesday morning but didn't get on the site until about 4pm due to the insane traffic. So this year, we are getting to Bristol early so we are at least closer to the fest. Can we expect 2-3 hours in traffic do you think, or has anyone had it much longer? Hopefully, the queues when we get to the site won't be too bad after the coach journey!

[Glasto fan]

2010 was an exeption. It was a heatwave so everyone wanted to get onto the site asap and make the most of it and there was also the small matter of an England match being shown at the Pyramid stage in the afternoon, so lots of people wanted to get there in time for that. There was also quite a bad accident on the M5, so anyone coming from that direction faced severe delays.

My friends got the coach from Bristol in 2011 at around 7am and were on site by 10am and that included queuing at the gates. I think it made a big dfference as they opened the car parks on the Tuesday night so lots of people went the night before. There was still quite a lot of traffic on the Wednesday but only when you got to about 10 miles of the festival site.

[slats]

Anybody have any idea what the queues are normally like at the ticket collection point?

[SKYY]

I went to the box office in 2011 to get my ticket.

Arrived on NatX at 12 - 12.30 gate A

walked to the box office and found maybe two people standing there ahead of me

got my tick on then off I went

Anybody have any idea what the queues are normally like at the ticket collection point?

[NorthernScum]

I'm in the queue now at pedestrian gate D and it's pretty quiet. Should be able to stay awake for 10 days.

[slats]

I went to the box office in 2011 to get my ticket.

Arrived on NatX at 12 - 12.30 gate A

walked to the box office and found maybe two people standing there ahead of me

got my tick on then off I went

[jenw]

Anyone travelled to the fest via National Express from Bristol before?

In 2010, we got an early coach from Birmingham on the Wednesday morning but didn't get on the site until about 4pm due to the insane traffic. So this year, we are getting to Bristol early so we are at least closer to the fest. Can we expect 2-3 hours in traffic do you think, or has anyone had it much longer? Hopefully, the queues when we get to the site won't be too bad after the coach journey!

[essex_jim]

2011 was one of the most soul destroying experiences of my life and anything better than it will be a bonus in my eyes. We got there Tuesday night and slept in a minibus and joined a queue around 7:30am heading for gate D.

There was no organisation in the queues and there seemed to be 2 emerging so we plumped for one of them and just hoped it would move. It must've been 5 hours we were there, it rained and rained and we were absolutely drenched. I expected a bit of a queue but fucking hell, 5 hours! There was another queue we could see was moving quicker but it's one of those things at the time you're not sure if you should join it or stay where you are.

When we eventually got in completely soaked to the bone we just camped in the nearest empty spot we could see and I went off to buy clothes as everything in my bag was soaked.

I was royally fed up with Glastonbury for not organsing stewards, you expect that at this type of thing, I don't care how many people they have to get through we all pay a ticket fee.

Didn't ruin my festival but sure as hell gave it a bad start.

This year leaving Essex at 4am and just hoping for the best.

[Mr.Tease]

2011 was one of the most soul destroying experiences of my life and anything better than it will be a bonus in my eyes. We got there Tuesday night and slept in a minibus and joined a queue around 7:30am heading for gate D.

There was no organisation in the queues and there seemed to be 2 emerging so we plumped for one of them and just hoped it would move. It must've been 5 hours we were there, it rained and rained and we were absolutely drenched. I expected a bit of a queue but fucking hell, 5 hours! There was another queue we could see was moving quicker but it's one of those things at the time you're not sure if you should join it or stay where you are.

When we eventually got in completely soaked to the bone we just camped in the nearest empty spot we could see and I went off to buy clothes as everything in my bag was soaked.

I was royally fed up with Glastonbury for not organsing stewards, you expect that at this type of thing, I don't care how many people they have to get through we all pay a ticket fee.

Didn't ruin my festival but sure as hell gave it a bad start.

This year leaving Essex at 4am and just hoping for the best.

[AiiShotTheDJ]

Has anybody got any experience of gate c? We're leaving Ilminster travelodge around 5.30 and meeting the rest of our party in the blue car parks but I should imagine a couple of them will get impatient and probably leave us if we take too long! It says 27 miles so hopefully there won't be too much traffic at that time of the AM? We can also choose to take the a303 all the way (unless it's blocked?) or the a303 and a37- anybody got any advice as to what's best? Thank you.

[Inhaler]

leaving Sheffield at noon on Friday so reckon it will be 6/7pm before we get to the coach drop off - anyone know of there tends to be much of a wait then?

[frostypaw]

leaving Sheffield at noon on Friday so reckon it will be 6/7pm before we get to the coach drop off - anyone know of there tends to be much of a wait then?