Campervan West.. What's it like?!

[gorfield]

I have never been to a festival in a van before and I am really excited about not having to cart all my stuff all over the site!

Can't wait to put the handbrake on, get my chair out and have a COLD beer!!

What's it like? is it noisy, is it friendly? will people appreciate my 2 year old shouting "van!!!" every 30 seconds?

will I ever go back to a tent?

[festivalfreddy]

The last time I was in campervan west was 2010 so appreciate it may have changed somewhat. In 2010 is was extremely quite and chilled compared to east. In fact it was so relaxed some vans were parking pretty much anywhere on the outer edges, getting own space, parking under trees for shade as it was a hot year

Only downside is it is a considerable yomp to the main stages compared to east

Best advantage was that when we left Sunday morning just pulled straight out of field and out of festivals without having to stop once

[Bonedaddy]

I stayed in West in 2011 and 2013. I think it's great and for me, preferable to East as for the decades before i CV'd i always used to camp in what is now The Park so i am just used to being on that side of the site. As for walking / distances, even if being on the West means more of it, this is actually what i like doing at Glasto, walking around, observing, over-hearing, chatting cr@p with people.

As for what the actual CV area is like, it's no different to East in terms of density, type of people or atmosphere in my opinion. If you want to try and read more into it, you could imagine there are more newbies in West and more veterans in East, purely because of how long each side has been in existence.

[Bonedaddy]

Best advantage was that when we left Sunday morning just pulled straight out of field and out of festivals without having to stop once

[markrkp]

The West CV field area is smaller - there are 2 of them and cater for around 1000 motorhomes. The East CV fields - there are around 10 and have around 4000 motorhomes (some are quite small fields).

The big advantages of the West fields for me are that (1) the exit out is easy, plus (2) you have your own dedicated entrance to the festival site (both are off site, and require going through security and showing your ticket each time), and (3) there is no hill of death.

The advantages of the East fields are that you are nearer the stages, but that depends on the stages you want to visit. For Park and Aracadia (this year), West is best, for example.

In fact, the walk back to West before took you past Park Home camping, which will now be Arcadia. So that could be a bottlebeck getting back late at night, so go round Arcadia to the north or south (Park), and then you'll hit Dairy.

There's a chilled out atmosphere in the CV fields, esp. West, compared to camping sites onsite, but it's a good atmosphere. In West there's plenty of toilet and water facilities, no worries there, but strangely only one fast food van. I love West, and will be there this year!

[NeufNeuf]

I have a "to scale" version of the Glasto map in AutoCad (that I scaled from the scale bar on it). From the middle back (next to the red toilet T on the map) in the furthest West field to a point centrally in front of the Pyramid it is 2,4 km - measured following the marked main paths and not cutting across camping fields of course. From the same point to a caravan in the middle back of E15 (just under the 1 in E15 on the map) it is 2,3 km. So not much in it. UNLESS you are lucky enough to be in E22 when this is about 1.5 km (to the dead centre of the field). So it makes a bit of a difference where you are in the east fields, whereas out west from the gate to the back is only about 450 meters so not much in it in terms of where you are in the West fields.

But as stated above if your main focus is say the John Peel then from West it is just over 2 km and from E15 it is 3 km and from E22 it is 2,2 km. From the point I decided on in the West field to the Stone Circle is 1,7 km and from E15 it is 2,5 km and from E 22 it is also 1,7 km.

Swings and roundabouts really. I chose West mainly to avoid the hill of death, to be closer to my mates in Oxlyers and to not have a gate shared by the entire east car park - especially on day one.