Gazebo's... (again)

[chris_top_her]

Can somebody please explain why gazebos aren't allowed? The staff were constantly taking down some and ignoring others...

We didn't even bother putting ours up because of this but why aren't they allowed? It just meant we weren't able to all hang around our tents together during the rain. We have a space where all the doors came out to which another tent could of fit into so what difference would it of made if a gazebo was up protecting is from the rain and giving us shade from the sun! Baffles me...

[fowls]

Space mainly, especially up Pennard's Hill and Park Home.

I saw Security asking people to take gazebos down since if everyone brought a gazebo then there wouldn't be space for all the tents. Nice idea in theory, but in practise people took their gazebos down on wednesday (when asked by security) and then put them up again on Thursday when the influx of new campers had died down. If there's a gazebo-sized space between tents, the presence or absence of any gazebo is essentially irrelevant.

Personally, I'm not the biggest fan of gazebos, but people stretching out their guy lines to ridiculous lengths and cordoning off areas are far more antisocial than folks with gazebos.

Edited June 30, 2014 by fowls

[UEF]

I didn't bring a Gazebo this year, but was a bit aggrieved when looking for a space on Pennards to be told by a load of students that they're holding space for their friends - who turned up 5 hours later. What about people that are there, then?

[Amii]

In Row Mead a lot were taken down, no bad thing. The site was rammed from 8.30am. I would fully support a blanket ban on them - one group near us had three tapped together. Incredibly selfish.

[bluegel]

They take up space! If there is room then why not. People had them up in wicket ground but we had loads of room to play football around the tents, so was not a problem

[chris_top_her]

They take up space! If there is room then why not. People had them up in wicket ground but we had loads of room to play football around the tents, so was not a problem

[Keithy]

I hate guy ropes way more than gazebo's. People not understanding that you can shorten guy ropes and instead pegging them at their 'shop bought' default length which creates a vipers nest of cord in crowded areas.

Though there was more spare space for pitching this year. The family field up by Gate A was massively underpopulated. I think it would be better if they had 'gazebo allowed' fields rather than a ban or them taking up space in popular fields.

[bluegel]

I don't get how they take up space if they are placed right tho, agreed some people take the pee but in the space where we would have put it a tent couldn't fit there and it was just an opening for us to get out of our tents really, would have caused no harm putting on up

[airwaves]

We were in Michaels Mead near a pathway. Security passing by in a landrover, twice, said we should take our gazebo down and two Camp Stewards also said we ought to as 'security' were coming around to ask.

However

- there were loads others in there and they only seemed to want to 'target' those that were easy to get to

- if pushed my response would have been 'well if you can get the group next to us to vacate even half of their spare space then I'll take our gazebo down'. The group in question was a circle of a dozen tents or so with a space in the middle that would have done a wild west waggon train circle proud!!! They had littered this space with wheelbarrows, camp fireS (yes, plural), chairs and assorted rubbish such that there was no way anyone could have got into the area - though who would have dared anyway. Its is NOT just gazebos that take up space, it is also groups of people leaving space that take up space, probably far more than the limited number of gazebos that were on site

PS Our gazebo is a 'liberated' one recovered from Glasto some years ago having been left behind by someone else

As is my son's tent

Edited June 30, 2014 by airwaves

[rachmac]

They haven't replaced the camping space from Arcadia - they're using Worthy View to take up some slack and otherwise trying to cram more tents in less space. We talked to campsite crew and they said they'd been told to ask people not to put them up until Friday morning if there was space.

This is the first year there has been such a crack down - otherwise they just ask you not to bring them but not enforced them. Out of everything, they are often something people leave behind which just causes more problems for the clean up as they're bulky and not particularly light to carry several miles to the car and probably were cheap in the first place - and they're trying to reduce the waste.

[fowls]

I hate guy ropes way more than gazebo's. People not understanding that you can shorten guy ropes and instead pegging them at their 'shop bought' default length which creates a vipers nest of cord in crowded areas.

Though there was more spare space for pitching this year. The family field up by Gate A was massively underpopulated. I think it would be better if they had 'gazebo allowed' fields rather than a ban or them taking up space in popular fields.

Edited June 30, 2014 by fowls

[johnmcga]

I don't like gazebos 'cause they often seem to get trashed in bad weather and then left behind. But out in Bailey's where we were there was plenty of space, so it would've been hard to moan too much about them on grounds of space.

Now, camping chairs in crowds, on the other hand...

[mkgirl1981]

we were camped in oxylers and were asked to take down our gazebo, we had all our tents as close together as possible and the corners of the gazebo went between the tents. the gap we left you would have only possibly fit a small two man in that space. we constantly seemed to have stewards asking us to take it down, sometimes even 7 of them would come together which seemed a bit excessive. we even said we'd take it down but we wouldn't move our tents closer together & they said we could keep the space just not the gazebo - so what's the difference?

they eventually came in the night and took it down while we slept. one of our group woke up to them doing it and heard one of then say 'it's easier to take it down while they're asleep'

Edited June 30, 2014 by mkgirl1981

[UEF]

PS Our gazebo is a 'liberated' one recovered from Glasto some years ago having been left behind by someone else

As is my son's tent

[Yesiamaduck]

Allow Gazebos in the fields near Gate A and ban them everywhere else. I say this because I think every damn person in the Pylon Field could've had a gazebo or two and would have still had plenty of space. Ban them everywhere else and that way people who really want a Gazebo can have one at the expense of being central.

Edited June 30, 2014 by Yesiamaduck

[tumbles]

What makes me laugh is you can buy them on site

[tillyandthewall]

The fields felt a bit more evenly distributed - the Gate A fields had more tents, and I didn't have the 'How can people camp like that?' thoughts when walking past Pennards/Oxlyers. Did see a huge 'Event Shelter' at Oxlyers on the boundary with the Other Stage, which was especially taking the piss as it blocked the view of the stage from the people behind.

[budvar]

What makes me laugh is you can buy them on site

[kidpresentable]

What makes me laugh is you can buy them on site

[frostypaw]

Agree with OP - the problem was blatantly obvious this year - c'mon how many 1-2 man tents did you see? It was literally a handful. Everyone had the space for 3-4 people to themselves and some of the large vis-a-vis type tents had phenomenal porch areas - THAT is where all the space has gone

When I started going it was 50% little tents, now i'd not be surprised if it's 5% - until that's surveyed from the aerial photography then the argument's a bit moot IMHO. Go on how much extra space did you have? we were 2 in a four man w/porch to leave space to share for storage with 2 2-3 man satellite tents with 3 folk across them so 8:5, just under double

[Bonkfish]

Hi first time I have posted on this site but I was so upset by the security at glastonbury this year I felt I had to say something.

So to be brief, me and my friend camped in the queue Tuesday night while my wife and 2yr old son slept in car, plan for them to walk in on Wednesday afternoon.

Around 1pm I get a call from my wife in tears she had collapsed in the queue due to heat, I rushed out and found her with a security guard (great guy Gareth long dreads). To keep this short I won't go into the errors that they made to cause the queue to back up so badly.

My wife suffers from MS and it does flare up in extreme heat so after sitting her in the shade for a hour I finally got her into the site and sat her in the shade of a tarp I had put up with a cool wet towel cooling her down.

At this point a pack of four security turned up and with no hello or excuse me started to (quiet aggressively ) demand I take the tarp down. I tried to explain my wife needed the shade (it being a very hot day) and that she has a genuine medical complaint which we was more than willing to prove by showing them the bundle of drugs my wife has to inject and take each day.

This carried no favour and I was told that if I did not take it down immediately they would summon the response team and they would evict me my wife and son from the site.

I politely told them I would not take it down till my wife was feeling better and if this was not good enough, they should get the hit squad and I would explain matters to them. And so they left.

So after a few more hours finally putting up the last of the tents for our group I tried to grab some sleep, then I was awoke by my wife in tears saying "there here to kick us off site" I went out of the tent to be faced by another pack of security .

"Are you crew" the first one grunted at me "no why" I said

"Take down this gazebo or we will kick you off site"

Trying to explain the problem I had didn't even cause the faintest of flickers of concern or compassion and the level of aggression was like nothing I had ever experienced at glastonbury before.

So I told them they had won I would take down the tarp and I hoped they were happy they had bullied me into this.

At this point two of the security started to swear "look I'm f#%€ing telling you you can't have a gazebo so f@£&ing take it down"

Now I don't swear around my 2 year old he picks up words too quickly I told the security to shoo they had won they had bullied me and a sick women into giving up their shade from the sun

Well this only added to anger and excited the security even more "tell me to shoo like I'm a f£&@ing animal you c£@t i'll f&£@ing give you shoo"

So with my wife and son in tears me and my friend took down the tarp so my wife could slowly cook in the afternoon sun.

Gazebo's (shade) some of us at glastonbury need shade not only for medical reasons but my son can't sit in the scorching sun all day and needs a place to be cool. I ask you the people who post on here, are children and the disabled not welcome at glastonbury anymore?

Also when was the two tier system introduced at glastonbury that makes the crew more equal than some.

If there is a form I have to fill out or some charitable donation or work I need to do so I can give my wife and child some shade from the sun at glastonbury sign me up.

Well sorry for the long rant

[Amii]

This is pretty awful - sorry you had such trouble. I can see it from both sides, there can't be two sets of rules, but that really should have counted as extenuating circumstances.

Did you get thier names or ID numbers? I'd drop a note to the festival office so they can have a word.

MS is an awful condition and I hope your wife is feeling much better.

[stuartbert two hats]

This is pretty awful - sorry you had such trouble. I can see it from both sides, there can't be two sets of rules, but that really should have counted as extenuating circumstances.

Did you get thier names or ID numbers? I'd drop a note to the festival office so they can have a word.

MS is an awful condition and I hope your wife is feeling much better.

[progue]

You can't expect Security to use discretion as unfortunately most only have sufficient brain power to follow basic instructions.

Give them a license to go and bully people and you bet your life they will do it and relish every moment.

If you don't want gazebo's on site there is a fairly simple solution

Say They are banned instead of some airy fairy "we'd prefer you not to bring them nonsense" if you then intend to get security to start roughing people up over them.

Don't allow people in with them (they are pretty obvious looking things)

Don't allow them to be sold on the site

As ever though a bit of common sense and unselfish use and there really needn't be a problem.

[stuartbert two hats]

You can't expect Security to use discretion as unfortunately most only have sufficient brain power to follow basic instructions.

Give them a license to go and bully people and you bet your life they will do it and relish every moment.

If you don't want gazebo's on site there is a fairly simple solution

Say They are banned instead of some airy fairy "we'd prefer you not to bring them nonsense" if you then intend to get security to start roughing people up over them.

Don't allow people in with them (they are pretty obvious looking things)

Don't allow them to be sold on the site

As ever though a bit of common sense and unselfish use and there really needn't be a problem.