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Gate B madness last year


Stu H
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I went in though gate b last year. Was in in the queue from the bottom of the first car park from about 5-6 and we were in by 9:45, don't remember when the gates actually opened, I was bollocked by then. But it didn't seem that bad. Spent the whole time chatting shit &!drinking buckfast with a paddy so I quiet enjoyed being in the queue tbh 

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29 minutes ago, EmsieXxX said:

I was in this situation I think....there was a tiny cut thru in a hedge yes at the bottom of the car park? And just no order what so ever 

Yep, possibly carpark2, whichever the large one is that most people park up in that time of day for gateB.  Last year as people above have said, eventually two people started controlling the exit from that field (which is via that hedge gap / gate) with a piece of rope.  Once you get out of that main carpark it's a long slow trudge to get to gateB, with frequent pauses to allow traffic to cross the (two?) roads it cuts across, but that long slow trudge is OK-ish, the huge issue is just getting out of that one massive carpark field that pretty much always descends into chaos.

For people who queued overnight it was orderly right up until 7/8 am, then things got bunched.  Then there was massive movements sideways across the field, so people just say bugger it, I can see where the new end is, but it's becoming a wider queue so it's fine for me to join a bit further forward.  I think for the people who had been there overnight and started near the front, they were closer to being alongside the hedge queued against to get to that gap/exit, people who'd been bunched up from the back were probably moving faster further out from the hedge, and obviously everyone further away from the hedge were moving along fairly freely meaning people who had been there the longest were probably getting out of the field the slowest.  After several hours in the field I finally got to the people with the rope and the nirvana of the OK-ish long slow trudge to B was in sight.

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2 hours ago, Thunderstruck said:

I don't understand why people turn up early to queue. I'd much rather rock up in the afternoon, stroll through the gate and set up camp in a less busy area of the site!

Several reasons - good pitch, wanting to get the party started, a long drive might be easier through the night.  For me I'm usually itching to get to the site as early as possible, and am willing to go as early as my partner is willing :)

People being happy to arrive early and queue overnight in the carparks are doing you a huge favour - otherwise Wednesday afternoon you'd be in a huge queue in warmer weather out on the roads several miles from the festival.

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2 hours ago, elias said:

Yep, all semblance of good manners seems to go out of the window once the gates open. I was at Gate B in 2010 and people were ignoring the queue entirely. It took over 2 1/2 hours to get to the gate and it was scorching hot. The first beer has never tasted so good.

I turn up on Wednesday afternoon these days and walk straight in. 

2010 was another year I've had the pleasure of Gate B.  We were in carpark2 where I normally seem to end up, and it took forever to get out of the gap/exit mentioned above.  On the map (http://cdn.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/2016v1.png) carpark 2 feeds into CP1, then you get onto the trail to gate B - however before we could get out of our carpark field, they had started filling up CP4 - which they were also feeding into CP1.  So when we finally got out of CP2 we could see CP1 had queues from CP2 & CP4 joining together.  To be fair they were managing the two queues and letting them take turns to enter the field, so wasn't too chaotic.  My issue was that CP4 was being filled with cars hours after they had filled CP2, so people we're being left sweltering with heavy gear in CP2 a hell of a long time and later arrivals to CP4 had a seemingly straight route through.

I think we arrived about 6am that year and got pitched after 11am, luckily friends who had gotten straight in via C had managed to save a pitch large enough for the tent we'd brought for the lot of us 

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20 minutes ago, p.pete said:

 

I think we arrived about 6am that year and got pitched after 11am, luckily friends who had gotten straight in via C had managed to save a pitch large enough for the tent we'd brought for the lot of us 

Tort's guide also suggests gate C (for family camping).  Think that's my current plan. Thanks

Assuming I can get to it? Just not going to worry. It will be fine in the end.

Edited by Miesh
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Gate  D last year was a complete ball ache!  Turned up Tuesday 9pm with good intentions of sleeping in the car till the early hours.  Instead we stupidly joined the queue..  Big mistake..  No sleep all nigh,  slowly moving towards gate D..  Was greeted by the barrier rope section which people ignored.. Well pissed after 11hrs of queuing people just ran across the fields,  and push in front of us.  Wtf.. I asked what the F they upto,  they said it's the glastonbury way,  and that if I has been before I would of known this..  Wtf..  Another 50or so pushed in,  with barriers crashing down.  Very bad situation and atmosphere...  Not a steward or security in sight.  Really don't know what to do this time..  I just remember looking at the sea of people behind and in front..  The lack of sleep really took its toll on the first day. Looking to camp in dairy again.  

Edited by mrfunk
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2 hours ago, p.pete said:

Several reasons - good pitch, wanting to get the party started, a long drive might be easier through the night.  For me I'm usually itching to get to the site as early as possible, and am willing to go as early as my partner is willing :)

People being happy to arrive early and queue overnight in the carparks are doing you a huge favour - otherwise Wednesday afternoon you'd be in a huge queue in warmer weather out on the roads several miles from the festival.

What counts as a good pitch? I guess it depends on what everybody wants. For me I always like being able to sleep when I'm absolutely dead. I'm late 20s now but even when I was 18 I was never able to have mental weekend long benders! 2014 was strange, we left Bristol at 6.30 so got to glastonbury fairly early...absolutely no traffic and sailed into the car park with not a single queue...then we had to wait about 2/3 hours to get through Gate A. 

We camped in Darble and I thought it was brilliant, plenty of space not to crazy!

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2 minutes ago, malcombe said:

I don't know why they don't sometimes open earlier. The gate staff are hanging around nearly two hours before opening. 

I was wristbanding that morning and we were required to be at our stations for 6am but they didn't open until bang on 8am. We were told it was because they were considering opening them early but that sounds like bullshit. Does Glastonbury ever open early?

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2 minutes ago, Cieran said:

I was wristbanding that morning and we were required to be at our stations for 6am but they didn't open until bang on 8am. We were told it was because they were considering opening them early but that sounds like bullshit. Does Glastonbury ever open early?

I'm sure gate d did in 2010 but then again I was tired and a bit worse for wear 

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6 minutes ago, Cieran said:

I was wristbanding that morning and we were required to be at our stations for 6am but they didn't open until bang on 8am. We were told it was because they were considering opening them early but that sounds like bullshit. Does Glastonbury ever open early?

Off the top of my head, 2013 certainly did. I got off a coach at 7:45 and was through Gate A before 8am even hit so whatever queue there was from the Coach Station had already pretty much cleared.

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2 hours ago, mrfunk said:

Looking to camp in dairy again.  

 

For me this is the key to what you do - you could rock up in a West Car Park at 10am - having had a decent nights kip, and be pitched in Dairy before 12.  I dont get the overnight thing - unless your going for the front of Row Mead, or Pennards and what not - then I dont think there is a need.

 

We've rocked up about 7.30/8 - through Gate A - pitched before 11 (in 2015 it was just after 10) in Woodsies which is exactly where we wanted.  

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5 hours ago, jonny2mad said:

Who was managing the stewarding if it was oxfarm I'm not sure as I work inside the festival not on gates, you could contact them tell them what happened and suggest how it should be sorted out if you have suggestions

Oxfam do not control the external pedestrian queues approaching the gates, they only deal with the marshalling across the road crossings and inside the gate area once through the main fence.

 

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Entered through Gate Athe last 4 years and never had any real problems, last 2 years have just been straight in, no stop/starting once the gates open etc.

Will be arriving about 1 Wed afternoon this year, hopefully enter the site at Gate D, lucky enough to have a tipi, so no need to que over night.

Edited by lukemack
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They had the roped zig zig section at the top of the hill just outside of Gate D last year and it was all working fine.  We entered this section around 6am and every body was following correctly finding a spot and sitting down and relaxing.  Then all of a sudden around 7.45 everybody got up and walked under and over the ropes towards the corner of the field that led to Gate D, causing chaos and massive crush issues

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I joined the queue at the bottom of the uppermost car park at late evenish last year on the Tuesday. (It's car park 2 on 2016 map).

Iirc I think said queue originally went from the gap in the hedge straight up the hill when I joined, then when it got about half way up the stewards moved everyone down to the level ground at the bottom next to the row of portaloos*. Then, as others have said, at about 7/8am people just started to join the queue at the gap in the hedge. All got possibly a bit silly. This is all a bit of a hazy, awake overnight in a car park at Glastonbury kind of memory though.

I would like to see a bit more fairness in the queues. They've been doing it for years, you'd think they'd have some idea of how to best snake one. Maybe it's because it's different volunteer stewards every year? (pure speculation obv.).

I liked it when (it seemed) those who got there the earliest got to park the closest to the gates. Seemed sensible to me. Park car in good spot. Join back of queue.

Now it's: Get there early. Get made to park miles away even though everywhere is empty. Lug gear to back of queue. Then, watch as latecomers get to park right next to where you have struggled with your gear a mile for, lug their gear a mile the other way to where the back of the queue now is (or, more likely, try to surreptitiously cut in somewhere).

Disclaimer: Not a qualified logistics expert.

*(My spell-checker (spell-checker is hyphenated apparently) wants to spell portaloo as portal. I would have given anything for a portal gun in that queue. Or, just imagine, a portal portaloo).

Edited by MrZigster
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