Gate A

[seagulls]

We are travelling up from Brighton and aiming to camp around Lime Kiln area, Gate A seems like the closest pedestrian gate.  What is the best way to approach this by car and when does the parking around that gate tend to fill up on the Wednesday?

Cheers.

[devonhammer]

If you come in via Glastonbury town up the A361 then you'll come in this way. You can probably come down A361 from the North through Pilton, but sometimes there's diversions to stop too much traffic going through the village.

Where you get parked is a bit random. I arrived Wednesday lunchtime last year and was put in the farthest car park (I think it was in the outskirts of Swindon from the walk in), but friends arrived later and got put in a nearer field.

[seagulls]

1 minute ago, devonhammer said:

If you come in via Glastonbury town up the A361 then you'll come in this way. You can probably come down A361 from the North through Pilton, but sometimes there's diversions to stop too much traffic going through the village.

Where you get parked is a bit random. I arrived Wednesday lunchtime last year and was put in the farthest car park (I think it was in the outskirts of Swindon from the walk in), but friends arrived later and got put in a nearer field.

Thanks, i guess we will just have to play it by ear once we get to the roundabout where you can head towards pilton.  If we can get that way all good if not i guess we might have to head to PGB instead.

[Hotchilidog]

If you are driving from Brighton you will more than likely end up on the Gate B side of the car parks so will have to adjust your route accordingly. Given that Lime Kiln doesn't fill up Gate B when there are no queues would not be too much of a nightmare just a longer walk along the top of the festival and you will still find space there.

[across97]

Are you able to choose where you park? I kinda had my heart set on parking in orange, through PG D and down to Oxlyers. But judging by this post it seems it depends which way you go in as to where you get put to park?

[al_coholic]

1 minute ago, across97 said:

Are you able to choose where you park? I kinda had my heart set on parking in orange, through PG D and down to Oxlyers. But judging by this post it seems it depends which way you go in as to where you get put to park?

You park where they tell you to park at the moment you arrive. I think they start filling Orange first on the Tuesday night and then work their way over to pink. But they will move it around to get the traffic off the road quicker. By 6am on the Wednesday morning last year they will filling pink as a lot of orange was full. Then later on when I went back to the car they were letting more cars into some of the outer orange fields. 

[across97]

8 minutes ago, al_coholic said:

You park where they tell you to park at the moment you arrive. I think they start filling Orange first on the Tuesday night and then work their way over to pink. But they will move it around to get the traffic off the road quicker. By 6am on the Wednesday morning last year they will filling pink as a lot of orange was full. Then later on when I went back to the car they were letting more cars into some of the outer orange fields. 

I see, that's handy to know. So a lot of it depends where you arrive from? I'm going from around Reading away so looking at the map it seems Ill be arriving to the West of the site. First year going so I really am clueless about where I'll end. Once I'm parked then nothing I can do so I'll just go with it

[seagulls]

Sounds like Gate B, hopefully purple parking is the best option then.  Cheers.  Any ideas when purple parking filled up last year?

[Cheesey]

1 hour ago, al_coholic said:

You park where they tell you to park at the moment you arrive. I think they start filling Orange first on the Tuesday night and then work their way over to pink. But they will move it around to get the traffic off the road quicker. By 6am on the Wednesday morning last year they will filling pink as a lot of orange was full. Then later on when I went back to the car they were letting more cars into some of the outer orange fields. 

When arriving from the west at around 10am on Wednesday in previous years we've been herded into the Pink car parks (i.e. away from the festival), while watching cars coming in the other direction, from the Village, turning east into Orange (towards the festival).

Last year we arrived a bit later, around lunchtime, and there were no queues on the A361 at all, and nobody directing traffic on the road, so we simply drove past the Pink entrance on the left and turned right into the Orange car parks.

My interpretation of this that they only force cars approaching from the west to turn into the Pink car parks when traffic is heavy, because if they allowed you to choose the Orange entrance you would have to turn across the traffic coming the other way, which would cock up the traffic flow in both directions. It's much better, in terms of traffic flow, to have cars from the east turning into Orange and cars from the west turning into Pink. Later on, when there are no queues, they don't care where you go as long as the car parks have space.

Edited June 9, 2016 by Cheesey

[musky]

Just beware heading though Pilton if you're aiming for the West car parks from the East, as you will probably be diverted towards the East car parks. That can happen well away from the site. 

[shoptildrop]

we usually get put in yellow but we come out a back road (from greenacres campsite) that is opposite bronze gate...

Bit concerned as staying in The Red Lion down the road A361 so will be 1 1/2miles to the west and worried we are going to get put in pink rather than yellow  will be on that road at 6am so what are the chances of being directed into pink?

[Cheesey]

13 minutes ago, musky said:

Just beware heading though Pilton if you're aiming for the West car parks from the East, as you will probably be diverted towards the East car parks. That can happen well away from the site. 

Very true. We approach from the east on the A303, but we use the back roads to go around the festival before popping out in West Pennard and turning East to approach the festival from the west side.

[balti-pie]

If you're coming from Brighton then you'll be better off following this route: straight down the a27/m27 to Southampton, then the a36 thru Salisbury and onto the a303 - you'll be past Stonehenge so can avoid the rubbernecking and slowness this inevitably involves - then you can turn up the a371 (which is normally nice and quiet) towards the east car parks, or carry on the a303 to the a37 turnoff which can then put you towards the west car parks. I always park east though - it's a hundred times easier to aim yourself towards the south east when exiting Monday. 

[jamesrfisher]

We are from Sussex, like to camp on west side, after a couple of years of slogging across site in 2012 we decided to park on west side.

Take A303
At roundabout of A303/A37 which is signposted to A37 for the festival, take the exit before the A37 which is the A372.
Take 1st exit off this, B3151 signposted to Somerton
Carry on this road following signs to Street
At Street take A39 to Glastonbury.
 

[KryziF]

The traffic management plan means they can stop any traffic going through pilton from east the site to the west car parks and vice versa. Whether they do or not seems to depend on what the traffic is like. So the best way to get to gates A&D is by approaching from Glastonbury town. 

Once you get to the car parks they are always filling pink at peak times as you turn left off the road from Glastonbury. They also have traffic lights that stop everything to let people cross the road when this happens they fill the orange car parks at the same time. Basically you won't get a choice.

Edited June 9, 2016 by KryziF

[seagulls]

thanks everyone for your comments, all very helpful :0)

[HalfAnIdiot]

6 hours ago, jamesrfisher said:

We are from Sussex, like to camp on west side, after a couple of years of slogging across site in 2012 we decided to park on west side.

Take A303
At roundabout of A303/A37 which is signposted to A37 for the festival, take the exit before the A37 which is the A372.
Take 2nd right, B3151 signposted to Somerton
Carry on this road following signs to Street
At Street take A39 to Glastonbury.
 

Fixed. 

You can take the 1st right too which cuts out a good few miles but you need to know your way around the lanes else you'll probably end up back on the A37.

 

[jamesrfisher]

12 hours ago, HalfAnIdiot said:

Fixed. 

You can take the 1st right too which cuts out a good few miles but you need to know your way around the lanes else you'll probably end up back on the A37.

 

Good point!

[Peroni]

23 hours ago, seagulls said:

We are travelling up from Brighton and aiming to camp around Lime Kiln area, Gate A seems like the closest pedestrian gate.  What is the best way to approach this by car and when does the parking around that gate tend to fill up on the Wednesday?

Cheers.

Similar to us... we are coming up from Crawley and heading to lime kiln and Gate A - Gate D is our 2nd choice.

I have a route some where that I use that allows you to change direction far enough away from the site (without a massive detour) to approach from the west... that way we we arrived we were heading towards the parking with the site on the left hand side and was given the option to park in Yellow (vs crossing the road to Pink).  We arrived at 9.30ish.  This has worked for us past few years (hope I am not jinxing it) 

I need to check the route against latest route closures (as they often close some of the smaller roads) but happy DM you once I have had a chance to check it...although its likely to be similar to those already suggested...

Whilst you don't get to choose your car park on the Wednesday am, there are things you can do to make your preferred site more likely.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Peroni

[mario man]

This is all very useful, thanks everyone 

For years I travelled down from London on the A303 and skirted round the southern side of the site, as others have said above, so I arrived from the west & could park in the west car parks - always ended up in orange or yellow. Last time I did this was 2010. 

We are arriving late eve on weds this year, probably around 10pm, and I want to try hard to park in orange again, defo don't want to tackle the long trek from pink!

Wondering at that time if I'll be directed into pink or whether I'll be able to turn right into orange. If it's a problem I may change my route to arrive from the north, possibly coming through Shelton mallet. Or if I did that would I be directed East?

[Beerqueen]

On 09/06/2016 at 10:54 AM, devonhammer said:

If you come in via Glastonbury town up the A361 then you'll come in this way. You can probably come down A361 from the North through Pilton, but sometimes there's diversions to stop too much traffic going through the village.

Where you get parked is a bit random. I arrived Wednesday lunchtime last year and was put in the farthest car park (I think it was in the outskirts of Swindon from the walk in), but friends arrived later and got put in a nearer field.

I was the same in 2014.  It took us nearly an hour to walk to Woodisies which was almost the closest camping!