Bottleneck

[JoBalls]

The worst one we encountered was on our way back to our campsite after Muse on the Friday night (we had decided we couldn't possibly stay up that night after pulling an all nighter on Thursday). We camp in Rivermead which means walking through Silver Hayes. Now that John Peel has moved it means that all the crowds coming from John Peel add to the crowds coming via Other entering at the bottom end of Silver Hayes, and because there is a hedgerow there, the gap to filter through is narrow. It was so dangerous. I got split from the group and stuck in a crush, whereby I was being pushed from behind so couldn't stop moving, the guy in front off me was yelling at everyone to stop because he was holding up his mate who had passed out. Was terrifying. 

Im sure the mud contributed, but bottle necks like that do need to be considered, as it's not the first time we got stuck in something like that at Silver Hayes (when Fatboy Slim played at The Blues last year is another prime example). They have a one way system and crowd control for the SE corner after a certain time... I think they need the same in Silver Hayes.

Edited June 30, 2016 by JoBalls

[Finding leto14]

39 minutes ago, Nobody Interesting said:

How on earth do you think any amount of stewards can arrange neat queue's for the toilets or stop those at the back who do not want to miss the next band on their list from pushing?

Stewards on megaphones will be ignored by those who do not care - motorways have signs saying keep in lane and people ignore it. I am afraid it is, for many, just human nature.

I missed the starts of some sets and put it down to 'just one of those things'. It was muddy, it was cold and wet. No need to get irate about it or blame unpaid volunteers without whom the festival would cease to exist.

I totally get three quarters of your point. Are all stewards unpaid? I think it's down to lack of training in said situations. Crowds are part of the festival, everyone understands that. The gripe is about crushes. They can be avoided and with a megaphone its a lot easier either for direction or "keep calm everyone do not push you will get through in time". Like you said there's really one period after the headliners when it's bad. Why can't it be planned? 

[shuttlep]

12 hours ago, dexydexy said:

Waiting for the Hot Chip Prince tribute was scary. Far, far too many people. It should've been controlled. Tried to get out as it was freaking me out, had to try and walk through a very tight crowd when everyone was coming the opposite way. Wellies sticking in mud and people pushing. Truly terrifying.

then similar situation on the railway track. 

this was horrible, tried to go loo just before it started and you could not move, the amount of people pushing and getting stuck in the mud.

[Yokel Again]

17 hours ago, dexydexy said:

Waiting for the Hot Chip Prince tribute was scary. Far, far too many people. It should've been controlled. Tried to get out as it was freaking me out, had to try and walk through a very tight crowd when everyone was coming the opposite way. Wellies sticking in mud and people pushing. Truly terrifying.

then similar situation on the railway track. 

Yeah - this was bad. We waited for 30mins (getting there early) for this and were pretty close to the Genosys stage. As it started it was so rammed we decided to head up to the back, but in the dark you couldn't see how bad the mud was. Packed, got stuck, and had to lever off people to get through. Cue accusations of pushing etc, when really it was just LOTS of people moving through a massive crowd but unable to. 

Not pleasant.

[cazzatron]

The crowd after Coldplay going left up to Arcadia was dangerous! Especially because all sticking to the walkways. We resigned ourselves and stood back to get cheesy chips to wait. After 15 mins still not clearing - walked against the crowd to go around John Peel way. Bit difficult at first but after Pyramid it was fine. Then Michael Eavis drives past at the road behind the Pyramid waving to the crowd to many cheers  it was a nice moment.

[shoptildrop]

17 hours ago, cdm22 said:

The worst crush by far was Friday night on the train track walking away from the SE corner at about 12.30am/1am. It took nearly an hour to walk down half of it with no chance of escape getting off the track on either side. It was getting rather dangerous with people trying to get through the wire fencing to get out.

we went to T&C fields after Muse and probably left just at 1pm it took us until 2.40pm (this is off my fitbit thing) to get to Paines ground nearest side to Dairy..

we went up through Avalon along the railway line, total biggest mistake ever and one I did not repeat for the rest of the w/end as I get really panicky in crowds like that...even going up through Pennards/Park home was bad and then hit Arcadia at bottom of the Park which was getting so muddy stewards were trying to tape areas of which meant more bottlenecks...I was relieved to be back at the tent that night and reviewed strategy routes for getting around after that and probably missed half of what I wanted to do unfortunately

Thing is they can only do so much, if we just got the rain we had during the festival itself it would of been fine but ground was destroyed before we got there so it was always going to be up against the odds