Filling up the car parks - how does it work?

[Stu H]

You'd have thought I would know this, with fest number 7 coming up!

How do the car park areas get allocated / fill up? I prefer to go in via Gate C, but a couple of years ago we ended up at Gate B, which was chaos getting in. I prefer the route into the site via C!

Can you choose which gate you want on the A37? i.e. avoid the purple gate if you want to get further down to the blue gate?

 

[baggienick68]

Isn't gate C for the campervan folks? You might be able to walk down Pyle Road but it would be a long way round.

[Stu H]

2 minutes ago, baggienick68 said:

Isn't gate C for the campervan folks? You might be able to walk down Pyle Road but it would be a long way round.

 

You can park in the fields behind the camper vans and walk through them. Apart from the HILL OF DOOM (!!!), I find it an easier walk in.

I just don't want to end up going in via Pylle Lane or purple gate and still ending up at gate B.

The site says there's little can be done and you end up where you end up, but there must be a way to make it easier?!

[paulshane]

it'll be down to the Police directing you, they will filter the traffic according to whatever info they go on. once you're nearer the car park entrances, the stewards take over. Ignore Police directions at your peril

[FuzzyDunlop]

In short - you get put where you get put

[Cheesey]

If you're like me, whatever happens you'll end up absolutely miles away. Last year I ended up in an overflow car park west of Pink 56. It didn't even have its own number.

[incident]

You have a small amount of choice in that you can choose which side of the site you approach (East or West), and you're highly likely to end up parked on that side.

Beyond that, it's mostly luck - basically you'll get directed into whichever field they're filling at that moment in time. Sometimes they'll be filling more than one field at once, and in that case it's pot luck whether you get directed into one or the other. It's entirely feasible you end up in a totally different field than the person in front of you in the queue.

You can increase your chances of a specific colour a little by further narrowing down your approach - so if you're approaching via Podimore you'll stand more chance on getting put in Blue than if you approach via Cannards Grave. But it's still down to luck rather than anything you can fully control.

Some people have suggested in the past that you can force it by refusing to follow the traffic marshals directions, but I'd take the "don't be an arsehole" approach. Go where you're directed, if any notable number of people started acting like that that it'd quickly become chaos.

It is possible to walk from Purple to Gate C, just not ideal.

[Stu H]

Cool, ta for advice!

We're heading in from Beckington, I'm considering a wee detour rather than the normal Shepton Mallet / A37 route, by coming down Measdown Rd/Ln and across Easton Ln. Whether it has any effect, time will tell, but it hopefully means I'm not just coming in from the north and pushed into purple.

[Memory Man]

on the West side of the site, fairly loosely speaking they do seem to fill the carparks closer to the gate(s) first for the earlier arrivals.

We've been fortunate to be put in Yellow 32 and 33, two and three years ago respectively. This was arriving at about 10am ish on Wednesday. Unfortunately the entirety of Yellow 32 was waterlogged in 2016 due to the awful weather in the run up and meant that it couldnt be used as a car park, meaning everyone was pushed further and further out which explains why we were in pink despite an early wednesday arrival. and would also explain why another poster was put in a carpark that doesnt even exist on the map!

Our usual route into the site via north wootton was completely closed last year as well, I assume due to the weather and that some of the yellow carparks were out of action. I expect / hope this will all be back open and functioning this year weather permitting.

I think they fill the orange ones with the overnight arrivals on the tuesday from this direction, as i've been in one of those when arriving overnight tuesday.

 

Edited April 3, 2017 by Memory Man

[mazola]

I've walked from purple to gate c a couple of times, it's a fair old trek but it can be worth it.

If you get there before the blue car parks start filling up then the queue is a lot smaller than gate b, at least it was when i did it a couple of years back.

[Crazyfool01]

we have arrived at between 8 and 10 the last 4  years peak time I guess and been put in pink further to walk I guess but the bonus seems to have been that the queues exiting seem to have been that much quicker as we have been out the car parks and on our way home within 45 mins must be that we are taken out away from the rest of the festival traffic 

[dj_tim]

Every year we've aimed to get there about 6am and got put in Yellow 32 which is great, right next to gate A. Until last year of course with the nightmare traffic we ended up absolutely miles away at the back end of pink. Was handy for getting out though as we were parked right near the back exit.

[p.pete]

Normally try to arrive East side, 5/6am, last year being an exception as already mentioned.  they (stewards) never seem to direct too aggressively at that time, so we've ended up passing one or two entrances and coming in through brown route on that map.  Normally end up in Purple 2, which is a curse getting in, but handy for popping back to car once in.

Are there a few changes on that map from older versions?  In my head Purple 2 is twice as wide, though it was always a nightmare to manage, so maybe great if it has been reduced / reallocated to something else...