Earliest access to main site from Campervans West

[Wilfko]

Morning guys, quick question.

Me and my mates have normal tickets but ones of my friends has been offered a lift down tuesday day with a seperate group (he wont be staying with) in their campervan staying in campervan West.

 

I have a plan if giving him a selection of our tents so he can go set then up for us in a nice position before the masses arrive.

What's the deal with this? Will the access to mainsite from campervan West open at 8 like all the other entrances? That would presumably still be beneficial as the queue would be much smaller? 

Want to avoid giving him all our tents only to find out he's just as buggered as us, but with all of our tents.

 

Cheers.

Edited May 14, 2017 by Wilfko

[EasyUserName]

It has worked like that in past year's in East, but as I've never stopped in West I'm not as sure.

Tricky thing is it might change, you never know.

[bexj]

I did this 3 years ago.  The gate opened at about 8.15 and there was about 20 people in  the queue 

[EasyUserName]

Two years ago (last time I got up early enough to look) in East there was probably several hundred, and I'd guess took 30min maybe (could've been an hr I guess).

[Youtopia]

I was in West CV in 2015......Q was about 20 people deep before 8am on the Wed morning, we strolled through about 8:15 with no Q at all!

[Wilfko]

Thanks for the responses guys. Any first hand experience from 2016 would be appreciated. Realistically it's certainly going to be smaller the  the main entrances so will take the gamble I think.

[incident]

4 hours ago, Wilfko said:

What's the deal with this? Will the access to mainsite from campervan West open at 8 like all the other entrances? That would presumably still be beneficial as the queue would be much smaller?

While obviously we can't predict or account for specific year on year issues or variations, generally speaking what you're trying to do should work a treat. It should be the case that all Pedestrian Gates open at the same time or at worst a couple minutes of each other - it's co-ordinated by radio and the staff should all be in place to get briefed about 2 hours ahead of the official opening time (which is how last year they were able to open early, just after 6am, to try and clear queues and mitigate the weather issues).

The exception is if a specific gate has some kind of problem - but that's a chance at any gate and anecdotally I think the most troublesome in the past have been considered B and D.

[Jules62]

Our son did this for us a few years back, he was staying in Cv east and had pitched our tent by 8.15 am, sent me a photo of a very lonely looking tent in Park Home!

  

[The other Bellboy]

Was in CV West last year and it's an absolute doddle to get through, it has to be by far the quickest gate to get through on the Wednesday morning so your plan will work out a treat

[annax]

Have had "guests" in my CV West Campervan the last two years. They get on their way before 8 and are camped up in Pennards before anyone can get there from the main gates. 

But ssshhh - don't want everyone doing this...

[Wilfko]

Faaaaantastic.

[The other Bellboy]

I think this is one of the main reasons (if only 1) why the West site is so popular. As i have spoken to a few people who have family or friends that go in with them in the campervan but then pitch a tent inside the festival for the whole week. 

We just had to try the West last year as we thought it might be our last visit and we hated it! Personally wouldn't use it again unless we wanted to get in at 0800 on the Wednesday morning.

I know that some people (and very nice people at that) really love the West, so there must be something about it that we just couldn't see

[annax]

22 minutes ago, The other Bellboy said:

We just had to try the West last year as we thought it might be our last visit and we hated it!

I'm intrigued. What is it about West? The location? The atmosphere? The facilities? (Admittedly the one burger stall is a bit shit.) The toilets/water/waste water facilities?

[The other Bellboy]

32 minutes ago, annax said:

I'm intrigued. What is it about West? The location? The atmosphere? The facilities? (Admittedly the one burger stall is a bit shit.) The toilets/water/waste water facilities?

haha, i did make it out to be like a concentration camp or some other similar gruesome place didn't I!

We didn't use the toilets or need any additional water so i can't comment on that, yes the food van is awful so that didn't help.

For us it was the location, just such a ballache of a walk back and a soulless one at that, through endless fields of tents, it felt like you are out of the festival for so much longer. I have done the East side most of the previous times and even though it can be a long walk back from wherever you end up at night, it always seems so much better as you still feel inside the festival until gate C. 

Having the extra choice of food at the top of the hill is a bonus but that's not the deciding factor.

One thing i did notice about the West CV last year was that so many more people seemed to be around their vans a lot more than i have ever noticed before, we had some issues with the van on the way in which meant i needed to be at the van more often than usual and there always seemed to be folks sitting about at their vans. It did make it a lot more sociable as we got to know each other a lot more than i have experienced in the East side, but it did make me wonder why they went if they wanted to spend most of the time in the fields! Some of them had children with them and i felt so sorry for them being kept away from such a wonderful place.

Anyway that's my / our reasoning (my 20 year old godson felt exactly the same as me)  hope it satisfies your intrigue:)

[annax]

Interesting and thanks. 

I find my non-CV people tend to be on the west side of the site anyway so it makes sense for us to be there. I've only once ever parked on the east side and the walk through the camper vans seemed to go on forever!

as for people hanging around the van, yes our group might have been a bit guilty of that but we are slow starters for the day. Once we are out, that's typically it for the day!

[BluePaul]

This will be my fourth year in West - although I was going to try for East this year to compare and contrast, I needed a ticket in the resale and West came up first!

Plus points:

• great for The Park, Arcadia and stuff south of the railway line generally - including Cineramageddon this year.  If you spend all your time at the Pyramid or in T&C, it's a hell of a trek back albeit pretty level.
• It's only two fields which (in a dry year) makes getting in and out a breeze.  And the dedicated pedestrian gate is great first thing on Wednesday.
• I drive in from the West so it's straight in on a Tuesday and straight out on a Monday.

On the other hand, it's got a bit too much of a slope on it for my liking and it is a pretty soulless hike back at the end of the night.

Horses for courses - I'd like to give East a go, but happy enough in West.

[mario man]

Never done the east and only one years experience in the west, but we thought it was a lovely spot, however a fair trek to get to at the end of the day. Seemed to take forever to walk through Paines, Baileys etc and the mud that year did not help. But once you were up there, some lovely views and very peaceful  

[PullingDoorsMakedPush]

We are in west, can someone please tell me how long it will take to walk to the unfairground??, Looked on the map and it does seem a trek.

Thanks

 

[EasyUserName]

13 hours ago, PullingDoorsMakedPush said:

We are in west, can someone please tell me how long it will take to walk to the unfairground??, Looked on the map and it does seem a trek.

Thanks

 

Hi.

 

That's a complicated question.  It would depend on the time of day, the weather (both at the time and leading up to the walk) as well as your own personal physical ability.

 

For myself, as reasonably fit 40(ish) old during a dry day (early on - 10am maybe) I'd guess around 30 min (maybe 40), walking fast & focusing on moving around people.

 

Walking withough paying attention to the crowd (by this I mean "going with the flow" rather than trying to cut around people), in wet weather, physically "tired" and in the evening - I'd allow an hour and a half (maybe two).

 

Best of luck.

[PullingDoorsMakedPush]

WOW, upto 2 hours.

thanks

 

[BluePaul]

On 21/05/2017 at 1:04 AM, EasyUserName said:

Walking withough paying attention to the crowd (by this I mean "going with the flow" rather than trying to cut around people), in wet weather, physically "tired" and in the evening - I'd allow an hour and a half (maybe two).

Really?

I'd have said 30-40 minutes tops in any conditions - head towards the Other Stage until you hit the Old Railway Line and then straight down there.   And I say this as a 58 year old man who is not the fittest.

[EasyUserName]

20 minutes ago, BluePaul said:

Really?

I'd have said 30-40 minutes tops in any conditions - head towards the Other Stage until you hit the Old Railway Line and then straight down there.   And I say this as a 58 year old man who is not the fittest.

I would have guessed it would depend on the time of day.  I've had some pretty slow trudges along sections of the railway line, along with slow walks due to vehicle movements during the day.  You've a couple of "pinch points" along that route really.

 

I've never timed it though, so who can say?  If I get a moment this year, out of curiosity, I will do so!

[LongTimeLurker]

This will be our 3rd year in west. I really like it as we spend a lot of time in the park, and I like that it's really small and friendly. I'm tempted to try east as the late night walk home might be easier...but then I always read conflicting reports about the 'hill of death'!