Journey to Glasto

[Caveyh]

Just thought i would ask the question, so last year me and my mates went to Glasto from Bristol (where we live) and there was massive 12 hour queues, so basically we saw the electric sign saying big ques ahead so we went all the way around through housing estates and tiny country roads and ended up coming out right at the gates to the car park.

My brother and my mates sister had left at 1 in the morning to get a good space, me and my mates left at about half 4, five and we go there before them.

So basically, just wondering why people wait in the cues when there is more than one way of getting there? 

[EamerRed]

Pretty much word for word same as me last year. Queued for ages, bailed thinking that it can't be any worse, went through country lanes for about 10 minutes and drove straight in.

[Deadendfriends8]

5 minutes ago, Caveyh said:

Just thought i would ask the question, so last year me and my mates went to Glasto from Bristol (where we live) and there was massive 12 hour queues, so basically we saw the electric sign saying big ques ahead so we went all the way around through housing estates and tiny country roads and ended up coming out right at the gates to the car park.

My brother and my mates sister had left at 1 in the morning to get a good space, me and my mates left at about half 4, five and we go there before them.

So basically, just wondering why people wait in the cues when there is more than one way of getting there? 

I didn't know the country roads route, so I just waited it out. For future reference, if the queues are mega again. What roads should I be looking for?

[Caveyh]

We didnt know the route either, so i am not too sure i'm afraid. We just saw the sign and though, nah we ain't waiting in that, so we drove on and the google maps on our phone just updated to a new route

[Caveyh]

7 minutes ago, EamerRed said:

Pretty much word for word same as me last year. Queued for ages, bailed thinking that it can't be any worse, went through country lanes for about 10 minutes and drove straight in.

yeah we didnt even get in a que, saw the sign and though forget that

[EamerRed]

1 minute ago, Caveyh said:

yeah we didnt even get in a que, saw the sign and though forget that

We left around 5am if I remember correctly from Bristol too, and it was maybe 10ish by the time we bailed the queue we were in. I think we were near Gurney Slade or something, and hadn't moved in a couple of hours, so we turned around, took a left, completely blagged it, and rightly or wrongly (definitely wrongly) went down some narrow roads which I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to go down. Somehow we exited at an entrance to the site where people were stood around and seemingly no other cars around, no queue whatsoever.

Wish I'd taken note of the directions now!

[Deadendfriends8]

See this country road method is much less attractive at 330am and its pissing it down haha

[Caveyh]

Just now, EamerRed said:

We left around 5am if I remember correctly from Bristol too, and it was maybe 10ish by the time we bailed the queue we were in. I think we were near Gurney Slade or something, and hadn't moved in a couple of hours, so we turned around, took a left, completely blagged it, and rightly or wrongly (definitely wrongly) went down some narrow roads which I'm pretty sure we weren't supposed to go down. Somehow we exited at an entrance to the site where people were stood around and seemingly no other cars around, no queue whatsoever.

Wish I'd taken note of the directions now!

yeah we went down some thin country roads. From leaving our house in bristol to parking up in glasto it was just under an hour, thats with a pit stop for food in there as well.

[Slugworth]

Im pretty sure it's massively frowned upon by the locals.

[majormajormajor]

Just now, Slugworth said:

Im pretty sure it's massively frowned upon by the locals.

They'll survive.

[Fishman]

Just use an old-school paper map and look for the little roads.

However, if everyone does this it fcks it for all and queues on minor roads understandably upsets the locals. This will then put the licence at risk.

[Fishman]

1 minute ago, majormajormajor said:

They'll survive.

Nice.

The festival won't.

[paulshane]

I know all the local roads, but I have a small caravan and suck at reversing when it's attached, so i was too worried i'd meet an angry tractor coming the other way and cause all sorts of problems.

I do use the 'shortcut' through town that misses out the crossroads with traffic lights, which always seems to be busy.

[Caveyh]

4 minutes ago, Slugworth said:

Im pretty sure it's massively frowned upon by the locals.

Yeah but it is mainly just country roads, so I dont see the massive effect this will have on locals, bearing in mind there are people in 12 hour long ques blocking everything up. 

I do understand though that if everyone did this then obviously you would have a major problem, was just saying that i'm surprised more people don't 

[Caveyh]

8 minutes ago, Deadendfriends8 said:

See this country road method is much less attractive at 330am and its pissing it down haha

Leave at 5 then and go down the country roads

[Ducky89]

This is quite funny.

I've got some local knowledge having lived around the Dorset / Somerset area and friends have often broken the journey from London up by stopping over the night before, then plugged the postcode for the car park into their satnav's and swore blind the satnav has guided them via a shortcut down country lanes and brought them out right by the car park - when asked which route they have taken, they have no idea.

When i've driven, I've used my local knowledge to cut through either by Ditcheat or somewhere else and come unstuck, how does that work..

[Caveyh]

33 minutes ago, Ducky89 said:

This is quite funny.

I've got some local knowledge having lived around the Dorset / Somerset area and friends have often broken the journey from London up by stopping over the night before, then plugged the postcode for the car park into their satnav's and swore blind the satnav has guided them via a shortcut down country lanes and brought them out right by the car park - when asked which route they have taken, they have no idea.

When i've driven, I've used my local knowledge to cut through either by Ditcheat or somewhere else and come unstuck, how does that work..

The power of the sat nav

[Smeble]

If we hadn't been going in our Motorhome it would have been quicker to walk across the fields, it took us 20mins from home to the back of the queue and then 9 1/2 hours to get in.

the problem with ignoring the signs and doing your own thing is it doesn't take many people doing it to fuck those roads as well, making life harder for the locals who complain more and jeopardise the future of the festival but I guess the  'I'm alright jack' attitude is all that matters nowadays.

[stuartbert two hats]

My guess is since the festival has such an effect on the traffic when it's on, most people assume the Sat Nav isn't set up to deal with the routing put into place over the weekend, so consider it to be safer to obey the festival signage.

[Dave_c]

1 hour ago, Slugworth said:

Im pretty sure it's massively frowned upon by the locals.

This, and if everyone did it it would cause chaos as those smaller roads could not cope with the traffic and in the end it would probably take longer.

[Caveyh]

23 minutes ago, Smeble said:

If we hadn't been going in our Motorhome it would have been quicker to walk across the fields, it took us 20mins from home to the back of the queue and then 9 1/2 hours to get in.

the problem with ignoring the signs and doing your own thing is it doesn't take many people doing it to fuck those roads as well, making life harder for the locals who complain more and jeopardise the future of the festival but I guess the  'I'm alright jack' attitude is all that matters nowadays.

well it was our first time going so it wasn't an 'I'm alright jack' attitude thank you very much! We just didn't know and seemed sensible to just drive around instead of waiting 12 hours.

[Mickball]

Had a local taxi pick us up at Bristol airport last year and he took us on a route down roads and lanes that "aren't even on Google Maps". We did not hit any traffic at all and got dropped at gate A at around 10am.

We had been considering getting the National Express from Bristol 

[stuwilky]

There isnt usually much by the way of stupid ques any more.  Last year was a "one off" certainly in the time Ive been going.  Usually we get to site around 8-9 on the Wednesday morning.  Slow down a little after Glastonbury town, but pretty much keep moving slowly until we get there,

 

Daft country road routes should be left for the locals to go about their business to protect the festival.

[CaledonianGonzo]

2 minutes ago, Mickball said:

Had a local taxi pick us up at Bristol airport last year and he took us on a route down roads and lanes that "aren't even on Google Maps". We did not hit any traffic at all and got dropped at gate A at around 10am.

We had been considering getting the National Express from Bristol 

Bit of a fluke that, though.  Taxis shouldn't be allowed to set down or drop off on that road and probably any other time you'd get re-directed to the drop off at Bath & West Showground.

[Caveyh]

3 minutes ago, stuwilky said:

There isnt usually much by the way of stupid ques any more.  Last year was a "one off" certainly in the time Ive been going.  Usually we get to site around 8-9 on the Wednesday morning.  Slow down a little after Glastonbury town, but pretty much keep moving slowly until we get there,

 

Daft country road routes should be left for the locals to go about their business to protect the festival.

well it was like 5 in the morning so the country roads were pretty much empty