New security measures in place

[rpfranks]

19 hours ago, eFestivals said:

that's pretty much what they do anyway for the gate near East CV (is it gate C? I never know) - so they already know they can do it.

 

We go through gate C and there are people queuing already when we arrive at 2/3am.

They obviously aren't let in at that time, but the queue starts to move about 6.30/7am. People don't stay in their cars, it would be difficult to police that. I think people are held at some point midway through CV fields because the queue goes alongside the camper vans near the car parks that early.

edit: they tell people to stay in their cars every year but people always queue, this year is likely to be no different, they are just hoping that people take notice this time due to the additional security in place.

Edited June 15, 2017 by rpfranks

[Shariken]

19 minutes ago, FestiZebra said:

Apologies if this has been asked 100 times.. but where can i buy a non-glass personal mirror?

Amazon search is coming up with all kinds

Magic Mirror - i posted it in the Bargains thread then someone helpfully found a discount code.  It came last week and very impressed

http://magicmirroruk.com/

[giantkatestacks]

23 minutes ago, FestiZebra said:

Apologies if this has been asked 100 times.. but where can i buy a non-glass personal mirror?

Amazon search is coming up with all kinds

I got an 8quid one from amazon last week - camping mirror I think it was under, v good and cheaper than the posher one that everyone else bought on here. Has anyone else bought their luggage labels on the high street or are they just going to use felt tip to write on the sides of tents etc?

[liamium]

they're going to have to let coach arrivals queue before 8am. coaches start arriving from about 4.30 right?

[rpfranks]

Just now, liamium said:

they're going to have to let coach arrivals queue before 8am. coaches start arriving from about 4.30 right?

Something like that, some of our group arrive by coach at 6:45am

[squirrelarmy]

Just now, liamium said:

they're going to have to let coach arrivals queue before 8am. coaches start arriving from about 4.30 right?

Possibly, they might stop people leaving the car parks to join that queue though. Coach arrivals will be travelling light so should fly through the security.

[Zoo Music Girl]

I got a metal mirror for £2 on Amazon after recommendations on here, it's not arrived yet so can't speak for quality:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00JFYD6L2/ref=pe_3187911_189395841_TE_3p_dp_1

I bought some cheap parcel tags to attach to luggage. My initial response was to ignore that instruction but then just got worried they might take bags away to do checks or something, which of course they won't. But decided probably easier to comply!

 

[Matt - Ed Banger Records]

When we arrived before the gates (Ped Gate C) opened in 2013, there was a pretty large queue that was forming in the car park because a gate was still closed that then led into the CV fields, think they opened that gate at about 7.30am, we were set up and drinking beer by 10am.

[BagpussSeesAllThings]

33 minutes ago, FestiZebra said:

Apologies if this has been asked 100 times.. but where can i buy a non-glass personal mirror?

Amazon search is coming up with all kinds

Or try a local army surplus store if you're worried it won't come in time

[DeanoL]

1 hour ago, rpfranks said:

We go through gate C and there are people queuing already when we arrive at 2/3am.

They obviously aren't let in at that time, but the queue starts to move about 6.30/7am. People don't stay in their cars, it would be difficult to police that. I think people are held at some point midway through CV fields because the queue goes alongside the camper vans near the car parks that early.

edit: they tell people to stay in their cars every year but people always queue, this year is likely to be no different, they are just hoping that people take notice this time due to the additional security in place.

They could marshall the car parks in the same way they do in the CV fields. Coach arrivals could still queue directly at the gates. Ideally they'd release the car park queues one at a time in order of arrival too. 

The biggest danger point for the festival is the queue. Other than pyramid headliners it's the densest group of people and before the security checks. It seems crazy to do all this and not try and cut that down.

[rpfranks]

2 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

They could marshall the car parks in the same way they do in the CV fields. Coach arrivals could still queue directly at the gates. Ideally they'd release the car park queues one at a time in order of arrival too. 

The biggest danger point for the festival is the queue. Other than pyramid headliners it's the densest group of people and before the security checks. It seems crazy to do all this and not try and cut that down.

I think they will check most cars with sniffer dogs and/or additional security to try and combat this at first instance. They can't really stop people getting out of their cars and I've heard horror stories about how multiple car park queues were let in at the same time in 2010 and made things worse. They would be better off just letting people queue otherwise it would be chaotic at 8am, they just need better car searches upon entry. 

[budvar]

I hope I'm wrong but I think the queues to get in will be horrendous this year.

If the security measures are as tight as they've suggested they will either need a LOT more security staff (unlikely) or it will take a LOT longer to process the crowds.

FWIW, I'd back them 100% on introducing the new measures; they won't have done it lightly. I'd also be interested to know if Avon & Somerset police are planning on having armed officers at the festival; I've never seen any before.

[eFestivals]

19 minutes ago, budvar said:

If the security measures are as tight as they've suggested they will either need a LOT more security staff (unlikely) or it will take a LOT longer to process the crowds.

I suspect it's going to be some of both - a lot more security staff, and a lot longer to process the queues.

[DeanoL]

43 minutes ago, budvar said:

I hope I'm wrong but I think the queues to get in will be horrendous this year.

If the security measures are as tight as they've suggested they will either need a LOT more security staff (unlikely) or it will take a LOT longer to process the crowds.

FWIW, I'd back them 100% on introducing the new measures; they won't have done it lightly. I'd also be interested to know if Avon & Somerset police are planning on having armed officers at the festival; I've never seen any before.

My problem with that is that huge queues present a major target unless they do some smart splitting and marshaling.

[stopwn1981]

The reality is though if people are left queuing for hours on end, they will lose their sense of humour. Common sense must prevail.

[Tommy Dickfingers]

55 minutes ago, stopwn1981 said:

The reality is though if people are left queuing for hours on end, they will lose their sense of humour. Common sense must prevail.

Especially after year, say what you want about last year but bad organisation had to play a part in that chaos. 

[robin]

As long as it doesn't take 8 hours to drive from Shepton Mallet to the campervan field like last year on the Tuesday I won't really care about a longer queue at the gate. Can always just sit at watch the gate queue until it dies down. 

[MrZigster]

14 hours ago, stopwn1981 said:

The reality is though if people are left queuing for hours on end, they will lose their sense of humour. Common sense must prevail.

This. So much this. If it's going to take half a day to get in from now on it's going to ruin it. If I've already been up all night from getting to the car parks Tuesday night (I always seem to end up next to a shouty show off cokehead bloke in the queue) and then I don't get in until gone midday after being in the scorching hot sun for hours I will be mighty pissed. Me and a few thousand others. I can see me regretting turning down a working slot this year.

So, these terrorist attacks lead to longer queues.

Which leads to a bigger sitting target sat there for a longer period of time.

Aren't the terrorists winning a little bit?

[Matt - Ed Banger Records]

The whole 'big queues are a target' thing is a bit of a fallacy isn't it? To get near to the queues, you will have had to get into the car parks with a car park pass, and presumably having shown your ticket?

[DeanoL]

9 minutes ago, Matt - Ed Banger Records said:

The whole 'big queues are a target' thing is a bit of a fallacy isn't it? To get near to the queues, you will have had to get into the car parks with a car park pass, and presumably having shown your ticket?

Not on foot. Or by public transport.

It comes from the fact that the Manchester attacks happened outside the security perimeter of the gig.

[pie_and_a_pint]

10 minutes ago, Matt - Ed Banger Records said:

The whole 'big queues are a target' thing is a bit of a fallacy isn't it? To get near to the queues, you will have had to get into the car parks with a car park pass, and presumably having shown your ticket?

I assume they will actually be asking people to show their festival tickets on entry to the car park this year? I arrived to 9 festivals by car, all into the East car parks, and NEVER had to show our festival tickets to the people on the gate of the car park.

[MrZigster]

1 hour ago, Scruffylovemonster said:

Although I agree with your last 3 sentence, your first paragraph could be easily mitigated by not getting to the car parks Tuesday night and staying up all night. Tuesday car parks is a relatively new thing after all. 

It could have easily been mitigated if I'd taken that working slot

But the last time I didn't get there early I had the massive queue (cars and people) and struggled to find a decent camping spot (a really stressful day that tested old friendships) . And that was without all of this supposed new shenanigans. I've only ever been kept awake by idiots who think that they are way more entertaining than they actually are. I first did it in 2013 I think, so at least four years it's been a thing.

I'm just theorising how they may cock up the fine balance between good security and smooth queue processing. I've commented a couple of times about how disorganised I feel it is outside pre festival, when they've had years and years to improve things.

I don't see a win for me in such a scenario. If I aimed to arrive for gates opening for instance, I'd have to leave in the middle of the night and probably wouldn't sleep much from anxiousness anyway. I'd then be faced with a queue of cars and people who got there the night before, who are already moving slower than previous years because of the new policy. Almost definitely wouldn't be able to camp where I'd like.

This won't be a win for anyone except the terrorists and the security contractors if they cock it up and (for instance) try to do a full bag search on everyone. I think they had it just about right last year. I was working so camped outside and in and out at least once a day. I got pulled in twice. The search desks were constantly searching but didn't pull everyone. I was only carrying a day bag and it took ages.

Edited June 16, 2017 by MrZigster

[windy_miller]

1 hour ago, MrZigster said:

This. So much this. If it's going to take half a day to get in from now on it's going to ruin it. If I've already been up all night from getting to the car parks Tuesday night (I always seem to end up next to a shouty show off cokehead bloke in the queue) and then I don't get in until gone midday after being in the scorching hot sun for hours I will be mighty pissed. Me and a few thousand others. I can see me regretting turning down a working slot this year.

So, these terrorist attacks lead to longer queues.

Which leads to a bigger sitting target sat there for a longer period of time.

Aren't the terrorists winning a little bit?

For the last few years I've turned up at about 9pm on the Wednesday evening.  Absolutely no queues whatsoever and you still get the evening to relax, have a wander about and soak up the atmosphere.  Not much happens on the Wednesday during the day anyway, so it doesn't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

I don't think I could go back to attempting to turn up as early as possible any more.  Its just not worth the bother.

[MrZigster]

2 minutes ago, windy_miller said:

For the last few years I've turned up at about 9pm on the Wednesday evening.  Absolutely no queues whatsoever and you still get the evening to relax, have a wander about and soak up the atmosphere.  Not much happens on the Wednesday during the day anyway, so it doesn't feel like I'm missing out on anything.

I don't think I could go back to attempting to turn up as early as possible any more.  Its just not worth the bother.

Interesting.

But...but... the eFests meet... 

And seriously, sod having to walk for miles extra due to having to hunt for a camping spot. I got there at about midday once and it took us about two hours to find a (crap) spot.

[p.pete]

23 minutes ago, MrZigster said:

 I've commented a couple of times about how disorganised I feel it is outside pre festival, when they've had years and years to improve things.

I fully agree with this  -  always annoying being stuck in a badly organised queue, in a car park, seeing later arrivals barge down the outside of the queue, or spotting a more recently filled car park suddenly merging to a point further ahead in the queue than you've gotten to (clearly several hours difference in arrival time).

All of this will potentially be worse this year if we're winding through the car park for a few extra hours.  If they've taken this as an opportunity (or a nudge) to actually organise things properly than I'm fully on board with a longer wait.  The camping fields will fill up at whatever rate people get into the festival - so I've no problem if all the queues into all the gates move a bit slower.  I do have a problem if I arrive at 5 and people arriving at 7 or 9 are getting in ahead of me - and similarly I should be behind the people who arrived at 3 or yesterday - this requires organisation though, as some people are dicks and most of the rest are sheep.