New security measures in place

[p.pete]

2 minutes ago, Amii said:

I'm sure I've missed this through not reading back but... What are thoughts about this 'stay in your car' statement which keeps circulating? Is there a feeling that this will be enforced more than usual?

My thoughts are that they're trying to sound like there's going to be nothing worthwhile as a 'target', but that they can't really control it or do anything different - thousands of cars, several fields, someone's going to make a move.

Local BBC 1 bit of the news this morning said something to the effect 'people will be arriving from 9pm, unlike previous years there will be no entertainment this evening'.  Sounded like PR gone wrong and misinformation to me.

[Amii]

2 minutes ago, benc said:

gotta be impossible to police. I bet all the announcements have speed panic about the queues, so the overnight queuing will be worse because people are trying to avoid queuing for longer 

This is my thinking too. Still going for early doors mind!

[Amii]

Just now, p.pete said:

My thoughts are that they're trying to sound like there's going to be nothing worthwhile as a 'target', but that they can't really control it or do anything different - thousands of cars, several fields, someone's going to make a move.

Local BBC 1 bit of the news this morning said something to the effect 'people will be arriving from 9pm, unlike previous years there will be no entertainment this evening'.  Sounded like PR gone wrong and misinformation to me.

Media will always twist these things. I remember coverage of the 'chaos' last year being totally warped by the BBC.

I'm not fussed about having to sit in a queue for a few hours, but the thought of missing out on a pre-fest good nights sleep just to sit in a car would be an absolute pain!

[p.pete]

7 minutes ago, Amii said:

Media will always twist these things. I remember coverage of the 'chaos' last year being totally warped by the BBC.

I'm not fussed about having to sit in a queue for a few hours, but the thought of missing out on a pre-fest good nights sleep just to sit in a car would be an absolute pain!

As it was 'local' beeb it felt a bit more like they'd been requested to impart a message, but something in the wording wasn't quite right.  Obviously there's never been tuesday entertainment - and there's always been a don't leave your car rule.  They don't want people to leave their cars, but they can't control it, saying there's no entertainment sounded odd but maybe they were avoiding publicly saying no overnight queuing as that maybe suddenly creates unwanted attention.  It didn't have the tone of them making something from nothing I guess.

[Woffy]

20 minutes ago, Amii said:

I'm sure I've missed this through not reading back but... What are thoughts about this 'stay in your car' statement which keeps circulating? Is there a feeling that this will be enforced more than usual?

Amy, gimme a shout on here or Twitter for an update if you want. I'll be arriving at the site to queue around 5pm and parking the car up as soon as they let us. 

[ghostdancer1]

1 hour ago, Nobody Interesting said:

I think an awful lot of the publicity about the security is a deterent - the idiots like easy targets. Glastonbury is about as hard  a target as you can get.

The security have a job to do and they will do it well - bring a pack of mints with you and offer them one with a smile.

i'd actually say the opposite, Glastonbury is a very easy target, thousands of people queuing up outside the entrance for hours. there's absolutely no point in a terrorist trying to get inside the fence when you have all these people outside it, and can get at them easily.

the more queues to get in, the more sitting ducks unfortunately.

checking for weapons on the way in may be well intentioned, but it's probably ultimately fairly pointless, if a terrorist wants to attack, they'll almost certainly be doing it outside the fence. bigger queues don't help in that regard.

the best option would be checkpoints on cars on the approach roads and intermittent searches with dogs for weapons/explosives.

[CajunMoon]

3 hours ago, eFestivals said:

I know we all want to be safe, but the terrorists are winning when such ridiculously stupid measures have to be made for a music festival.

 

Feeling the same. I feel sad that Glastonbury has started this way, whether the checks end up as stringent as predicted or not the fact is we are talking about it as part of the pre-festival build up which is where I feel terrorism winning. Terrorism is not always about the mindless attacks its about challenging the mindset too and this counts as a win for them. I don't personally feel any safer for these checks because they will be sporadic, but I am happy to go through them for those who it does make feel safer (if that makes sense!). I don't tend to worry about these things which is either good or naive but life is too short for me to be looking over my shoulder every 5 minutes. A little side point here but I'm not sure how singling out someone who is carrying more or towing a trolley is better for security? You don't need to be carrying large amounts of stuff to be more suspicious. It's a good deterrent for bringing less to pollute the farm however...

Wishing you all a funking brilliant Glastonbury  

[clarkete]

6 minutes ago, ghostdancer1 said:

i'd actually say the opposite, Glastonbury is a very easy target, thousands of people queuing up outside the entrance for hours. there's absolutely no point in a terrorist trying to get inside the fence when you have all these people outside it, and can get at them easily.

the more queues to get in, the more sitting ducks unfortunately..

Why would someone not just go to a city?

Crowds in plenty of places and without having to drive for 5 hours then get past security checkpoints and stewards.

[clarkete]

1 minute ago, CajunMoon said:

Feeling the same. I feel sad that Glastonbury has started this way, whether the checks end up as stringent as predicted or not the fact is we are talking about it as part of the pre-festival build up which is where I feel terrorism winning. Terrorism is not always about the mindless attacks its about challenging the mindset too and this counts as a win for them. I don't personally feel any safer for these checks because they will be sporadic, but I am happy to go through them for those who it does make feel safer (if that makes sense!). I don't tend to worry about these things which is either good or naive but life is too short for me to be looking over my shoulder every 5 minutes. A little side point here but I'm not sure how singling out someone who is carrying more or towing a trolley is better for security? You don't need to be carrying large amounts of stuff to be more suspicious. It's a good deterrent for bringing less to pollute the farm however...

My perspective is 180 degrees different to yours. 

Presumably if they focus on being satisfied with the checks at the gates, in a time when plenty of folks have concerns about being safe at an event, then hopefully that means they can be more confident of leaving us in a relaxed environment inside?

[swede]

17 minutes ago, ghostdancer1 said:

i'd actually say the opposite, Glastonbury is a very easy target, thousands of people queuing up outside the entrance for hours. there's absolutely no point in a terrorist trying to get inside the fence when you have all these people outside it, and can get at them easily.

the more queues to get in, the more sitting ducks unfortunately.

checking for weapons on the way in may be well intentioned, but it's probably ultimately fairly pointless, if a terrorist wants to attack, they'll almost certainly be doing it outside the fence. bigger queues don't help in that regard.

the best option would be checkpoints on cars on the approach roads and intermittent searches with dogs for weapons/explosives.

The terrorist would need a ticket to get a car parking permit on their way in though to actually get parked up.

[Jon who was I]

Think one of the most sensible / easiest security precautions would be checking tickets at every opportunity, so no one without a ticket can get near the queue in the first place.

e.g.

• Getting on public transport to site
• Entering car parks
• Entering queue for searches
• And then wristband exchange

Anyhow this time tomorrow we will know what they have in place.

Edited June 20, 2017 by I am Jon

[CajunMoon]

14 minutes ago, clarkete said:

My perspective is 180 degrees different to yours. 

Presumably if they focus on being satisfied with the checks at the gates, in a time when plenty of folks have concerns about being safe at an event, then hopefully that means they can be more confident of leaving us in a relaxed environment inside?

I don't disagree with this either to be fair and you make a good point. I'm talking from a personal perspective of how I feel about the change to the build up and that the change of mindset is sad. I don't think it's a pointless exercise by any means just a sad peak into how we are being forced to change by a mindless few.

Edited June 20, 2017 by CajunMoon

[ghostdancer1]

21 minutes ago, clarkete said:

Why would someone not just go to a city?

Crowds in plenty of places and without having to drive for 5 hours then get past security checkpoints and stewards.

well yeah, which just highlights how these increased searches at entrances are probably even more of a waste of time.

Edited June 20, 2017 by ghostdancer1

[Amii]

31 minutes ago, Woffy said:

Amy, gimme a shout on here or Twitter for an update if you want. I'll be arriving at the site to queue around 5pm and parking the car up as soon as they let us. 

Amazing. Thank you so much, I'll absolutely do that.

[Woffy]

1 minute ago, Amii said:

Amazing. Thank you so much, I'll absolutely do that.

No probs. Chances are, once we're in the queue as a group I'll have a little wander, see what's going on and report back. 

[Loutag]

39 minutes ago, Woffy said:

Amy, gimme a shout on here or Twitter for an update if you want. I'll be arriving at the site to queue around 5pm and parking the car up as soon as they let us. 

Car parks are unofficially already open from 9am this morning

[gmb1992]

4 minutes ago, Loutag said:

Car parks are unofficially already open from 9am this morning

General car parks or for people going in camper vans?

 

[Loutag]

1 minute ago, gmb1992 said:

General car parks or for people going in camper vans?

 

Both.  My sister is working in car parking today

[rpfranks]

I've always been under the impression that car parks and gates open early, they just put an official time stamp on it to make sure everything is in place and try and ensure everyone doesn't arrive too early. I would imagine gates will open slightly earlier this year too in an attempt to get people through security faster.

[sheffieldlady]

38 minutes ago, CajunMoon said:

Feeling the same. I feel sad that Glastonbury has started this way, whether the checks end up as stringent as predicted or not the fact is we are talking about it as part of the pre-festival build up which is where I feel terrorism winning. Terrorism is not always about the mindless attacks its about challenging the mindset too and this counts as a win for them. I don't personally feel any safer for these checks because they will be sporadic, but I am happy to go through them for those who it does make feel safer (if that makes sense!). I don't tend to worry about these things which is either good or naive but life is too short for me to be looking over my shoulder every 5 minutes. A little side point here but I'm not sure how singling out someone who is carrying more or towing a trolley is better for security? You don't need to be carrying large amounts of stuff to be more suspicious. It's a good deterrent for bringing less to pollute the farm however...

Wishing you all a funking brilliant Glastonbury  

I'd say it isn't naive - if we worried about everything that could cause us injury / death - we wouldn't do a single thing. We wouldn't hop into our cars, cross the street, eat anything that could cause an heart attack, climb ladders, walk up stairs, walk down the street, go shopping etc.

I do not want to live in a police state as the price paid for improved security, for me, that represents a victory for the terrorists, who wish to destroy our way of life. I feel the same about increased measures to invade privacy and erode civil liberties. I don't think it's a sensible outlook to think extremism will ever disappear. It won't. Hate preachers are common, we have laws to control them and let's hope the pressure minimises their influence on younger minds.

It isn't new - we've had previous generations of terrorists - Irish republications, Basque separatists or the far left. They were all vile but could be negotiated with. 

As soon as we lose our sense of perspective, and stop living the way we do - the terrorist win. I know people are scared and worried about it. 

But I have no plans on worrying about anything like that at any point in my life. It's certainly not going to change what I bring to the farm. I take everything home with me, eat or drink it! 

See you guys there for a big old massive party  

[stopwn1981]

They should search all cars coming in today and the queues over night prior to gates opening if they've any sense at all. Then usual random searches at gates. For safety reasons they must keep those queues moving tomorrow morning.

Edited June 20, 2017 by stopwn1981

[40 Days]

"So, please think: do you really need that camping chair? Can you manage without that extra food and drink? Remember, you can buy pretty much anything you need here on site."

I could be being hugely cynical and misinformed - perhaps both, but surely this can't be a ploy for punters to spend more on site..?

[waterfalls212434]

I think people need to think of this from the eavis`s and other festival organisers point of view, it is widly known there is an increased security risk at the moment, if they didn't increase the level of security at the festival and something did happen can you imagine the criticism that would come their way in all directions. Not to mention the personal guilt? 

When your willing to shoulder the responsibility for the safety of tens of thousands of people then maybe you can judge but until then I think we should be more understanding of whats behind this. Would the police for example have even allowed the festival to go ahead without the increased security? If Glastonbury `hadn't` been willing to make any changes they may have seen it as an unacceptable risk esp with the amount of people involved and revoked the license.. 

I am not a fan of it myself but I understand why its being done, this sadly is the current world we live in, Its only on the gates into the festival anyway so many drama queens here, people talking as if you wont be able to leave your tent without a pat down. By all accounts once your in your in, sorted, festival as normal.

As I said its easy to judge the festival organisers for taking these steps, calling them draconian etc....but its not you whose taking the responsibility for all these peoples safety is it? 

Just be sensible, bring water, have your hat and sunscreen on hand and just chill out in the line have a laugh with the people around you, you think the security themselves have a nice time being stuck in this heat searching people? they will have just as much interest as you as getting people through as quick as they can. Go easy on them, have a laugh with them, dont be a dick to people just trying to do their job, and once you are finally inside just enjoy yourself as you always have. Simples.

Edited June 20, 2017 by waterfalls212434

[Amii]

19 minutes ago, stopwn1981 said:

They should search all cars coming in today and the queues over night prior to gates opening if they've any sense at all. Then usual random searches at gates. For safety reasons they must keep those queues moving tomorrow morning.

They did they at Gate D last year, if I remember right. 100% of early queues were searched, and they started this at about 11pm on Tuesday.

[Junglist1981]

10 minutes ago, 40 Days said:

"So, please think: do you really need that camping chair? Can you manage without that extra food and drink? Remember, you can buy pretty much anything you need here on site."

I could be being hugely cynical and misinformed - perhaps both, but surely this can't be a ploy for punters to spend more on site..?

The festival don't take a percentage cut of the traders profits so I can't see them caring how much money they make. 

Maybe it could be a subtle way to discourage people from bringing in loads of junk that they don't really need which then gets left behind?