Best/Worst times to leave Glastonbury

[Woly]

Glasto newbie here! I have a flight to catch on Monday afternoon out of Gatwick so trying to figure out best way back to London. Looking at trains out of Castle Cary for Sunday evening/ Monday morning (9:24pm or  9:30am the following day). There are no later times available on Sunday or earlier times available on Monday.

Wondering if the Glasto veterans out there can tell me what the best/worst times are for leaving the festival? I'm assuming the rush is after the last headliner and into Monday morning, but you tell me! My flight is to the US, so if I have to miss some artists I like and go earlier on Sunday, so be it!

If I do go Sunday, how early should I go? Is it likely that I may miss the last train due to queues and have to stay overnight at Castle Cary?

Thank you in advance!!

[TheNewUnion]

I've never done this, so hopefully someone with a better idea will come along shortly however, I am 99% sure I have seen posters up advertising coaches back to London. Not prebooked See/National Express ones, just ones you can go and get on to get back to London. If I haven't imagined it, that could be an option. Or have a look at the Lift Share forum and someone might have a spare seat.

[APPLES77]

Train should take 3 and a little bit hours to get to gatwick if you change at reading, so does that work for you if you get to the airport for about one pm (even better of you had an hour to spare in case of any delays), also make sure you check national rail enquiries website for any planned engineering works that might slow you down, make you have to get on a replacement bus, they love to do these on a Sunday as it's the quietest travel day.  If you are going to get a coach get one that leaves really early Monday morning before other people get up, after about 7/8 am Monday when all the cars start leaving/ all the very campers start breaking down the traffic can be very bad, it's taken me 7 hours to get home from Glastonbury driving before an I'm only about 20 mins from the Gatwick. Not sure if you can get a direct coach to the airport but if you went to Victoria coach station in London. It's a short walk to Victoria train station where you can get the Gatwick express to the airport (again check for engineering works) national express website should be helpful for coach times but other companies do run coaches too.

Hope that gives you some options, have a great time 

Edited June 13, 2017 by APPLES77
Typo

[kalifire]

If you leave before most people wake up/go to bed on Monday morning, leaving the site shouldn't be a problem. There were minimal queues for shuttle buses when I've used them at around 5/6am.

The issue you'll have is the queue at Castle Cary train station. Great Western Railways don't actually offer many more trains than normally depart the station, causing looooooong queues and a wait time of up to several hours. I'd imagine it would be safer to pre-book a coach to Bath or Bristol then get a direct train to London from there.

[Lionel Ritchie]

Has anyone got any advice on when I should leave? I have a hotel 18 miles away and don't want to leave too early but then again scared if I leave too late it will be grid locked?

 

thanks in advance!

[Nuts]

46 minutes ago, Lionel Ritchie said:

Has anyone got any advice on when I should leave? I have a hotel 18 miles away and don't want to leave too early but then again scared if I leave too late it will be grid locked?

 

thanks in advance!

I would suggest leaving earlier rather than later to avoid all the madness. If you leave it too late you will be grid locked

[Cleverleyson]

Every time is the worst time