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Lack of facilities and end of Gate D hell


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8 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Stick a load of these in the freezer the night before and put in your bag:

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Ice cold water even when camped up.

Other brands of water are available.

Was it you who suggested this pre-fest Stu? It worked a treat. Factor 50 and enough of these to share amongst friends and folk nearby made the 4 hour wait manageable - if not particularly pleasant.

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9 minutes ago, Badlands said:

Was it you who suggested this pre-fest Stu? It worked a treat. Factor 50 and enough of these to share amongst friends and folk nearby made the 4 hour wait manageable - if not particularly pleasant.

Not my idea, I don't think I was even banging the drum for it, but it was ace!  I even had a cold(ish) Elvis Juice at the tent.

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1 hour ago, Badlands said:

Was it you who suggested this pre-fest Stu? It worked a treat. Factor 50 and enough of these to share amongst friends and folk nearby made the 4 hour wait manageable - if not particularly pleasant.

I mentioned it a few times as we do this every year

I have to say gate D queue was awful as we joined queue in pink at 7am it was past 12 noon when we got through the gate.... I was dying and certainly suffered heat stroke despite wearing hat, Sun lotion and drinking loads of water (that we brought)

I was give a bottle of water by steward as passed the start of the 1st Alton towers queue, but these were not obviously given out but I was bright red so probably pity taken lol

The spraying folk down and handing water out certainly wasn't in D before 11am, as quoted in the press lol

That 2nd Alton towers queue broke me as didn't realise there was a 2nd queue. Nearly burst into tears when going through that white arch/tent thing realising there is another 1-2 hours queue time :(

Wednesday was ruined for me as trying to put tent up in 31 degree heat after 6 hours from car parking to tent spot was not fun. Seriously couldn't cool down until about 7... 

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12 hours ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

We came into gate A about 2 or 3 on the Wednesday when it was absolutely blazing hot. To be fair to the organisers they were giving out free bottles of water to everyone and misting people down with a big hose. Got us in bloody quickly too. So maybe arriving later was the way forward this year (unless you're one of their Pennards or bust types).

Opps i up voted this while looking for quote button oh well keep it. I was going to say just this, arrived around the same time, had no issues. took all of 10 mins most to get through the gates. Didn't even have the full bag search I was dreading. The man with the mist was a god send after 4 and a half hours on the coach..!

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3 hours ago, Badlands said:

Was it you who suggested this pre-fest Stu? It worked a treat. Factor 50 and enough of these to share amongst friends and folk nearby made the 4 hour wait manageable - if not particularly pleasant.

Also followed this advice - froze 10 bottles and popped in a cool bag. By the time we were half way through zig zag some bottles were appropriately melted enough to drink the liquid and refill with cans of margarita and G&T which I brought. Ice cold cocktails in the queue were perfect. We also decided to just take our tent and what we needed for that day/night on our first trip meaning just a small back pack each with a trolley between the four of us. It was bang on the money and even found the energy to do the 2nd trip at 1.30am thursday morning so no wasting time the next day. Will definitely be considering doing the same next time.

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21 hours ago, fewcloudy said:

I was working on Gate D this year, started at 5.45am on the Wednesday. Had various different roles over the 8 hours including checking tickets and handing out programmes/lanyards. From about 11am-2pm I was directing people, and for the last few hours was basically not allowing them to collapse exhausted in the obvious place you would want to do exactly that, just after you passed through everything and emerged into Glastonbury proper. Sorry about that if I was nagging you; I vos only obeying orders!

Just when I thought I had seen the most distressed and ill-est person, another one would pearl up at the front of the queue!  Jesus, there were some severely dehydrated and exhausted people in that queue, and I really felt for them. By the end of the shift I had given away everything I had on me to eat and drink, to people who's need was definitely greater than mine! I had to physically support a few folks who were teetering on the edge of collapse through the silly small turnstiles; some of the loads they were carrying on their backs were extraordinary! I was involved with helping the ambulance through twice for individuals who were fitting due to heat stroke, not a very nice start to your Glastonbury weekend I'd have thought.

It's true there was nothing in terms of refreshments waiting for you once you emerged blinking into the festival after the wrist-banding area, however there was a water tap up by the hedges on the right in the 1st field you saw (up where Dairy meets Back House), plus there was lots of water given out.  I think people have to take a degree of responsibility for themselves. I'm sure almost everyone in that Gate D queue had expected to be in a queue, and we all knew what the weather forecast was.

fc

Well done - I can imagine it was tough for you guys! I do agree there is a degree of responsibility, however I think we as a group had convinced ourselves to avoid the midday heat and arrive a bit after the gates open - get through and be done with setting up, how wrong we were! :lol: In previous years at that time of arrival we just waltzed right in. We didn't take into account the additional security etc this year - plus everyone else having the same idea!

Lesson learnt, arriving after 2pm next time! (We camp in South Park)

Edited by cazzatron
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For what it's worth, I arrived by coach to Gate A at about 14:00 and went straight in. And there was a crate of water bottles on the floor, with stewards handing them out.

BTW, do any other festivals hand out bottles of water for free like that?  I just can't imagine it at the places that search you to make sure you don't bring in any sandwiches!

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12 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

For what it's worth, I arrived by coach to Gate A at about 14:00 and went straight in. And there was a crate of water bottles on the floor, with stewards handing them out.

BTW, do any other festivals hand out bottles of water for free like that?  I just can't imagine it at the places that search you to make sure you don't bring in any sandwiches!

I think under those circumstances (long queue in that heat) even the most money grabbing festivals would start handing them out, especially when the casualties started. I'm sure it was a lot cheaper to hand out a few thousand bottles of water (a lot of people were not accepting them/sharing) than pay for the medical care or even law suits* that could potentially occur.

 

*I'm not suggesting anyone would be successful but even winning a defensive case costs money. 

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8 minutes ago, Tommy101 said:

I think under those circumstances (long queue in that heat) even the most money grabbing festivals would start handing them out, especially when the casualties started. I'm sure it was a lot cheaper to hand out a few thousand bottles of water (a lot of people were not accepting them/sharing) than pay for the medical care or even law suits* that could potentially occur.

 

*I'm not suggesting anyone would be successful but even winning a defensive case costs money. 

Do any other festivals have a queue as long as Glastonbury though?

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Bloody hell.  I'm glad I did the overnight queue again at Gate D.

Was at frontish  of queue at around 6pm on the Tuesday. After a very thorough bag search had a very pleasant overnight in the queue, almost got some sleep, and judging by the snoring many people did get some shut eye.

They moved us to the gates around 7am and I was the first one through the gate at D.

We were pitched up by 8am

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The warm (20 degree?) heat overnight with it being dry, plus the panic over longer searches and queues helped cause the mad queues I think. We got there early and we're way back from where we usually would be. Moved quick enough and we were set up by 11am but wouldn't have fancied being in it during the mad heat. Fair play to those who endured it

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For me, the concerning issue at gate D this year was the lack of stewards. I was in the queue from 10am til 2pm and there was barely anyone there to watch out for people in real trouble.  I spent nearly an hour with one girl who was collapsing, feeling sick and all her "friends" had left her. She was scared, lonely and unwell.  I gave her my spare water, sheltered her with my brolly and basically made sure she was ok. Although she wasn't a medical emergency, she wasn't far off and there was just no one to ask for help whilst i was struggling with my own bags. Im glad security ended up just waving people through before something serious happened. 

I get the point about taking responsibility for yourself but the festival also should be making regular  risk assessments. It was one of the worst entries to Glastonbury I've ever experienced.  Ill be interested to see what the post festival official documents say.  

 

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3 hours ago, eFestivals said:

same at gate C. Same everywhere.

But it's always Gate D that thinks they had different sunshine or greater heat or something. ;) 

This is not the case at all - My situation from parking up until getting through gates it was 5 1/2 hours - it was too long in the heat and it was hot (as it was across the site) and I got heat stroke despite taking precautions, which screwed me up for the rest of the day... but I'm not allowed to complain or anything am I?

I am not blaming the festival however, this year they had 2 different Alton tower queue systems which was more than usual and it wasn't needed IMO, it just added more queue time (which was a killer in that heat).

The stewards at the road as your crossed from pink also sent everyone up the hill to right saying that was for gate D rather than straight on, this then went up the hill and down again which joined the same queue at the bottom. Whether this was intentional (which it probably was) I don't know but it added another hour to your queue time

There was also lack of steward about around the queue bet 9-12 - now I do think people should take responsibility, but if anything did happen there wasn't a lot of stewards to flag an issue up. We found a guy collapsed in the sun around 10.30-11am who had been left by his friends who had obviously on the beer, yes it was his fault for drinking but leaving someone in that state was not good and it took 8 people shouting over at a steward from the zig zag queue to come over (who was going to walk away)

To me gate D was not as good at organisation as gate A (which always seems to be better) can't comment on B & C as never used them

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6 hours ago, eFestivals said:

I'm wondering why it's only ever Gate D that has these problems, when the sunshine is the same at all gates and the queues are much the same at all gates.

Which means that the only real difference is the punters queuing at that gate.

You need to think outside the box mate, although I guess you might be trying to be funny?!

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19 minutes ago, mashedonmud said:

You learn as you grow, get rid of shit mates and replace with shitfaced mates. I find they're much better in all ways.

Yeah, there is a few tales here of casualties being ditched by their group. It doesn't sit well with me. Me and my lot get as wasted as the next lot but you never leave a friend behind, especially if because they've got themselves in a state. 

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