2019 Improvements

[adms]

So I have gone a year without visiting this site every day, for fear of feeling too sad regarding a lack of festival this year. However I now feel I am ready to start feeling excited again as T-Day is in reach and I can look forward to the hype and excitement of the 2019 festival. 

Now without thinking about headliners, the weather and how we are going to get around this plastic ban, I’m interested to see what everyone would like to see improved around the festival site this year. I saw lots of thoughts on reflection of the festival in 2017, as although we visit each year, we always have those moments where we can see room for improvement.

With the fallow year, this has given the team at Glasto more time to plan and think ahead about what can be done better.

Big things that come to my head - 

Movement around the main stages. Are wider and more accessible entrances and exits needed? 

SE Corner alternative? Although Arcadia moving has drawn a lot of the croud, could this be a good time to create an alternative Shangri-La elsewhere.

Big stages. Yes, the pyramid, other, JP , Park and WH serve their purposes for the big names but could this be a good time for another ‘BIG’ new stage to emerge.

Just a few points - What would you like to see changed for next years festival? 

[stuartbert two hats]

I'd like more work put into the path up the hill leading through The Park. If not a full hard path, then a plastic pipe under the ground, with stones over the top, allowed easy drainage.

And I'd like the PA in W Holts tuned for a bigger arena.

[fatyeti24]

I think fewer big stages is the way to go. John Peel, maybe Acoustic and definitely the Other can go. What's the point of them anyway but to host acts I'm generally not into. 

They could be replaced with alleyways of micro venues that most people wont even be able to get into. Thats more my kind of thing. 

I've been going to Glastonbury for 25 years, so that's got to be worth something. 

Also, this weather has made me realise that a few clouds in the sky wouldn't go amiss.  I like to have something to shout at.

[Hugh Jass]

I think a few less dance music focused late night options would be nice. SE Corner's really not my thing these days, too busy and I'm not all that into the music there (plus I stopped taking things years ago).

[JoeyT]

I'd like ninja style bouncers at the entrance to urinals complete with tazers.

Simply to handle those who queue up at the urinals when it's really busy only to once inside rather than wait another couple of minutes to go where they should be going piss on to the shelter / floor instead.

Monsters.

[Quark]

31 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

I think a few less dance music focused late night options would be nice. SE Corner's really not my thing these days, too busy and I'm not all that into the music there (plus I stopped taking things years ago).

I think there's stuff on, it's just knowing where it is.  Maybe better publicising of said options?

[Hugh Jass]

2 minutes ago, Quark said:

I think there's stuff on, it's just knowing where it is.  Maybe better publicising of said options?

Maybe, is it wrong for all the amazing and cool stuff going on late night to just want a big indie disco?

[fatyeti24]

5 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

Maybe, is it wrong for all the amazing and cool stuff going on late night to just want a big indie disco?

There's been one of those for the past few years, in one of the first tents on the left after you enter via the night time entrance. 

[dentalplan]

13 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

Maybe, is it wrong for all the amazing and cool stuff going on late night to just want a big indie disco?

I feel it might be. We already get all day for that stuff,  and the people more interested in the dance music side of things don’t complain and just wake up later. So it seems fine that we can either be a bit more open to other styles of music or leave. To start turning places more suitable for people dancing around a soundsystem into somewhere that Clint Boon is gonna drop yer faves just seems unfair.

[Hugh Jass]

8 minutes ago, dentalplan said:

I feel it might be. We already get all day for that stuff,  and the people more interested in the dance music side of things don’t complain and just wake up later. So it seems fine that we can either be a bit more open to other styles of music or leave. To start turning places more suitable for people dancing around a soundsystem into somewhere that Clint Boon is gonna drop yer faves just seems unfair.

I'm not saying they should change the SE Corner in any way, it's not really my thing so I don't go there, but it's not for me to knock anyone who goes there looking for fun. I was thinking more about alternative options in other parts of the site, having a few extra things to do might even ease the congestion down there.

[chazwwe]

15 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

 I'm not saying they should change the SE Corner in any way, it's not really my thing so I don't go there, but it's not for me to knock anyone who goes there looking for fun. I was thinking more about alternative options in other parts of the site, having a few extra things to do might even ease the congestion down there.

Completely agree, having some late night acoustic/folk/indie tents with just a bunch of unknowns playing would be lovely. 

[Memory Man]

theres the nights held at williams green for indie disco style stuff as well.

if at all possible a bigger NYC downlow would be good as it has become a victim of its own success and is nigh on impossible to enter unless you miss a headliner to get down for the moment it opens

some surprise re-designs of areas would be good, I fully expect some new and weird stuff in the SE Corner. The main stages are largely fine as they are. Agree with a better / more stable path up towards the park coming from arcadia / other direction.

In general it would be good if some of the changes / re-designs are kept as a bit of a secret till you get there!

Could do with more entertainment to disperse crowds on thursday and more late night activity across the site again to spread the crowds but for various obvious licence and noise related reasons I don't see how they can provide either of these.

Edited July 2, 2018 by Memory Man

[Tommy101]

Would be good if the new stage featured at the Arcadia thing in London comes to the farm. It'll still be dance orientated but another fairly large capacity option to spread the demand (of which there clearly is in excess). I'm not sure where they'd put it though.

[One Tonne Baby]

If i think about the things that annoy me when i'm there i'd say:

• More things to do on Wednesday/Thursday night. Probably licensing issues but make it a truly 5 day festival. Open a few smaller stages early, open up more late night areas. At the moment everyone crowds to the same thing and it's impossible to get in or have a good experience. Queues leaving these usually become potentially dangerous too.
• As mentioned above. More diversity to the late night music. I'm relatively happy with music, whatever it is, even if i'm not a massive fan like house but after 3 days of it, I want to stay out late but get bored.
• Embrace the fact that the late night areas are a huge part of the experience for a lot of people. When I first went to Glasto when I was 23 I absolutely loved the SE corner. Now at 31 I barley went there last year. BUT they need to dedicate more space to it. I just give up now because it's so busy and there's a lot of people in the same boat. Get rid of a few areas/stages and increase the sq/ft of the SE to make it huge. Incorporate different music in there, make it chilled in the day, etc...at the moment it feels like it's an add on that the festival doesn't really want to admit is massive in most peoples eyes and it annoys me that people miss out on it. I know, I know, the licence!
• Release staggered entry tickets. If you want to arrive on Wednesday you pay full price, thursday is £40 off, Friday is £75 off, etc...and limit the amounts of each tickets. Whilst I don't want anyone to miss out on days, the worst part of Glasto, by far is the queuing and stress of just trying to get in. I'd pay more to go on Tuesday night even! (realise this will cause a lot of hate!)
• Give food a kick! There's so much amazing food at glasto but feel like it's missing a trick of making that a real focus in terms of quality. Get rid of the general burger vans and sub par chow mien bars and get in more quality vendors.

[gmb1992]

I want more she-wees, not just the token ones by the Pyramid. 

[swede]

2 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

I'm not saying they should change the SE Corner in any way, it's not really my thing so I don't go there, but it's not for me to knock anyone who goes there looking for fun. I was thinking more about alternative options in other parts of the site, having a few extra things to do might even ease the congestion down there.

Loads of the tented bars have djs in playing lots of different genres, been in the Kazbar the last few years after the bands and they’ve had indie djs on. 

Theres plenty of stuff going on after the bands away from the south east corner 

[JoeyMester]

1 hour ago, Memory Man said:

if at all possible a bigger NYC downlow would be good as it has become a victim of its own success and is nigh on impossible to enter unless you miss a headliner to get down for the moment it opens

I've never been in it due to this! Biggest case in point was the David Morales Frankie Knuckles tribute a few years back, the queue was ridiculous for it. They saw sense with The Temple which used to be a long wait to get in and I thought it was excellent last year for making it bigger, I thought it would lose some of the atmosphere it had from its smaller days but I wasn't disappointed in the slightest.

If Craig Charles is on again at the Truth Stage on the Friday... there needs to be some kind of better communication between stewards at the front and at the back, where the walkway is and the bars, to tell people there was actually loads of space nearer the front. It was absolutely rammed at the back and people were just staying there. I know people tend to congregate around where bars are but it was a needless bottleneck. I took a chance on seeing if there was any room further down and within 15 seconds I was at the front. 

[Tyonks]

9 hours ago, JoeyMester said:

.

If Craig Charles is on again at the Truth Stage on the Friday... there needs to be some kind of better communication between stewards at the front and at the back, where the walkway is and the bars, to tell people there was actually loads of space nearer the front. It was absolutely rammed at the back and people were just staying there. I know people tend to congregate around where bars are but it was a needless bottleneck. I took a chance on seeing if there was any room further down and within 15 seconds I was at the front. 

Noticed this at a lot of stages last year, don't know if it's a new phenomenon but often the nearer the front you got the more space you had. Perhaps due to Glastonbury goers getting more passive and dipping in and out of stuff. 

Back on topic, I agree with what many have said already but making SE corner bigger I think would improve many people's experiences there. Also more toilets in SE corner. I spent a couple of nights at the Earache stage which was situated miles away from nearest toilet, and when you return there was no guarantee you would make it back in.

As has been mentioned many times before - a huge revamp of Silver Hayes is needed, just so uninviting and I think most people just trudge straight through it. 

[Charm]

19 hours ago, chazwwe said:

Completely agree, having some late night acoustic/folk/indie tents with just a bunch of unknowns playing would be lovely. 

The acoustic/folk thing is already happening in the Greenfields late at night, take a look next time, it’s pretty great. 

Charm x

[Hugh Jass]

18 hours ago, gmb1992 said:

I want more she-wees, not just the token ones by the Pyramid. 

You have to use tokens in them?

[ghostdancer1]

said it before, I'll say it again, the Avalon/Theatre/Circus/Cabaret/Bellas fields are absolutely dead at night, and rarely busy during the day either.

they should make 4 fields into 3, which I suppose would probably mean moving Avalon into the Cabaret field, and then shifting the Cabaret tent in with one of the others.

that creates an empty field on the edge of the SE Corner. move The Common into that field (or Glasto Latino, and shift the Common into GL's area), and then there's much more space for Shangri-La, which is by far the busiest and most wedged area of the SE corner.

 

 

Also, more/bigger urinals. for all the publicity about not peeing on the land, when there's a hundred people waiting for the urinals at the back of WH, or the incredibly small ones at the top corner of Pennards to service The Park stage/Rabbit Hole/Stonebridge, it's inevitable people are just going to go in a hedge rather than waiting 5 minutes. and yes, I know they shouldn't, but they do, so....

[Wooderson]

They’re not gonna move the Avalon field.

[JoeyT]

Could they put that LoveBullets tent somewhere else? 

Always felt like a bottleneck when trying to either get to the Glade or Railway line going up that path.

Possibly more popular than they anticipated it would be but just felt like it was in an odd position for the volume of people there.

[Mr.Tease]

On 7/2/2018 at 2:35 PM, swede said:

Loads of the tented bars have djs in playing lots of different genres, been in the Kazbar the last few years after the bands and they’ve had indie djs on. 

Theres plenty of stuff going on after the bands away from the south east corner 

Yep, I don't know how much stuff people want--there's the cinema tent, the drive thru cinema, the circus field tents, the green fields (perfect if you want music other than dance), the woodland areas, arcadia, the glade area stuff, all the stuff in the park field, the silent disco, the stone circle, the viewing areas, the bars all across the site, the tipi fielda etc etc. There's enough stuff and variety, you just have to go out and potter about. 

[Mr.Tease]

On 7/2/2018 at 12:18 PM, chazwwe said:

Completely agree, having some late night acoustic/folk/indie tents with just a bunch of unknowns playing would be lovely. 

There's lots of night time acoustic/folk stuff all through the night in the greenfields, one of my favourite spots (it's not too busy either) 

Edited July 5, 2018 by Mr.Tease