Staff only South East Corner Saturday night - is this a thing?

[cheesus]

Second time at the festival this year, first was in 2016. I remember trying to access the South East corner on Saturday night of 2016 and being ushered from one entrance to another, and then another, until not being able to get in at all due to being staff only. I spoke to some people who said that this is the case each year, would anyone be able to confirm that for me? I don't have a problem with not being able to access the area, but that couple of hours could have been spent elsewhere, let alone the energy of walking in the mud ?

If it is staff only and someone happened to be playing down there I wanted to see, could it be a case of getting in the area before a certain time and waiting it out?

Edited May 8, 2019 by cheesus

[Skelts]

13 minutes ago, cheesus said:

Second time at the festival this year, first was in 2016. I remember trying to access the South East corner on Saturday night of 2016 and being ushered from one entrance to another, and then another, until not being able to get in at all due to being staff only. I spoke to some people who said that this is the case each year, would anyone be able to confirm that for me? I don't have a problem with not being able to access the area, but that couple of hours could have been spent elsewhere, let alone the energy of walking in the mud ?

If it is staff only and someone happened to be playing down there I wanted to see, could it be a case of getting in the area before a certain time and waiting it out?

I think you were being wound up.  There would be a riot on Saturday night if it was staff only!

[morph100]

Maybe you were trying to get to a staff only bar down there? The rest is open

[incident]

Yeah, some entrances / routes / venues might go staff only at times for H&S reasons. But there's no chance they'd make the whole area staff only.

[Cm36]

I remember the year it rained heavily, a lot of it was off limits at different times because of the mud and stuff. Maybe it was that.

[Madyaker]

I ended up in a bar there called Maceoes I think on Saturday night in 2016. Apparently it's a crew bar, I didn't realise this until I tried to get in there again the next night and was stopped and told I have to have a wristband. The guy must have been gone for a piss the previous night. Maybe that's what happened to you?

[fred quimby]

16 minutes ago, Cm36 said:

I remember the year it rained heavily, a lot of it was off limits at different times because of the mud and stuff. Maybe it was that.

I reckon that must be it. There are a couple of staff bars as well. So maybe the OP just went through got stopped at a few points and then popped out of the end without actually hitting the right path.

 

 

 

[grilladelphia]

10 minutes ago, Madyaker said:

I ended up in a bar there called Maceoes I think on Saturday night in 2016. Apparently it's a crew bar, I didn't realise this until I tried to get in there again the next night and was stopped and told I have to have a wristband. The guy must have been gone for a piss the previous night. Maybe that's what happened to you?

I think this bar is at a few others as well, it was the crew bar when I was working at Bestival a few years back - cheap pints as I remember!

[cheesus]

I can't remember exactly what routes we were trying to take. We made at least three attempts to get in different ways only to be cattle herded around, got stuck in the same queue no way in or out, if I remember right we got fenced in not letting us move at all, wasn't a great experience haha!

By the sounds of it we may have just got unlucky with our timings due the weather and it being just being over crowded in the area. I guess get there early! We were surprised by it as we didn't have any issues getting there any other night, or any areas for that matter.

[FuzzyDunlop]

I was in the Shangri la and unfairground from before Adele came on. I can confirm it was not staff only.

[Madyaker]

I remember in 2016 they closed the SEC altogether as it was over crowded and people couldn't get around in the muck so it was a massive clusterfuck. Can't remember which night but they had signs up on those LED billboards telling people not to bother.

[cheesus]

1 minute ago, Madyaker said:

I remember in 2016 they closed the SEC altogether as it was over crowded and people couldn't get around in the muck so it was a massive clusterfuck. Can't remember which night but they had signs up on those LED billboards telling people not to bother.

Did not see any of those billboards haha

[FuzzyDunlop]

They have closed the SE corner a couple of times due to overcrowding. Tried getting in 2017 on the Friday and there were LED Signs saying it was shut

[Madyaker]

1 minute ago, cheesus said:

Did not see any of those billboards haha

There's one near the other stage, west holts, and down near the cabaret field where you queued to get into the SEC at night. Might be some in other places too. 

 

But the area seems to have had a fairly extensive rejig this year so it could all be different now

[GWR]

That year se corner was closed at times, due to a bridge collapsing apparently. We went there the night Mark ronson and Kevin Parker were dji g in Shangri-la and couldn't get in. Not sure if that was the Saturday or not

[zeppelin]

Yeah you heard correct. Staff only on Saturday night, every year. Make sure to spread the word, we want to make sure as many people as possible stay away and aren't disappointed... 

[MetaKate]

2016 they closed it really early on the Saturday.... we waited in a line for a while but there weren't signs saying it was shut at that point... the next night Sunday they put it on all the electronic things saying "SEC closed please go elsewhere"

I think maybe what you encountered was an alternative entrance that was staff only. Past a certain time theres only 1 way in... but Friday 2016 I got in a back way because we were with someone who worked at a staff bar. Not knowing this, I tried to repeat the same enterence on Saturday after I was seperated from my friends... they were all in the SEC and I was not. I was turned away even though a couple other people were allowed through. 

[MilkyJoe]

As above, it was definitely closed on the saturday night but as far as I can remember that was just the entrance points as it was rammed in there and apparently getting unsafe. The railway line was heaving as everybody decided to make their way along to the Park and Arcadia. I seem to remember them closing the Park late on too.

[I feel like Pablo]

1 hour ago, MetaKate said:

2016 they closed it really early on the Saturday.... we waited in a line for a while but there weren't signs saying it was shut at that point... the next night Sunday they put it on all the electronic things saying "SEC closed please go elsewhere"

I think maybe what you encountered was an alternative entrance that was staff only. Past a certain time theres only 1 way in... but Friday 2016 I got in a back way because we were with someone who worked at a staff bar. Not knowing this, I tried to repeat the same enterence on Saturday after I was seperated from my friends... they were all in the SEC and I was not. I was turned away even though a couple other people were allowed through. 

This! We made some random friends who were working and took us through the back entrance to Shangri la. There was no security, nothing. We thought we had won the lottery. It worked all weekend. 

Then in 2017 tried to use it again and much to our chagrin there were security manning it not letting anyone through. 

Moral of the story is make many friends, some of them bound to know secrets! 

[John the Moth]

On 5/9/2019 at 5:00 AM, zeppelin said:

Yeah you heard correct. Staff only on Saturday night, every year. Make sure to spread the word, we want to make sure as many people as possible stay away and aren't disappointed... 

You’re almost right, it’s Friday when it’s staff only, for Gojira... and IDLES...