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Tuesday Night Arrival VS Wednesday Morning Arrival


gratefulbread
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I've noticed in various camping/parking related threads the differing opinions on arrival times and also the queue times associated with said arrivals. Thought it would be good to get as many opinions and thoughts on the specifics of arrivals/queue times as possible in one place. 

As this is my first time actually driving to the site, this topic is particularly interesting to me. I am currently torn between 3 options myself. 

1. Tuesday night midnight arrival, getting in the queue immediately. 

2. Tuesday night midnight arrival, get some sleep in the car and queue from 5am. 

3. 4/5am arrival, queue immediately. 

What do you do and why? And what kind of time difference for getting wristbands on and through the gates between each of the above? 

Thanks. Regardless of which of the above is chosen, in exactly two weeks I'll be in the queue and can't bloody wait. 

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I can’t think of anything worse than staying up all night sitting in a queue! I want a decent kip before starting the festival.

Last couple of times I’ve arrived about 9.30. 2016 walked straight in, 2017 queued 2.5 hours.

Actually thinking of leaving it a little later to when the queues have died down a bit, about 11am maybe. But then I usually camp on Hitchin Hill, so there’s no mad rush to grab a spot.

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I’ve done the Tuesday night in the car once, didn’t get any sleep and there was as long a queue as ever to get in, even from 6am or whenever it was, didn’t work for us at all. 

I’d suggest your first option is only sensible if it’s vital for you to be able to pitch your tent in an exact spot, if It doesn’t really matter where you camp be more relaxed at getting into the festival. If you can stop up all night and still enjoy the Wednesday then ok go for it!

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Leaning toward leaving the north later and arriving for 8/9. I'm ok without sleep but my good lady is certainly not. 

Camping in Paines rather than usual Park Home to try and have a quieter time for her. Is there any need to get in for doors opening to get a spot there? Or does it not fill up quite as quickly as park home? 

Thanks again. 

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56 minutes ago, fatyeti24 said:

Some people apparently enjoy the Tuesday queue.  I'm told it can be good fun, an extra night of exciting festival camaraderie. 

And I'm thankful to those people for getting themselves sorted and out of the way early before my arrival a few hours later. 

Win win. 

Yep. We do this. And - (as always) weather permitting - it's great fun*

2017 was excellent. Probably the best. Again, 'cos of the weather - its a was a really pleasant warm night.

However it requires it's own mini-prep' in addition to everything we all do for the rest of the festival.

For me the following are a must (we queue at Gate B):

- Camping chair.

- Proper mountain climbing mega-waterproof stormshelter. The tent-material kind that packs down into a small bag and which you can just throw over yourselves in the event of a sudden downpour.

- Umbrella (which I wouldn't take if I wasn't doing the Tuesday night queue) - to protect from rain / sun.

- Decent snacks / picnic.

- A book. For when things start to settle down later in the evening.

- Queue booze. Enough to help you doze off but not so much that you wake up with a minging hangover. A placcy bottle of wine or few beers, packed / available separate to your main festival stash. You don't wanna be tearing open a crate before getting in.

- Warm clothes / sleeping bag packed to be easily accessible, so you don't have to tear your rucksack apart to find stuff.

 

The main thing to be aware of is that - at Gate B - there's only a few toilets and they're portaloos.

You actually have to walk through the gate to use these - they're positioned just inside.

These are usually in a decent state and everyone at the front of the queue has seen you go in and use them, so any filthy gits would easily be identified.

 

The Tuesday night queue option definitely isn't for everyone but:

- If you're the sort of person who can kip anywhere, you'll be fine.

- The gates often open earlier than advertised.

- If you're fairly near the front of the queue, security will come to you, working their way back down the queue and do a cursory bag search so you don't have to faff about with it when the gate opens.

- You pretty much get the pick of the camping spots.

- You can catch up on a couple of hours sleep once you're set up. When you wake up the site is still pretty empty.

 

I'll dig out a few photos and post them on here later.

 

*Apart from that bloke with the acoustic guitar and two songs.

 

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The reason for varying reports on q times are due to the conditions on the day that massively impact what happens, make sure you pop in here to find out what’s going on, we are planning on arriving around 6 and hope to be pitched by 11. 

Charm x

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We’ve tried it all ways stated and found the following works best for us.

Leave home 10pm Tues. arrive Glasto 0200 - 0230am. Straight in queue and usually in to the barriers section at Gate D. Chair out, booze out, festival commences.

last time we’re in and pitched for 0830am. Can get a few hours kip if needed later on

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Last year arrived Gate B about 1am, in Q for 1.30ish and through gates around 9am. Pitched in Big Ground and it was already pretty full. Having been through gate C and A previously, Gate B seemed alot slower - there were comments saying they were stricter with the new bag checking rules than other gates but probably heresay!

talking of which has there been any word on whether they will be implementing the stricter measures this year or not?

 

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I've done the "sleeping" in the car once, in fact, the first year that the car parks opened on the Tuesday evening. It really wasn't for me at all, I got no sleep and as I'm not the sort of person who would join a stationary queue the night before, I didn't see the point. I got no sleep and the Wednesday was poorer for it. 

We usually leave pretty early on the Wednesday morning, it's approximately a two hour drive and traffic up to site is, on the whole, fairly minimal by the time we get to the site (2016 was an obvious exception). Usually a few hours in the queue to the gate to get in (PG A) but that usually moves pretty quickly.

I think this really is each to their own and the fact that different people approach it in different ways has actually had the desired effect from the organisers' point of view.   

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Not sure I'll ever do Tuesday night, can't see how it's worth it ahead of a 5 night festival. We just drive down through the night with very little or no sleep to get there Wednesday morning and that was bad enough.

It'll always be a hotel Tuesday night within a reasonable distance for me and then get there circa 7am, traffic dependent, Wednesday morning

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I've done the overnight thing a couple of times and woudnt do it again unless I really wanted that perfect pitch in a really busy field. In previous year we camped in pennards and to get a decent spot you gotta really qué I reckon

Last couple of times stayed in a nice pub neaby had a full English and strolled in around 12 feeling fully refreshed. 

My tip would be to take a ground sheet you can lay on it put it over you if it rains and get some shut eye

 

 

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If it rains through the night like 2016 i wouldn't bother, we got a great pitch that year but really wasn't worth how miserable the queue was lol. 6am rolled round after hours of being sat in in camping chairs staring into your lap as a puddle forms on your trousers, some bright spark put mr blue sky on and which failed to lift the moods

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2016 was the a bad queuing experience. Utterly miserable. 

Have done it every other year though and it does get the festival vibes going a little earlier. Now I'm older I'm not sure why we did it as we didn't even want a prime camping space. Wednesday nap is heavenly tho.

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I've done the sleeping in the car and the arriving earlier, but much prefer just getting a hotel nearby, then having breakfast followed by a short drive Wednesday morning. Arrive about 10am fresh and practically walk straight in. Definitely the best way to do it. Coming from Scotland though, so have a hell of a long drive to add queuing/sleeping in carpark to end of it.

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2 hours ago, Woffy said:

Yep. We do this. And - (as always) weather permitting - it's great fun*

 

 

 

*Apart from that bloke with the acoustic guitar and two songs.

 

Was Wonderwall one of them...?

 

What are the queues like around 11am at gate A on the wednesday morning. I'm planning on leaving home around 7am on the wed which would get me there around 11ish. I've always arrived in the queue around 7am apart from 16 when I didn't arrive until late afternoon but don't want to arrive there too early this year. ideally I'd want to miss a few hours in the queue.

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10 minutes ago, MilkyJoe said:

What are the queues like around 11am at gate A on the wednesday morning.

From what I've seen, the queues usually start to die down by 11-12 so it shouldn't be too bad.  

 

Most years we set off from Southport around 1am on the wednesday morning, arrive around 5am depending on how little regard for the speed limit our driver has (very little incidentally), quick nap in the car for the driver and join the queue from 7am.

Leaving earlier means we spend more time in the queue but we also avoid the majority of the traffic on the way down.  Swings and roundabouts really.  The main thing is we are usually pitched up by midday so can take the rest of the day at a nice relaxed pace.

 

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In 2016, had set off Tuesday night from London but due to traffic arrived on site 8:02am and straight through Gate A. In 2017, set off Tuesday evening from Cardiff, arrived on site around 10pm, caught up with mates, then took ages to get through Gate A in the morning (albeit partially down to my mate falling ill and getting taken to medical leaving me with her stuff!)

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Tuesday night is good if you're in a group and want to stay together in a prime location

 

If there's a smaller number of you and you're happy to be dotted about a bit rather than tents next to each other then I would say Weds AM

 

Remember whether you pick Tuesday or Wednesday, you'll still see people rolling in with their tents on Friday afternoon having to eye up some prime real estate in the rather glossy-looking 'mud' next to the Toilets or on that 45 degree cliff edge next to the farmhouse. You won't be one of them :)

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