“They let in an extra 20k people” rumour

[faymondo]

Getting up across the railway from The Other Stage after The Chemical brothers was a bit scary. I do think the railway causes a lot of problems. People have better bearings on how to get to places when they are on it when there are many other routes if you get to learn them. 

[fred quimby]

All seemed less busy but that could be me. Got everywhere much faster than I usually do and was at the front of many sets. 

[HalfAnIdiot]

2 hours ago, parsonjack said:

Not quite.  Yes they have been allowed a 7k increase but only from 2020 and only if all 7k travel by public transport.

My mistake, your right.

For interest here is the licenced attendance breakdown. You can add your own figures for fence jumpers, security blaggers etc

Glastonbury Festival ticket license break-down

Public tickets

Tickets sold to regular punters in the public ticket sales.

135,000 + new variation of additional 7,000

Local Sunday tickets

Tickets sold to local people that live within a specified radius of the festival These tickets grant the holder to access to the site on the last day of the festival only.

5,000

Staff/complimentary/performer passes

Tickets covering all staff and performers. This includes medical, security, volunteers, traders and more.

63,000

Total capacity available on current license - 210,000

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

Mad really that for every 4 normal punters there you need 1 person to run it, I suppose that makes sense though.

[Dusk1983]

1 hour ago, marcwilson87 said:

I've not been since 2015 but I felt like it was much busier than previously. I hardly went to any of the busier stages either. I think our whole group felt like it was busier all of the time. Who knows

Again so interesting to hear differing impressions but it’s 2015 I am specifically thinking of and I think you’re spot on. I mentioned exploring the east side with ease on the Thursday. I remember literally not planning to get into things and just turning up.

Again - I’m *not* taking about headliners on the main stages. I’m talking about a random set at Williams Green or even some of the tents in Green Futures. That didn’t feel possible this year. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

7 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Mad really that for every 4 normal punters there you need 1 person to run it, I suppose that makes sense though.

I bet most other festivals have nowhere near a similar ratio.

[Superscally]

5 hours ago, discgoesmic said:

I'd agree to this - especially in The Cure and Kylie (to be expected I suppose).

Cure wasn't crowded. Pretty sparse where it was rammed for Kylie.

[Upside down frowner]

I drove out to Glastonbury on Sunday morning to pick my son up. Every street, lane and house had stewards outside for miles. Do these people get festival tickets from the 63,000? I was surprised how far the Eavis’ have had to go through the years to get the festivals right. You can see understand it when you see the traveller conveys in the 90’s I suppose

[incident]

1 hour ago, Upside down frowner said:

I drove out to Glastonbury on Sunday morning to pick my son up. Every street, lane and house had stewards outside for miles. Do these people get festival tickets from the 63,000? I was surprised how far the Eavis’ have had to go through the years to get the festivals right. You can see understand it when you see the traveller conveys in the 90’s I suppose

The short answer is - it depends on whether it's a volunteer (steward) role or paid (security).

I suspect most of what you saw (especially if it's one person by themselves) would have been paid security who won't have tickets. If there's more than one person on the post they may be a volunteer (such as those recruited by Oasis Carnival Club) and should get tickets from the staff allocation.

[gooner1990]

6 hours ago, faymondo said:

Getting up across the railway from The Other Stage after The Chemical brothers was a bit scary. I do think the railway causes a lot of problems. People have better bearings on how to get to places when they are on it when there are many other routes if you get to learn them. 

Second that.

i left it 10-15 mins to let the crowds die down and still got caught in a crush going up to the Railway line as I was meeting friends in the The Park post Hot Chip. 

Was swaying all over the place at one point with some younger and smaller people getting a bit frightened. 

[whitehorses]

Not much too add, but it did feel very very busy, everywhere, ALL the time. Sometimes scarily so. 

Particular jams were Friday night between Arcadia and Park - this was horrid. Railway after Chems also wasn’t nice.

It was mental before the Streets in JP field, with snaking queues for bogs. So much so that there were about 50 guys pissing against the hedge that backs onto the pond in the wood. Ugh. 

But it was the busyness of Weds and Thurs night that most surprised me. Normally get a chance to see venues and smaller acts in relative comfort... 

The SE corner seemed generally less busy, but it also felt bigger, and far less interesting along with it... Guess that’s the price we pay for its popularity.

 

[Ricci's Special Kebabs]

I thought the crowds were far better this time. I never queued once to get in the SEC and I was very rarely at a standstill at any point in the festival. 

[eFestivals]

17 hours ago, sedra said:

Didn’t the festival request a big increase for staff, traders , volunteers, security, performers, guests etc rather than paying punters - this means when not on shift there are another 20,000 or so people around? I noticed lots of different wrist bands all the time ? The bigger the festival the more people to support it eg one of the reasons for less litter around due to lots more litter crew, plus all the backstage “secret” Glastonbury areas. Has become noticeably more busy since 2010 but about the same since 2015. 

the request actually included 'paying punters' of sorts, because along with staff, performers, etc, the request also included hospitality.

[Matt87]

Sunday felt noticeably busier to me, but that's because of the locals I suppose who are trying to cram in as much as possible in the one day. The only time I got stuck anywhere was in the Pyramid field during Kylie. 

Thursday is also becoming ridiculous in certain places - if the weather is good. There's just not enough going on to spread out the number of people that have arrived. It's tough because the festival isn't really being run differently, it's more that punters are arriving earlier and earlier and are expectant.  

[Magma]

Only time I thought this was during Kylie and I assume it was all the local day-tickets coming in for her and then sodding off.

Queuing was a nightmare at a few of the gates on Wednesday, but we got straight into our favourite field and I can't say I ever thought it was TOO busy apart from an hour or so either side of Kylie.

Found space to dance at every show I saw. Strolled into the SE Corner every evening... apart from Thurs when there weren't enough other places open and it got a bit gridlocked. Just perfect all round really.

Edited July 3, 2019 by Magma

[Magma]

3 minutes ago, Cream Soda said:

Yep, this was only my third Glastonbury but it definitely seemed busier Weds/Thurs.  At the previous two I felt a different, more chilled atmosphere during the run up to the main event , whereas this time it just felt like it was all guns blazing from the word go.  Probably due to the heat.

Weds/Thurs has been a big deal for a decade now.

The first year I bought I ticket I bought it the week before with cash from Our Price in Bristol... turned up on the Friday afternoon, camped where I wanted.

By 2004/2005 if you didn't get there by Thursday lunchtime you struggled to get a decent spot.. most times I've been since 2010 you've needed to be there Wednesday.

Which is no bad thing IMHO.... I love the Weds/Thurs... if anything, I'd rather they kept no entertainment on so we could have the old immensely happy camping-holiday vibe back.

[efcfanwirral]

21 hours ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Possibly the good weather and ground conditions meant people were more mobile, the Kylie miley afternoon was really crowded trying to get onto the already crowded field not helped by an awful lot of picnic rugs, folk lounging flat out, more chairs than I can remember and those big blow up couch things that take up a lot of space. Ok on a normal day but not when really busy, something that has to be addressed. 

 

20 hours ago, GETOFFAMYLAWN said:

Actually seemed very un-crowded to me this year ?‍♂️

Crowd anxiety is one thing that really plagues me during the festival, but really this year everything felt like the crowd wasn't very big, apart from Lizzo. In fact, I watched a load of main stage bands from the front row; Cat Power, This Is The Kit, Vampire Weekend, The Cure. Sigrid felt like a ghost town, I thought she'd be mobbed.

After Kylie had finished I strolled into the front circle with no trouble at all. I thought that was odd and maybe that was just because I'd entered through the John Peel side, but then nope, another 5 of my group came in with ease from the other side. After Miley had done my group buzzed off for something else, so I took a few paces forward to see how far I could get, then realised we'd been only about 15 metres from the barrier the whole time, and there was a free spot there, so I took it.

The Pyramid on Sunday was crazy because it was as if the usual dynamics of a crowd was turned completely on it's head. It was so busy at the back and not really that busy in the middle...all because of people sitting down/lying down/chairs/big piles of rucksacks etc. 

We went in just before the end of Years and Years from the JP/Beat Hotel side and it was as busy as usual. But when we actually went back a bit, then moved forward and stepped over everyone we got to the middle with ease. Great spot between the two sound desks and not crushed in at all. 

We then needed the toilet so went to the back, and from the state of it there we get why people would think it's full and they cant get any further. If we hadn't already been to the middle/weren't experienced festival goers we wouldn't have tried probably. But we made it back to our spot with the others within the 5 mins we had before stage time. 

If everybody stood up when it was busy it'd be nowhere near as full. There were people actually sleeping on the floor amongst it all. 

Edited July 3, 2019 by efcfanwirral

[efcfanwirral]

Also my general view is it didnt seem all that busy but I don't do the SE corner so may be down to that! 

[Jamie 2194]

21 hours ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Did Kylie get a bigger crowd than Dolly / Lionel, or was it about the same?

It was always going to be stowed.

I think Dolly was the biggest, Lionel was rammed as well.... sure they started to refuse people getting any closer when Dolly was on. Kylie as OK but someone has mentioned above chairs, sofas and picnic blankets.... this was taking up a lot of room towards the back of the crowd 

[Ayrshire Chris]

3 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

 

The Pyramid on Sunday was crazy because it was as if the usual dynamics of a crowd was turned completely on it's head. It was so busy at the back and not really that busy in the middle...all because of people sitting down/lying down/chairs/big piles of rucksacks etc. 

We went in just before the end of Years and Years from the JP/Beat Hotel side and it was as busy as usual. But when we actually went back a bit, then moved forward and stepped over everyone we got to the middle with ease. Great spot between the two sound desks and not crushed in at all. 

We then needed the toilet so went to the back, and from the state of it there we get why people would think it's full and they cant get any further. If we hadn't already been to the middle/weren't experienced festival goers we wouldn't have tried probably. And that's why it gets so busy down the sides by the entrances. 

If everybody stood up when it was busy it'd be nowhere near as full. There were people actually sleeping on the floor amongst it all. 

That’s what I thought, at the back where the ice cream van sits it was crazy,  we decided it wasn’t worth trying to battle through the crowd to get to the spaces. Headed to Avalon and had a great afternoon!  Would be great if folk would show a tiny bit more consideration for other festival goers and stop setting up a picnic camp with chairs, lying flat out asleep during a busy headline performance etc and allow those who actually want to listen and appreciate the performance to enjoy themselves. 

[Diva Sam]

Felt less busy. In my opinion anyway. 

Zero rain = Nothing to moan about and it was just good vibes.

Zero rain = 100% land to be utilised by people and not just the dry bits so more spread out. 

Zero rain = 100% efficient people moving without jams as not getting stuck in mud and slowing down etc. 

[rosieangel]

13 minutes ago, Jamie 2194 said:

I think Dolly was the biggest, Lionel was rammed as well.... sure they started to refuse people getting any closer when Dolly was on. Kylie as OK but someone has mentioned above chairs, sofas and picnic blankets.... this was taking up a lot of room towards the back of the crowd 

Sky said they thought Kylie's crowd was 'record breaking' but there's yet to be a figure released I think. The Dolly crowd was apparently 180,000 according to BBC item/Dolly website, not sure if that is true as had they increased the licence back in 2014 from 175k?

 

As a slight aside would be fascinated to work out how they measure the crowds and quantify them!