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“They let in an extra 20k people” rumour


Dusk1983
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1 hour ago, Helsbels said:

I only went to the naughty corner on Sunday night and a trader and also a steward said it had been loads quieter up there than usual. Tbh I stopped going for a couple of years after 2013 as it had got so busy. Been to the last 3 in a row and dont think it seemed any busier especially with lots of new areas.

Trying to get through the crowd to get to Scum on Thursday was bad, but otherwise it was definitely quieter than years gone by. My friend was working the door at the shed in SL and for long periods on the other nights there was loads of space around SL. THe gas tower moving has definitely helped some of the issues I think. 

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Wednesday afternoon was very noticeable for me, Thursday I didn't venture out that early really as worked the previous afternoon to eve shift but The Park was rammed which signalled me to get in the Stonebridge bar quicker than usual. Croissant Neuf/Green Fields was crazy busy too on Thursday. 

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I thought it was fine and the same as always. SE much easier because of Icon (even if I thought it had no atmosphere)

Im also not sure why people are surprised they can’t get into things, The Street were always going to be busy so we got there half way through FF and got in the tent with no problem, I’d never expect to be able to turn up and walk into a headliner. Same with Fatboy in the Glade, it was fine once you got in the tent and we made the call to get there an hour before he started which meant we got to see some Solardo which was a bonus. I’ve always thought if there is an act not on the two main stages you are desperate to see, go and see the band before, you might even discover something new.

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I didnt find it busier than normal, but maybe I didnt see much that was "that" popular? Kylie was packed, but I got in the pit easy enough. Idles & the Chemical Brothers were packed too, but otherwise, I always had room.

The SE corner on the days I went (Thurs & saturday) were quiet. So much room in Block 9 & the Unfairground. Shangri La was too busy, but the rest of SE Corner was the quietest I have ever seen it.

Arcadia was packed on Friday, but noticeably quieter on Saturday after I'd been to the tent to sort things out.

 

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46 minutes ago, Pipine said:

Wednesday and Thursday seemed especially busy to me but I reckon it was mainly down to the nice weather - people arrived earlier and spent less time at their tents.

Yep - that's basically how I saw it. Campsites filled up quicker but didn't feel any more densely packed than usual. Wednesday and Thursday were busy, especially around places that had stuff on, but that's more down to people getting in early and heading off for something to do.

If it was busier overall once the main stages started, then I definitely didn't notice it - certain acts got absolutely huge crowds, Kylie might have been the biggest ever, but that was offset by small crowds elsewhere, and walking around markets etc if anything felt quieter than previous years.

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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. 

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The heat meant people circulated more- partly because getting around was easier, partly because camping at the Pyramid or any stage for 4-6 hours over early afternoon just wasn’t viable for a lot of people. People wondered off between acts to find shade.

That made the market areas and paths busier, especially those with shade. But as others have observed, the stages themselves were not so bad.

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I’d agree SEC seemed quieter, and Pangea was quieter but I didn’t go on Friday.

I’d say in general there were far more people just all over the place, it was just busy everywhere and whenever you wanted to walk anywhere.

The main difference I noticed were the bars though. I’ve no recollection of them ever being nearly as busy. The amount of times walking along I'd say let’s get a drink, and every bar we got to was about 6 deep. I appreciate that could’ve been the weather and maybe extra people getting water that wouldn’t otherwise have been. They were definitely noticeably far busier in my opinion though.

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2 hours ago, Penrhos said:

Turned up to East CV at our normal time on Wednesday and was right at the back of E16 - never been that far away before, will have to consider having Tuesday off work and spending another day on site.

Crowd at pyramid was a bit odd on Sat - was rammed up on the field but we got into the inner barrier with ease for Liam & killers.

 

It seems to be down to luck which field you get when you roll up.  

Some early arrivals got E17 , but some later arrivals got a lot nearer the Pedestrian Gates.

On another thread regulars including Neil I think had never been so close , but others never so far away.

 

 

 

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It was a bit of a mixed bag in terms of busyness I thought, certainly joining the queue around 8am at Gate A it was by far the longest I've ever waited (just under 5 hours), irritatingly I was told not to walk to Gate D but by the time we were halfway through the zigzag bit of the queue we could see people walking straight in through that gate. It'd also be so much easier if there was a better way of not clogging up the tighter bits of queue with massive trolleys. If you got caught behind a load of people trying to do a tight u-turn at the end with their trolleys it easily added 10 minutes to your queue time. It definitely might be an idea to encourage people to spread out more evenly between the two gates upon arrival.

Conversely I found a lot of the site less crowded that I'd remembered. SE corner easy to walk around at pretty much all times, it seemed to flow a lot better coming straight into a massive outdoor field rather than clustered venues. I had no trouble getting into any of the micro-venues, I even walked straight into the temple at 1am on one of the nights which is usually unheard of. The only venue I had any trouble getting into was NYC Downlow, its an absolute haven for me but I never saw a queue that wasn't going to take over an hour. Even after or before usual peak times. I'm kind of gutted that it's grown as it has because whilst it's great and everyone should go there it's also lost a bit of it's queer feel. Like all great queer venues the straights found it and it became gentrified.

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3 hours ago, hfuhruhurr said:

Old very local bloke who knows the Eavis family very well said there's 50k of us locals on Sunday, as far away as Frome. No idea if he had that right.

Signs said 203k on Sat night?

No way is it anywhere near 50k on Sunday.  Average double decker bus holds 100.....that would be 500 buses arriving in a 2 hour window.  Not a chance.

5k is the figure I've always worked to....so around 50 buses which is far more feasible.

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Irrespective as to whether they let in an extra 20k or not, there’s quite simply not enough toilets either around main stages or in the campsites.....the queues at the composters in Pylon Ground were mental every morning and the usual pinch points were again evident around the Other Stage and the Park

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14 minutes ago, SloopJohnB said:

Irrespective as to whether they let in an extra 20k or not, there’s quite simply not enough toilets either around main stages or in the campsites.....the queues at the composters in Pylon Ground were mental every morning and the usual pinch points were again evident around the Other Stage and the Park

They could really do with adding some sort of toilet facilities in Darble to take some of the load off the pylon ones. There was also a sink that disappeared in the fallow year in darble which used to help ease the congestion.

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3 hours ago, kaytee... said:

There were people getting over the fence in pylon, no idea how but this was confirmed by campsite crew and some had their entire tents stolen too. 

 

I was camping by the wall next to hospitality camping near the John peel stage and there was people removed from site because of suspected robberies and they didn't appear to have wrist bands. They said that a friend of theirs was working on site don't know if that bit was true but I suppose that could be a way in.

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4 minutes ago, serendipitous said:

They could really do with adding some sort of toilet facilities in Darble to take some of the load off the pylon ones. There was also a sink that disappeared in the fallow year in darble which used to help ease the congestion.

Darble has toilets: they are in the top of the field on the way to JPT, also on the right of that, about 30 metres down, was a tap. It has moved, but there was a tap.

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I thought it was a lot busier on the Sunday this year and found a lot more crushes. After Killers was particularly bad; a lad fell down (and stayed sitting down with his head in his knees) in the moving crowd and I tried to stop to shield him from people walking over him. I physically wasn’t able to stop or turn back- a couple of people behind pushed me and, when I explained I was trying to get to him, they kept telling me to leave him and “he’ll be fine”. I did look back and thankfully somebody else looked like they’d stopped. 

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2 hours ago, Barneym said:

Im also not sure why people are surprised they can’t get into things, The Street were always going to be busy so we got there half way through FF and got in the tent with no problem, I’d never expect to be able to turn up and walk into a headliner. Same with Fatboy in the Glade, it was fine once you got in the tent and we made the call to get there an hour before he started which meant we got to see some Solardo which was a bonus. I’ve always thought if there is an act not on the two main stages you are desperate to see, go and see the band before, you might even discover something new.

I mean, I don't expect to turn up with 2 minutes to go and get right to the front, but I don't think you should have to be there an hour before a band just to ensure you can even see them.  If that's happening regularly then the chances are that band are on the wrong stage.  Occasionally that's ok, if it's a secret set or something, but I don't want to waste huge chunks of my day hanging around waiting for things.  I haven't got the bladder for it either.

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