Guy breaking in via Worthy View

[Pipine]

9 minutes ago, jimbarkanoodle said:

Yeah there are quite a few sad cases on here who don't like the idea of people sneaking in, as if its going to spoil them having a good time or something. Really sad attitude to have.

Shame he caught, I know many who didn't though!

i think there's a big assumption in a lot of cases that people who get in illegally are more likely to be tent thieves.. 

[jimbarkanoodle]

Really? Because personally, i don't see much difference between the awful presumption many arseholes have that all illegal immigrants into this country are only here for no good, to scrounge and claim benefits etc. Both are stupid things to automatically assume.

I would estimate that, just the same as ticket holders, 99.9% of people sneaking in are doing so in order to have a good time, just like everyone else. Why would you go to all that bother just to piss people off, draw attention to yourself and maybe get chucked out? Me and my mates break in every year, and have not as much as accidently stepped on someone's foot, let alone go around robbing tents.

[Pipine]

11 minutes ago, jimbarkanoodle said:

Really? Because personally, i don't see much difference between the awful presumption many arseholes have that all illegal immigrants into this country are only here for no good, to scrounge and claim benefits etc. Both are stupid things to automatically assume.

I would estimate that, just the same as ticket holders, 99.9% of people sneaking in are doing so in order to have a good time, just like everyone else. Why would you go to all that bother just to piss people off, draw attention to yourself and maybe get chucked out? Me and my mates break in every year, and have not as much as accidently stepped on someone's foot, let alone go around robbing tents.

Its just something I heard from various people over the weekend.. it would be impossible to know what % of those breaking in were otherwise law abiding, you could well be right.. 

[jimbarkanoodle]

No worries- wasn't saying you thought this, but many people do. Most of the people who break in are the most festival hardened veterans you'll come across, so it sticks in the throat when clueless, posh types who have hoovered up all the tickets wrongly bitch about others being criminals just because they had the guts, know how and connections to successfully sneak in.

[Magma]

55 minutes ago, Pipine said:

i think there's a big assumption in a lot of cases that people who get in illegally are more likely to be tent thieves.. 

Funny how attitudes change. People are so used to the superfence that they're actually scared of fence-jumpers now.

I jumped my first year. It's what you did when you were a 16 year old, fresh out of exams in Somerset... it's how you got your hippie education. It was a rite of passage for anyone at my school who wanted to learn about more than the seafront clubs in Weston Super Mare for a weekend.

The first year the superfence went up Glastonbury was a very different place... and not for the better. In 2002 a lot of us were walking around praying for a panel to come down and for an extra 5000 free-love fanatics to run through. It was quiet and a lot of the madness had gone. They've done a good job bringing it back, but people should remember, Glastonbury's atmosphere is in SPITE of the superfence, not because of it.

Tent thieves will always come, just like drug dealers... they'll buy tickets if they can get them... a £250 ticket isn't an expensive investment if you're going to go home with a rucksack full of other people's cash and gadgets.

Edited July 4, 2019 by Magma

[pie_and_a_pint]

12 hours ago, Benja100 said:

We saw this, if it was the guy with long hair

Security guard said "YOU'RE ACTING VERY STRANGELY!" very loud which was pretty odd too

Personally I bet you the people causing trouble and thieving etc are more the people without tickets, I've paid £260 to go in fuck em no sympathy 

I'd be more worried if people were at Glastonbury acting normally, tbh...

[pie_and_a_pint]

48 minutes ago, jimbarkanoodle said:

No worries- wasn't saying you thought this, but many people do. Most of the people who break in are the most festival hardened veterans you'll come across, so it sticks in the throat when clueless, posh types who have hoovered up all the tickets wrongly bitch about others being criminals just because they had the guts, know how and connections to successfully sneak in.

Ooh, I do love a bit of misdirected classism in the morning... 

The point remains that if people are able to sneak (for nefarious reasons or not) in then no-one, whether 'clueless and posh' or otherwise will be able to buy tickets next time because the festival won't get a licence and there won't be a festival. 

Edited July 4, 2019 by pie_and_a_pint

[CeriG]

On a different subject, our mate sold his ticket in agreement of £50 and the person would pay the other £200 if and when he got in. He travelled from London to Leicester to get the coach with us. Travelled there and then he didn't get in and had to travel all the way back to London again. It was awful!! Actually ruined the festival for me a little. Spent the whole weekend feeling guilty and gutted for him. Would never suggest to anyone to buy someone elses ticket after that experience.

[HalfAnIdiot]

29 minutes ago, pie_and_a_pint said:

Ooh, I do love a bit of misdirected classism in the morning... 

The point remains that if people are able to sneak (for nefarious reasons or not) in then no-one, whether 'clueless and posh' or otherwise will be able to buy tickets next time because the festival won't get a licence and there won't be a festival. 

The festival is in a very strong place these days with a lot of support from locals, police and licencing authorities. A few fence jumpers will not stop the licence being granted, a substantial breakdown of security possibly would. The festival manages it's entry procedures very well, as it must, and makes annual improvements but there is no policy to make the place impregnable, and neither should there be considering its roots.

I'm all for the more adventurous giving it a go. As @Magma said above, the place became very clinical after the superfence went up. 

[Field Commander Jefferson]

3 hours ago, eFestivals said:

he said that over 20 years ago. Things have changed.

Today it's important that the festival stays within the licence else there's no festival.

There must be a happy medium though, there were reports of a young lad who got in without a wristband having his collar bone broken by overzealous stewards on the Sunday of all days. That's not the festival any of us know and love

The carts of stewards driving around the park getting people to wave just so they could check wristbands also left a bad taste in the mouth, it definitely felt as if there was a 'heavier' presence this year for sure.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

1 hour ago, Magma said:

Funny how attitudes change. People are so used to the superfence that they're actually scared of fence-jumpers now.

I jumped my first year. It's what you did when you were a 16 year old, fresh out of exams in Somerset... it's how you got your hippie education. It was a rite of passage for anyone at my school who wanted to learn about more than the seafront clubs in Weston Super Mare for a weekend.

The first year the superfence went up Glastonbury was a very different place... and not for the better. In 2002 a lot of us were walking around praying for a panel to come down and for an extra 5000 free-love fanatics to run through. It was quiet and a lot of the madness had gone. They've done a good job bringing it back, but people should remember, Glastonbury's atmosphere is in SPITE of the superfence, not because of it.

Tent thieves will always come, just like drug dealers... they'll buy tickets if they can get them... a £250 ticket isn't an expensive investment if you're going to go home with a rucksack full of other people's cash and gadgets.

I’d always assumed that a lot of tent thieves were not necessarily there just for that, they actually planned to come to Glastonbury and are just complete scum bags that decide to rob people at the same time.

At Bestival once me and my girlfriend we’re camped next to a group of blokes from Essex, they all seemed had to have plenty of money and decent enough jobs from when we spoke to them. One day we went back to the tent to chill and they came back after us. One of them decided to start robbing tents around us, he unzipped ours and when he saw us immediately said he was ‘looking for his sunglasses’ I told him to fuck off and put anything he’d stolen back as obviously I now know who he is.

My point is I don’t think it’s always organised crime. Just utter scum bags who think it’s a laugh more than anything.

[incident]

11 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

My point is I don’t think it’s always organised crime. Just utter scum bags who think it’s a laugh more than anything.

Maybe Glastonbury is different, but there's definitely been organised gangs at other festivals, and generally speaking these have been people without wristbands.

[Pipine]

I remember the pre super fence days and cheered when a panel came down and more people joined the party..  but that wasn't sustainable in the long term and GFL do a lot to maintain their license and so they should, nobody wants Glastonbury to end.  

I used to come down with a load of friends who all jumped the fence but I always paid, I always figured I could afford the ticket and the festival deserved my money,   I think the madness and magic of the pre-superfence days is still there, plus there are SO many more things to see and do now.. even compared to the last time I came in 2013 the site seems bigger and better than ever before.. I'm constantly amazed by the creativity and how massive the build is.. how good was the Spike bar near the glade?.. and the woods.. its so worth the ticket price.

[clarkete]

1 hour ago, Magma said:

They've done a good job bringing it back, but people should remember, Glastonbury's atmosphere is in SPITE of the superfence, not because of it.

However it's also important that they remember the continued issuing of the festival's licence is because of the fence, hence they do care about wide scale breaches these days.

 

 

1 hour ago, CeriG said:

On a different subject, our mate sold his ticket in agreement of £50 and the person would pay the other £200 if and when he got in. He travelled from London to Leicester to get the coach with us. Travelled there and then he didn't get in and had to travel all the way back to London again. It was awful!! Actually ruined the festival for me a little. Spent the whole weekend feeling guilty and gutted for him. Would never suggest to anyone to buy someone elses ticket after that experience.

Thanks for sharing, so many of these questions appear before each festival, so it's interesting to know how they work out - even if as in this case it was unsuccessful.

Why should you feel guilty?  It sounds like it was the buyer who took on the risk and given their payment arrangement they knew there was a risk of failure.

[CeriG]

4 minutes ago, clarkete said:

However it's also important that they remember the continued issuing of the festival's licence is because of the fence, hence they do care about wide scale breaches these days.

 

 

Thanks for sharing, so many of these questions appear before each festival, so it's interesting to know how they work out - even if as in this case it was unsuccessful.

Why should you feel guilty?  It sounds like it was the buyer who took on the risk and given their payment arrangement they knew there was a risk of failure.

Just felt totally gutted for him. He had already been messed about with some work tickets. Ended up in a pen for about 4 hours before they popped him in a van back to the train station.

[spcdust]

Pre Super Fence the whole jumping the fence basically got out of hand.  Back in the day Michael Eavis was relatively relaxed about it figuring, once all the tickets were sold to basically to cover the costs, then those who couldn't afford to pay could come over/under the fence.  However back in the mid 90's, when I was on a relatively low pay scale, I still always paid for my ticket as I could actually afford it.  The people who contributed to the change of shift were the people (a lot of the clients I worked with) who even back then were on £30K-£80K+ salaries who felt it was a rite of passage to jump the fence - they thought it was hysterical that I would even consider paying for a ticket.  Eventually so many people were jumping the fence, combined with the rather violent marauding gangs patrolling the outside of the perimeter and robbing people, something had to give.

I distinctly remember the Festival before the Super Fence went up that so many people had got in without a ticket (I'm sure it was an additional 50,000+ but my memory might be wrong) the site felt ridiculously over capacity - no space for tents, just a real squeeze everywhere, tent crime was through the roof and a generally edgy atmosphere.  I think after that particular Festival they took a year out to consider the issues and bought in Vince Powers of Mean Fiddler to get the Festival back on track and prevent it loosing its licence.

[clarkete]

16 minutes ago, spcdust said:

I distinctly remember the Festival before the Super Fence went up that so many people had got in without a ticket (I'm sure it was an additional 50,000+ but my memory might be wrong) the site felt ridiculously over capacity - no space for tents, just a real squeeze everywhere, tent crime was through the roof and a generally edgy atmosphere.  

I also remember the year before the fence the same.

[Aragorn]

I jumped the fence in 2000 I think. Was that the final year before the superfence? Place was totally rammed. Came back in 2002 which was amazing

[dccool]

I didn't have to jump the fence in 2000 it was lieing flat on the ground so just walked over it.

Thousands upon thousands used to get in now I'd say it's in the hundreds. 

Whether the festival is better or worse is subjective but it's a much much safer place than it used to be before the super fence. 

[eFestivals]

2 hours ago, Field Commander Jefferson said:

There must be a happy medium though, there were reports of a young lad who got in without a wristband having his collar bone broken by overzealous stewards on the Sunday of all days. That's not the festival any of us know and love

the festival we know and love is the festival run by Michael, who had to decide on no-festival or complying with the licence.  

What's "a happy medium" (other than a get-out)? The licenced number is set as it is for safety reasons, and if it could be one higher it would be one higher already.

It would be great if everyone could go, but unless those without tickets accept they've no right to go things are on a dangerous spiral for the festival's future.

[Hugh Jass]

5 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

the festival we know and love is the festival run by Michael, who had to decide on no-festival or complying with the licence.  

What's "a happy medium" (other than a get-out)? The licenced number is set as it is for safety reasons, and if it could be one higher it would be one higher already.

It would be great if everyone could go, but unless those without tickets accept they've no right to go things are on a dangerous spiral for the festival's future.

Agreed.

[Magma]

2 hours ago, clarkete said:

However it's also important that they remember the continued issuing of the festival's licence is because of the fence, hence they do care about wide scale breaches these days.


Oh, totally. The fence had to go up and the registration system had to come in as well. No complaints... and as I said, they've done an amazing job bringing the spirit back since 2002.

But the breaches in 2000 weren't a few people getting in under tarps or with re-used crew passes, it was a complete free for all everywhere... I was sat outside my tent in one of the fields by the southern fence ("the field of the weird beard" if my memory serves!) in 2000 (the first year I bought a ticket) and some guy was running around calling himself the "Anti Fence Militia" - he was cutting any tapes separating camps with bolt cutters and then proceeded to scale the fence, chisel out the retaining bolts and ride a panel of it down to the ground... at least 1000 people streamed into the campsite about 2 minutes before anyone in charge noticed what was happening.

They were licensed for 100,000 people on site and 250,000 turned up.

Any issues with people getting in now are a drop in the ocean and there are far more with nefarious intent coming in with legal tickets than blagging their way in to cause trouble because most just assume it isn't worth the train/bus ticket to risk failing. It's certainly something the organisers still have to be on top of, but it's nothing that the punters need to worry about.

[HalfAnIdiot]

22 minutes ago, Magma said:

Oh, totally. The fence had to go up and the registration system had to come in as well. No complaints... and as I said, they've done an amazing job bringing the spirit back since 2002.

But the breaches in 2000 weren't a few people getting in under tarps or with re-used crew passes, it was a complete free for all everywhere... I was sat outside my tent in one of the fields by the southern fence ("the field of the weird beard" if my memory serves!) in 2000 (the first year I bought a ticket) and some guy was running around calling himself the "Anti Fence Militia" - he was cutting any tapes separating camps with bolt cutters and then proceeded to scale the fence, chisel out the retaining bolts and ride a panel of it down to the ground... at least 1000 people streamed into the campsite about 2 minutes before anyone in charge noticed what was happening.

They were licensed for 100,000 people on site and 250,000 turned up.

Any issues with people getting in now are a drop in the ocean and there are far more with nefarious intent coming in with legal tickets than blagging their way in to cause trouble because most just assume it isn't worth the train/bus ticket to risk failing. It's certainly something the organisers still have to be on top of, but it's nothing that the punters need to worry about.

Once the one panel was down, ME ordered that a bunch of the adjacent panels be removed too as he was concerned for people's safety. That meant the interlopers felt they could camp outside of the fence line, so not crowding out the camping fields.

The site was crowded but it coped. That 'sucess' supported the increase in the licenced attendance.

[fightoffyour]

4 hours ago, CeriG said:

On a different subject, our mate sold his ticket in agreement of £50 and the person would pay the other £200 if and when he got in. He travelled from London to Leicester to get the coach with us. Travelled there and then he didn't get in and had to travel all the way back to London again. It was awful!! Actually ruined the festival for me a little. Spent the whole weekend feeling guilty and gutted for him. Would never suggest to anyone to buy someone elses ticket after that experience.

On the other hand, someone from this forum got in on my friends ticket, seemingly without any bother. 

[Magma]

14 minutes ago, HalfAnIdiot said:

 The site was crowded but it coped. That 'sucess' supported the increase in the licenced attendance.

Yeah, pretty much. The only time I remember it being scary in 2000 was after the dance tent kicked out one night (may have been Fat Boy Slim or something) and everyone got stuck going over a bridge... my girlfriend and I sat at the side until the crowd died down a bit, but that was about the biggest way it affected us. Apart from 2007 (I know, masochist, but STORIES) and 2005, 2000 is probably my favourite year, but I totally understand why it put the festival in jeopardy.

The Park and the SE Corner developments have made the festival easily able to handle those numbers now, like you say. The only time this year felt over-subscribed was when all the day-tickets came in to see Kylie.