Council warns Glastonbury it may limit amount of alcohol revellers can take into site to cut 'nuisance' in local area

[Fish Bulb]

2 minutes ago, semmtexx said:

I did like the SGP. Miss that place. 

Same.

SGP did have alcohol restrictions per person, and from memory it wasn't much, but it wasn't difficult to sneak booze in.

Based on previous experiences of the Glastonbury queue system I assume that would be easy enough too if they did have a limit, and you'd just have to "declare" the right amount. Not sure how much you could realistically hide though. I assume they'd follow the usual policy of only being allowed to take alcohol in on the first entry.

[Crazyfool01]

1 hour ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Harry’s been to Tesco to stock up with Mallets 

That’s one way of killing her off  

[The Spandex Warrior]

33 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

nah, I was referencing a different fest.

Bestival? A mate of mine who works for Devon Police said that the booze restrictions and sniffer dogs at the last one were a direct result of the girl who died the previous year. Which sounds about right, if something as tragic as that happens they've got to at least be seen to do something about it.

[eFestivals]

9 minutes ago, The Spandex Warrior said:

Bestival? A mate of mine who works for Devon Police said that the booze restrictions and sniffer dogs at the last one were a direct result of the girl who died the previous year. Which sounds about right, if something as tragic as that happens they've got to at least be seen to do something about it.

no, it wasn't bestival either.

But enough of this guessing game. That wasn't the point of the story. 

[Madyaker]

It'll be annoying for coach people like me if they only allow alcohol on first entry. There's only so much I can carry in one go and I always make a trip to tesco in shepton mallet on thursday or friday morning. I don't want to offend anyone here but last year I decided to bring less cans and buy more pints and it was pretty annoying. Long queues, warm flat pints (not every time but a lot) and walking around with those paper pint cups in your hand is a pain. In that heat even if you got a cold one it was warm after ten minutes. Bag of cans on my back is far superior. If it happens ill be hoping for a thriving black market for cans of thatchers.

[Crazyfool01]

I can see a 3 for £5 revival  should anything like this happen .... which isn't going to help anyone 

[Sawdusty surfer]

I'm surprised that nobody had yet mentioned that if there is a reduction in the amount of alcohol allowed per person there could be a noticable increase in illegal drug consumption.

[Cooter]

maybe just me but over recent years I have noticed some of the large bars having very few customers with a lot of the staff just standing around looking bored. Obviously they have busy times too but I've just noticed it more and more at different times of the day and night.

Like someone else has said, could this new licencing threat be a "strange coincidence"?

Me and my family (usually 7-8 adults)  have been known to consume 10-12 or more cans and a over half box of wine each during a long Glasto day. Turning up early Tuesday for 6 days I'm guessing my stock would put me in the nuisance bracket!!

[eFestivals]

2 minutes ago, Cooter said:

maybe just me but over recent years I have noticed some of the large bars having very few customers with a lot of the staff just standing around looking bored. Obviously they have busy times too but I've just noticed it more and more at different times of the day and night.

Like someone else has said, could this new licencing threat be a "strange coincidence"?

Unlikely unless you think the council is making a fuss on behalf of the festival.

[squirrelarmy]

I wouldn’t mind a restriction on what you can bring in only on the proviso they expand on the ability to buy chilled cans and other closed drinks on site. 
 

As a coach traveller I’m already limited by what I can bring in. Having licensed shops on site means they can control who is buying alcohol and we get nice cold ciders instead of cans that have been cooking in our tents for a few days. 

[Bisque]

It would be lovely if you were able to buy crates conveniently on site. I often have a few cans on the train out of my crate which leaves me with 18 left for the festival & 2 litres of spirits.

I’ve known friends to go through 24 cans of Strongbow in a day but they are fortunate enough to have someone in a campervan bring their alcohol in for them.

Not saying I love to get trashed at Glasto but it’s nice to know I can save some money & not miss out on things because I’m stuck at a queuing at a bar unless it’s Brothers Bar, Avalon etc on Wed/Thursday where I treat myself to the start of the fest.

[Crazyfool01]

7 minutes ago, squirrelarmy said:

I wouldn’t mind a restriction on what you can bring in only on the proviso they expand on the ability to buy chilled cans and other closed drinks on site. 
 

As a coach traveller I’m already limited by what I can bring in. Having licensed shops on site means they can control who is buying alcohol and we get nice cold ciders instead of cans that have been cooking in our tents for a few days. 

oi   I still had ice in mine on Sat .... and that wasn't the stuff purchased from co -op  

[Cooter]

11 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

Unlikely unless you think the council is making a fuss on behalf of the festival.

Point taken. But, and I'm no expert on this, don't all the bars have some sort of licencing fee payable to the council? If the bars are becoming non-profitable and then non-existent there'll be less income for the council and ultimately the local area.

[Madyaker]

Do the council have any evidence of rampant underage drinking at the festival?

[eFestivals]

1 minute ago, Cooter said:

Point taken. But, and I'm no expert on this, don't all the bars have some sort of licencing fee payable to the council? If the bars are becoming non-profitable and then non-existent there'll be less income for the council and ultimately the local area.

I'm no expert on it either, but my take is that any bar licencing fee that might exist would be of too-minimal a level for anyone to care about it in that way.

It's not like all of the bars are at risk of disappearing, and a more obvious way of making up a shortfall (if they felt they had to) from bar licencing would be to increase the licence fee for remaining bars.

[eFestivals]

1 minute ago, Madyaker said:

Do the council have any evidence of rampant underage drinking at the festival?

I suspect they have evidence of underage drinking, and that's probably enough for them to think Something Must Be Done. 

[Cooter]

Does sound a bit dodge to me.

Drunk people being a nuisance offsite must be minimal in comparison to the size of the festival. Same goes for nuisance drunk people onsite too, minimal compared with the size of the place.

Also of course, remembering the obvious, people who get drunk and become a nuisance arnt usually bothered where the booze comes from, their rucksack or a bar.

What's limiting what people carry in going to change? Unless they ban alcohol from the whole of Somerset for the week it seems badly thought out right from the start.

Edited January 15, 2020 by Cooter

[stuartbert two hats]

40 minutes ago, Madyaker said:

It'll be annoying for coach people like me if they only allow alcohol on first entry. There's only so much I can carry in one go and I always make a trip to tesco in shepton mallet on thursday or friday morning. I don't want to offend anyone here but last year I decided to bring less cans and buy more pints and it was pretty annoying. Long queues, warm flat pints (not every time but a lot) and walking around with those paper pint cups in your hand is a pain. In that heat even if you got a cold one it was warm after ten minutes. Bag of cans on my back is far superior. If it happens ill be hoping for a thriving black market for cans of thatchers.

I am offended.  It's "fewer cans" 😛

 

[Radiochicken]

When I went to Roskilde you could pre-order crates of beer or cider and collect them on site. Win win for everyone.

 

Edit: it was about £13 for 24 cans of Turborg (330ml)

Edited January 15, 2020 by Radiochicken

[eFestivals]

8 minutes ago, Cooter said:

Does sound a bit dodge to me.

Drunk people being a nuisance offsite must be minimal in comparison to the size of the festival. Same goes for nuisance drunk people onsite too, minimal compared with the size of the place.

Also of course, remembering the obvious, people who get drunk and become a nuisance arnt usually bothered where the booze comes from, their rucksack or a bar.

What's limiting what people carry in going to change? Unless they ban alcohol from the whole of Somerset for the week!!

these sorts of regulations don't necessarily make sense from a rounded point of view - but neither do lots of health & safety measures because lots of people are sensible and safe and do best practice anyway.

The regulations come about anyway, because someone thinks that Something Must Be Done about those who are less sensible.

And the people regulating Somerset's most-high-profile event can't control who buys what from any shop, but they can control an awful lot of what goes on within the festival site. And so they do. It's what they're employed to do.

 

Edited January 15, 2020 by eFestivals

[stuie]

2 minutes ago, Radiochicken said:

When I went to Roskilde you could pre-order crates of beer or cider (at basically standard supermarket prices if I remember) and collect them on site. Win win for everyone.

Bestival (RIP) done that too but only for campsite consumption.

It's still controlling the supply of alcohol to underage people as ID required to collect, but not affecting the bar trade, in the arena.

No arena at G.

[Crazyfool01]

4 minutes ago, Radiochicken said:

When I went to Roskilde you could pre-order crates of beer or cider and collect them on site. Win win for everyone.

 

Edit: it was about £13 for 24 cans of Turborg (330ml)

is that the for and against post ?  

[Pinhead]

Amazing isnt it that 20 years ago no one gave a shit about this and now yet another 'freedom' that defines this festival is under threat... Anyway, its a recommendation atm from MDC isnt it, so if GFL look proactive about clamping down on underage drinking this year via advising security to pay it more attention for example, they may not be told to enforce it at the gates just yet.

[strummer77]

1 hour ago, Fish Bulb said:

Same.

SGP did have alcohol restrictions per person, and from memory it wasn't much, but it wasn't difficult to sneak booze in.

Based on previous experiences of the Glastonbury queue system I assume that would be easy enough too if they did have a limit, and you'd just have to "declare" the right amount. Not sure how much you could realistically hide though. I assume they'd follow the usual policy of only being allowed to take alcohol in on the first entry.

The biggest issue with 'firste entry' for me is the fact the people in campervans/Worthy View/Stinklinch don't enter 'once' like normal campers, they enter at least once a day. They don't take all their booze in once and leave on site.

To enforce they would either practically only have booze on site for one day or have to set up an extra queue/entry for them. This would mean, realistically, people having to have booze checked on way into campervan fields.

[eFestivals]

1 minute ago, Pinhead said:

Amazing isnt it that 20 years ago no one gave a shit about this and now yet another 'freedom' that defines this festival is under threat...

I think that's simply a consequence of shared best-practice ideas, combined with a need for regulators to be continually (from their point of view) "improving" things. Everything ends up getting squished into something which looks about the same wherever you go.