No indoor stages?

[Chas]

1 hour ago, eFestivals said:

it's how they all used to be. They can be again.

Reading did have a Crash Tent in the early days where you could sleep overnight. Does that count as cover?

I think it was 1972 or 1973 that they introduced the two stages side by side. With 2021 being Reading's 50th anniversary, or 60th if you count the previous 10 years before the festival moved to Richfield Avenue, I quite like the idea of reverting to two main stages as a nod to the past, although Festival Republic tend not to mention the Pendleton years that much. In fact as part of the BBC coverage in 2019, they talked about it being the 30th anniversary of Reading, effectively ignoring the festivals up to 1989 when the Mean Fiddler were invited in to give the festival a facelift.

[Crazyfool01]

socially distant queue here to complain that the festivals not as good as it used to be .... maybe we will go back to wax flares , smoke over the site .... wonder wall and campfires 

[jparx]

2 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

Makes you wonder how few tickets were actually returned for the festival to decide a sale isn’t worth it. Considering cash flow will be incredibly tight and every thousand tickets would be worth 50 grand (before See and others take their share).

Going to play devil’s advocate for a minute... The issue here is simple, to reduce amenities they need to reduce the number of ticket holders, but they’ve already sold all the tickets. So how could it be done?

If they stated publicly that Glastonbury 2021 will go ahead but drastically reduced in scope they could:

Offer all current ticket holders the opportunity to voluntarily defer their deposits until 22 when the festival will be back up to full strength and hope enough people do to allow a reduced capacity.

Defer all tickets to 22 and sell GF21 as an entirely separate event.

Randomly pick people to go this year and those to defer - the nuclear option, not advisable.

Scenes in my house when Taylor is announced for 21 and I get bumped to 22.

[Ayrshire Chris]

Tents such as the JP and Avalon have almost three sides open, allowing a free movement of air through them. They are basically covered arenas rather than enclosed tents like the circus. I know they frequently get well rammed but so does the pyramid etc.  

[Crazyfool01]

17 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Tents such as the JP and Avalon have almost three sides open, allowing a free movement of air through them. They are basically covered arenas rather than enclosed tents like the circus. I know they frequently get well rammed but so does the pyramid etc.  

but the pyramid doesnt have the levels of heat and humidity of some of those tents though ..... croissant neuf being my worst recent example ...

[JoeyT]

22 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Tents such as the JP and Avalon have almost three sides open, allowing a free movement of air through them. They are basically covered arenas rather than enclosed tents like the circus. I know they frequently get well rammed but so does the pyramid etc.  

Ask anyone who was in the JP for Gerry Cinnamon if there was a free movement of air 

I'm still convinced it was hotter / more humid than the surface of the sun in there that day!

[Hugh Jass]

26 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Tents such as the JP and Avalon have almost three sides open, allowing a free movement of air through them. They are basically covered arenas rather than enclosed tents like the circus. I know they frequently get well rammed but so does the pyramid etc.  

The Acoustic may technically be open on three sides, but there is only actually about 4 inches of space to get in or out due to all the old farts in chairs around the perimeter.

[Ayrshire Chris]

1 minute ago, JoeyT said:

Ask anyone who was in the JP for Gerry Cinnamon if there was a free movement of air 

I'm still convinced it was hotter / more humid than the surface of the sun in there that day!

Must admit we were on the edge of the tent for Gerry cinnamon that extremely hot  day and have to agree it was humid! 

[Crazyfool01]

5 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

Ask anyone who was in the JP for Gerry Cinnamon if there was a free movement of air 

I'm still convinced it was hotter / more humid than the surface of the sun in there that day!

same for killers .... they were living up to their name .... 

[Ayrshire Chris]

17 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

The Acoustic may technically be open on three sides, but there is only actually about 4 inches of space to get in or out due to all the old farts in chairs around the perimeter.

Never understood that, it’s bad enough trying to see the stage in the acoustic from a standing position unless you are close to the front. Some of those old farts are younger than me so I feel justified in standing in front of them, spilling lager on their tartan rugs and singing and swearing a la biffy and Gerry cinnamon. Also noticed these chairs have infiltrated other areas.  Mrs C is forever telling me to move, shut up, stop embarrassing me etc etc as i get a tad upset with this. 

Edited September 1, 2020 by Ayrshire Chris

[Hugh Jass]

8 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Never understood that, it’s bad enough trying to see the stage in the acoustic from a standing position unless you are close to the front. Some of those old farts are younger than me so I feel justified in standing in front of them, spilling lager on their tartan rugs and singing and swearing a la biffy and Gerry cinnamon. Also noticed these chairs have infiltrated other areas.  Mrs C is forever telling me to move, shut up, stop embarrassing me etc etc as i get a tad upset with this. 

I had a few people moaning at me for standing in front of their chairs despite being inside the tent. I just pointed at the No Chairs sign and stopped caring.

[Tommy101]

Someone on here once said 'It's a festival not a queue'. Wise words to use with those in the chairs

[Madyaker]

19 hours ago, jparx said:

Can't see how it's possible at Glastonbury. The festival either happens as normal, or it doesn't happen at all. Glastonbury without all the smaller tents, SE corner stages etc. just isn't Glastonbury.

I doubt the organisers will take such a romantic view of it. They need to run some sort of an event for the survival of the festival. I’m all for a stripped back glasto for a year or two if it means they keep the lights on and return to a full fat festival in 2022 or whatever. Under normal circumstances I’d agree. 

[Johnnyseven]

There's loads of airspace above peoples' heads in the big stage tents, couldn't you just rig a load of big extractor fans at the pinnacles of the tent roof and suck out all the yucky air away from all the punters? That'd make it safer than an open air stage, less mingering bacteria/germs?

Edited September 1, 2020 by Johnnyseven

[Crazyfool01]

18 minutes ago, Johnnyseven said:

There's loads of airspace above peoples' heads in the big stage tents, couldn't you just rig a load of big extractor fans at the pinnacles of the tent roof and suck out all the yucky air away from all the punters? That'd make it safer than an open air stage, less mingering bacteria/germs?

im a big fan of this  

Edited September 1, 2020 by crazyfool1

[parsonjack]

I still think a shorter 3-day festival could be an option, with parking from Thursday evening rather than Tuesday.  *If* you could ensure that everyone that turned up at the gates on Friday morning had had a negative CV in the past 48 hours then due to the small 3-5 day window between exposure and becoming infectious to others you could almost be certain of very few people being infectious before Monday morning.

How you sort the testing is the logistical conundrum but linking your registration number to a testing database and only letting you in if it shows you've had a negative test would surely be possible.  GF would advise not to travel until you've had a result SMS'd to you to cut down the risk in the queue, and they could advise distancing and mask wearing outside the fence to mitigate risk further in case of the chancers.

It wouldn't be perfect or closed to abuse but it could mitigate the risk sufficiently to allow a 'normal' but slightly shorter festival.

 

[Hugh Jass]

8 hours ago, SwedgeAntilles said:

I'm still surprised this part isn't what the decided to do from the beginning. Don't get me wrong, as a ticket holder for this year I was delighted that they rolled them over but I do wonder now, with the benefit of hindsight, if they've booked themselves into a bit of a corner with that decision.

True, they are now severely limited by what they can and can’t do. Which is why I think it’s all or nothing now.

FWIW if I was offered a choice between a reduced version of Glastonbury in 21 or rolling over to the full version in 22 I would choose to defer.

[Suprefan]

9 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

Makes you wonder how few tickets were actually returned for the festival to decide a sale isn’t worth it. Considering cash flow will be incredibly tight and every thousand tickets would be worth 50 grand (before See and others take their share).

Going to play devil’s advocate for a minute... The issue here is simple, to reduce amenities they need to reduce the number of ticket holders, but they’ve already sold all the tickets. So how could it be done?

If they stated publicly that Glastonbury 2021 will go ahead but drastically reduced in scope they could:

Offer all current ticket holders the opportunity to voluntarily defer their deposits until 22 when the festival will be back up to full strength and hope enough people do to allow a reduced capacity.

Defer all tickets to 22 and sell GF21 as an entirely separate event.

Randomly pick people to go this year and those to defer - the nuclear option, not advisable.

To add to the deferment to 22 you put that choice on the table when the first poster is out and give everyone the time normally given to make their full payments. Or, do you present this option without a line up and make people truly roll the dice. They have a slight idea of what is to come for 21, but what if 22 is more to their liking once we get there. Then again, what is possibly a difficult hurdle would be that you are asking people to give away the chance at being present for the 50th Glasto. That in itself is something we havent factored in. I mean personally it was my sole intention of being there this year. 

[Hugh Jass]

10 minutes ago, Suprefan said:

To add to the deferment to 22 you put that choice on the table when the first poster is out and give everyone the time normally given to make their full payments. Or, do you present this option without a line up and make people truly roll the dice. They have a slight idea of what is to come for 21, but what if 22 is more to their liking once we get there. Then again, what is possibly a difficult hurdle would be that you are asking people to give away the chance at being present for the 50th Glasto. That in itself is something we havent factored in. I mean personally it was my sole intention of being there this year. 

I think they’d have to do it early, probably before Christmas, in order to allow the festival time to plan accordingly - there’s no way they could plan either a full or half festival between April and June. You could probably get a few names out by December, maybe a headliner a the bands they’ve carried over.

As I said earlier, I would choose to defer in that situation. Glastonbury tickets are like gold dust and I would forever kick myself if I missed out on the first full strength party back on the Farm to go to some bastardised poor man’s version the year before. I’d rather wait a year than chance it.

Edited September 1, 2020 by Hugh Jass

[efcfanwirral]

50 minutes ago, Suprefan said:

To add to the deferment to 22 you put that choice on the table when the first poster is out and give everyone the time normally given to make their full payments. Or, do you present this option without a line up and make people truly roll the dice. They have a slight idea of what is to come for 21, but what if 22 is more to their liking once we get there. Then again, what is possibly a difficult hurdle would be that you are asking people to give away the chance at being present for the 50th Glasto. That in itself is something we havent factored in. I mean personally it was my sole intention of being there this year. 

Was only the 50th anniversary since the first one - fallow years make it less and looks like a big gap in the 70s. I'd say the virtual fest was the 50th celebration and we're now onto the next step  

[MetaKate]

I find it weird that no ones even mentioned masks.

Here in Canada we've made masks mandatory in public spaces, it lowers the transmission rate down to 2% supposedly. 

It's not ideal, but there are bars at glasto that demand you have a mustache. 

[stuartbert two hats]

2 minutes ago, MetaKate said:

I find it weird that no ones even mentioned masks.

Here in Canada we've made masks mandatory in public spaces, it lowers the transmission rate down to 2% supposedly. 

It's not ideal, but there are bars at glasto that demand you have a mustache. 

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm thinking that if we still need masks by then, it's off.

FWIW, masks are a big thing here finally. They're mandatory (although not enforced) in the shops and for the most part, are being worn.

I don't think I could cope with Glastonbury wearing a mask for five days. I might have to give up my ticket rather than have a weird fucked up, apocalypse Glasto.

 

 

[MetaKate]

1 minute ago, stuartbert two hats said:

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm thinking that if we still need masks by then, it's off.

FWIW, masks are a big thing here finally. They're mandatory (although not enforced) in the shops and for the most part, are being worn.

I don't think I could cope with Glastonbury wearing a mask for five days. I might have to give up my ticket rather than have a weird fucked up, apocalypse Glasto.

 

 

I was thinking just in the smaller indoor venues? 

I think I only spend about 5% of my festival indoors anywhere on a given year. 

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, stuartbert two hats said:

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm thinking that if we still need masks by then, it's off.

FWIW, masks are a big thing here finally. They're mandatory (although not enforced) in the shops and for the most part, are being worn.

I don't think I could cope with Glastonbury wearing a mask for five days. I might have to give up my ticket rather than have a weird fucked up, apocalypse Glasto.

 

 

could you do indoor spaces like tents in one ? and not outdoors ? I think thats workable for me ? I know im pretty used  to wearing mine now though 

[whitehorses]

I tend to think if it’s to run they will:

- implement some physical changes to appease public health folk. Removing most risky venues for example and replacing with similar capacity outdoor venues.

- big public hygiene push, like we saw with re usable plastic in 2019. Hand wash EVERYWHERE 

- Not resell any returned tickets and reduce the freeloader tickets.

- Go big on encouraging people to stay in bubbles. 

- Get people to present a negative test at the gate.

A combo of that kind of stuff and it will be a goer I reckon. After this winter of discontent that’s coming I think we’ll all need Glastonbury and their ilk...