Glastonbury 2022 - overcrowding rumours & thoughts

[CaledonianGonzo]

A boogie at the back is an underrated experience.

[Zoo Music Girl]

47 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

A boogie at the back is an underrated experience.

Or even in the middle. I find it doesn't get really packed until quite close to the front for most acts at G.

[Neville Street]

1 hour ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

Or even in the middle. I find it doesn't get really packed until quite close to the front for most acts at G.

Agreed. Mrs NS is not a fan of close packed crowds but she led me through to our spots for Billie E, Macca and PSBs this year. All 3 were within 5-10m of the outer barrier (at Pyramid, between/in front of sound desks). Room to shuffle around and have a great time.

We may well end up calling 2022 the year of the thick “crowd crust”. Even at DiRo we had loads of space but had to break out of crowd crust due to disappointment 😂

[gooner1990]

This guy mentions the crowds at the back being more dense as well

 

 

[Suprefan]

Yeah, the being there to be there thing is pretty much part of it now. Thus the 30 min sellouts. As much as people want to deny there isnt any sort of clout chasing and such at Glasto, there very much is, and it starts with T day.

[prog seller]

Someone on the Glasto Gals group on FB mentioned the tunnel. 🤣

[p.pete]

10 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

This guy mentions the crowds at the back being more dense as well

 

 

Haha - 5 things he hates: #1 it's too big (but people creating a wall at the back stops you getting into sweet-spots to see bands); #2 people are too old; #3 too many of the people are hippies / how hippies behave; #4 there are too many people; #5 too many people just there for drugs - sooooo, not a people person then!  

Good video then, and he says he's already done a video on the things he loves, so fair enough.

[Watergirl]

On 7/13/2022 at 9:17 PM, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

It's a problem because Glastonbury is so much bigger than Roskilde. If you want to get to the Park and you get turned out towards John Peel then you have a hell of a journey to get there, as well as potentially creating pinch points as everyone tries to get into the pit on the left side going into the pit. For popular acts this could cause even more problems than it solves.

Whilst not as big as Glastonbury, Roskilde is rather massive too.  About 170,000, including artists and volunteers. Just a matter of walking the long way around, which I would do if I really wanted to see an act. It's not really a pinching point to get in. People queue and wait for the green light.

[Leyrulion]

On 7/13/2022 at 12:51 PM, LetsGoToMars said:

These videos from an Oasis gig at 2005 show how scarily a densely packed crowd can act like a fluid, and if you're stuck in it you've got no control at all.

It's scary how the force of the crowd was powerful enough to break the barrier - they had to stop the gig and spent 20 mins repairing it before they could continue

Although nobody was hurt, it does look very uncomfortable indeed.

 

 

 

 

On 7/13/2022 at 9:08 PM, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

This looks like something I would like to avoid... How many people are in the crowd during the surge? Looks like total madness.

With the crowd break and the diversity of the crowds at the Pyramid, I would hope it would never get this bad.

 

On 7/13/2022 at 9:14 PM, Zoo Music Girl said:

Videos like this give me the absolute fear these days. I never used to think twice about getting right into the thick of it when I was a teenager, usually getting crushed against the barrier by everyone behind me for the whole set. I've no idea how I found that fun but being at the front was all-important! 

Bit different to the Glastonbury issues though because the crushes people have talked about are not in front of stages but more when people are trying to move around the site? From what I've seen anyway. 

Worth resharing this article on what to do in a crowd crush.

https://theconversation.com/ten-tips-for-surviving-a-crowd-crush-112169

And the follow up

https://www.npr.org/2021/11/09/1053828800/astroworld-travis-scott-crowd-safety-tips?t=1657837240229

 

Tl:Dr

1)Be aware of surroundings,leave before it gets bad, people touching both shoulders= time to leave

If it's too late to leave:

2)Stay standing, don't put bags down

3) Save your breath, don't scream

4) Arms at chest level

5) Go with the flow

6) Avoid barriers

 

 

 

[Skip997]

9 hours ago, Leyrulion said:

Tl:Dr

1)Be aware of surroundings,leave before it gets bad, people touching both shoulders= time to leave

If you can only see the heads of people in front of you it's overcrowded.  Head and shoulders it's okay.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

12 hours ago, Watergirl said:

Whilst not as big as Glastonbury, Roskilde is rather massive too.  About 170,000, including artists and volunteers. Just a matter of walking the long way around, which I would do if I really wanted to see an act. It's not really a pinching point to get in. People queue and wait for the green light.

The numbers might be close-ish on paper, but they're still lacking an extra 40k people. What I meant more like is that the festival site is not as big. It's tiny in fact compared to Glastonbury. They only have like 8 stages/tents, and the distances between these are smaller, it's a very "static" crowd, wherby a lot of people are within the same small area most of the time.

I don't think a traffic light system would work out to the same effect in this case.

[DeanoL]

People would just have to adapt. If it was really important you got away quickly at the end of the set to see something else, then you'd just not go in front of the barrier. As you'd know you'd come out the wrong side.

I'm not sure it would take much longer in practice though. You end up doing a little loop through San Remo and BBC Introducing, but you know you're moving in the direction of the crowd, rather than trying to push through people trying to get in that way. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

It's making something worse in the name of "fixing" a non-existent issue.  I've been to festivals with one way systems and turnstiles into the pit and it's absolutely ghastly.

[tarw]

21 hours ago, DeanoL said:

People would just have to adapt. If it was really important you got away quickly at the end of the set to see something else, then you'd just not go in front of the barrier. As you'd know you'd come out the wrong side.

I'm not sure it would take much longer in practice though. You end up doing a little loop through San Remo and BBC Introducing, but you know you're moving in the direction of the crowd, rather than trying to push through people trying to get in that way. 

It would just lead to more congestion at pinch points.  

At the moment to get from Other to pyramid there are two main routes, the Leftfield side or the Silver Haynes side.  

A one way entry to the pit would force all of the traffic one route and lead to a worse problem.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Just now, tarw said:

It would just lead to more congestion at pinch points.  

At the moment to get from Other to pyramid there are two main routes, the Leftfield side or the Silver Haynes side.  

A one way entry to the pit would force all of the traffic one route and lead to a worse problem.

But it would fix the current crisis where people exiting the pit have to watch out and sometimes step aside for people entering it.

[jimmillen]

It’s very difficult for the festival as this discussion shows.

Sure there are issues with the current setup, but at least they’re known issues and both the festival & punters have some idea what to expect. To introduce anything different like one way systems could easily make things worse… 😬

I’m glad I don’t have to make those decisions! 

[morph100]

On 7/14/2022 at 7:57 AM, prog seller said:

Someone on the Glasto Gals group on FB mentioned the tunnel. 🤣

Scouse tunnel stinks, I think it’s an urban myth and was just dodgy staff/security letting people in and scouse accents are more noticeable 

[DeanoL]

21 hours ago, tarw said:

It would just lead to more congestion at pinch points.  

At the moment to get from Other to pyramid there are two main routes, the Leftfield side or the Silver Haynes side.  

A one way entry to the pit would force all of the traffic one route and lead to a worse problem.

That's only true if everyone is aiming for the pit though, which realistically is not the case.

[tarw]

27 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

That's only true if everyone is aiming for the pit though, which realistically is not the case.

I can only speak from the experiences that I have had. 
I have never had any problems getting into or out of the pit whereas I have had problems at pinch points around the site. 
I actually find that two-way movement into out of the pit helps to get through the outer crust if done between sets. 
It could just be the music that I go and see and the demographic they attract. 
To me don’t try to fix a problem that doesn’t exist or you might create problems elsewhere 

[Revol]

Funnily enough if you google: "Glastonbury festival over crowded" there are links to a discussion held over a decade ago addressing this very issue ! What I am unclear about is that I thought the whole idea of a super fence in the aftermath of the overcrowding in the year 2000 was to drastically control numbers in order to avoid crowd fatalities as seen in the crushes in Hillsborough and at the Roskilde festival in Denmark. What in fact has happened is the fence has gone up.....and so have the numbers - up 25,000 from 2019 to 205,000.I'm sorry but the site is NOT designed for that amount of people - bearing in mind in 1992 (the site was slightly smaller) there was barely a third of that in attendance.

I'm not sure what the answer is here - perhaps make the stages larger, move the other stage right over to Shangri-La far away from the pyramid stage, reduce numbers (unlikely as festival republic are here to make as much money as possible) and extend the main walkways so as to accommodate ever growing numbers.

[briddj]

8 minutes ago, Revol said:

Funnily enough if you google: "Glastonbury festival over crowded" there are links to a discussion held over a decade ago addressing this very issue ! What I am unclear about is that I thought the whole idea of a super fence in the aftermath of the overcrowding in the year 2000 was to drastically control numbers in order to avoid crowd fatalities as seen in the crushes in Hillsborough and at the Roskilde festival in Denmark. What in fact has happened is the fence has gone up.....and so have the numbers - up 25,000 from 2019 to 205,000.I'm sorry but the site is NOT designed for that amount of people - bearing in mind in 1992 (the site was slightly smaller) there was barely a third of that in attendance.

I'm not sure what the answer is here - perhaps make the stages larger, move the other stage right over to Shangri-La far away from the pyramid stage, reduce numbers (unlikely as festival republic are here to make as much money as possible) and extend the main walkways so as to accommodate ever growing numbers.

Glastonbury Festivals split from Festival Republic in 2012.

[gooner1990]

1 hour ago, briddj said:

Glastonbury Festivals split from Festival Republic in 2012.

Melvin Benn returns to Glastonbury Management Team — Festival Forums

[briddj]

16 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Melvin Benn returns to Glastonbury Management Team — Festival Forums

Yep, not Festival Republic.

[gooner1990]

6 minutes ago, briddj said:

Yep, not Festival Republic.

Melvin Benn is Festival Republic, I'd be shocked if there wasn't some influence!

[Neil]

1 minute ago, gooner1990 said:

Melvin Benn is Festival Republic, I'd be shocked if there wasn't some influence!

no, Vince  Power is festival republic.