'Festival may be forced to lower capacity'

[musky]

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/30/glastonbury-festival-may-forced-lower-capacity-combat-illegal/

It's behind a paywall so I can't read it all, but I assuming this is BS.

This seems to be referring to the council discussion over front of house drugs testing  (reported a few days ago).

The police nor council do not have access to the number of drugs seized by security, so someone simply commented that an increase in security or a reduction in numbers attending the festival would affect the figures for the number of seizures.

That appears to be where this story has come from. I've not read anywhere that anybody at the meeting actually called for a reduction of capacity. Not sure how soon MDC publishes the minutes of their meetings and can't see it online yet, but if anyone has access to the full article pease post it up.

Edited October 31, 2022 by musky

[henry bear]

Glastonbury Festival could be required to sell fewer tickets in the future as part of plans to tackle drug use by festival goers, it has been suggested.

Police and councillors want Somerset's world-famous Worthy Farm event to release its drug seizure figures as they are not made public each year.

Police currently arrest people within the festival site for supplying or attempting to supply drugs.

While these figures are recorded within the official police statistics, information about drugs dropped into amnesty bins or seized by festival security staff does not form part of official police investigations.

During a licensing board meeting at Mendip District Council, Cllr Simon Carswell said that having more security staff on-site - or selling fewer tickets - would lead to more drugs being seized.

Cllr Francis Hayden added that he favoured front-of-house testing at festivals, where people could get drugs tested before entering to ensure they were safe.

Pete Collins, drug expert lead at Avon and Somerset Constabulary, told the meeting: “The festival uses the services of a licensed private company to carry out what they call back-of-house testing there.

“Believe it or not, but the seizure of drugs is not something that's disclosed to us - the data is owned by the Glastonbury Festival.”

Ticket price increases

Andy Battle, the Glastonbury Festival head of security, had told the board in April that he did not believe such an approach would be effective.

Changes to the licence, which includes a management plan aimed at keeping attendees, is set to be discussed at its next meeting in February but is not expected to affect ticketing for next year's festival.

Glastonbury Festival is set to return from June 21 to 25 2023, with tickets - which usually sell out in minutes - to go on sale on November 6.

Organisers have confirmed standard entry will cost £340 - £335 plus a £5 booking fee - with a £50 deposit, marking a large increase from the last time tickets went on sale in 2019.

They cost £265 plus the booking fee for the 2020 festival which was postponed due to the pandemic before making its triumphant return for its 50th anniversary this summer.

The previous year's entry tickets cost even less at £248, plus a £5 booking fee.

The line-up for the 2023 festival has yet to be revealed but Robbie Williams recently told the BBC that he would like to fill the legends slot.

Roxy Music has been rumoured to be filling the Sunday tea-time legends slot.

[Neil]

13 minutes ago, musky said:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/10/30/glastonbury-festival-may-forced-lower-capacity-combat-illegal/

It's behind a paywall so I can't read it all, but I assuming this is BS.

This seems to be referring to the council discussion over front of house drugs testing  (reported a few days ago).

The police nor council do not have access to the number of drugs seized by security, so someone simply commented that an increase in security or a reduction in numbers attending the festival would affect the figures for the number of seizures.

That appears to be where this story has come from. I've not read anywhere that anybody at the meeting actually called for a reduction of capacity. Not sure how soon MDC publishes the minutes of their meetings and can't see it online yet, but if anyone has access to the full article pease post it up.

Licensing board considers imposing limits to pay for extra security at world-famous music festival

madness, fewer punters equals less money for security.

[musky]

6 minutes ago, henry bear said:

Glastonbury Festival could be required to sell fewer tickets in the future as part of plans to tackle drug use by festival goers, it has been suggested.

Police and councillors want Somerset's world-famous Worthy Farm event to release its drug seizure figures as they are not made public each year.

Police currently arrest people within the festival site for supplying or attempting to supply drugs.

While these figures are recorded within the official police statistics, information about drugs dropped into amnesty bins or seized by festival security staff does not form part of official police investigations.

During a licensing board meeting at Mendip District Council, Cllr Simon Carswell said that having more security staff on-site - or selling fewer tickets - would lead to more drugs being seized.

Cllr Francis Hayden added that he favoured front-of-house testing at festivals, where people could get drugs tested before entering to ensure they were safe.

Pete Collins, drug expert lead at Avon and Somerset Constabulary, told the meeting: “The festival uses the services of a licensed private company to carry out what they call back-of-house testing there.

“Believe it or not, but the seizure of drugs is not something that's disclosed to us - the data is owned by the Glastonbury Festival.”

Ticket price increases

Andy Battle, the Glastonbury Festival head of security, had told the board in April that he did not believe such an approach would be effective.

Changes to the licence, which includes a management plan aimed at keeping attendees, is set to be discussed at its next meeting in February but is not expected to affect ticketing for next year's festival.

Glastonbury Festival is set to return from June 21 to 25 2023, with tickets - which usually sell out in minutes - to go on sale on November 6.

Organisers have confirmed standard entry will cost £340 - £335 plus a £5 booking fee - with a £50 deposit, marking a large increase from the last time tickets went on sale in 2019.

They cost £265 plus the booking fee for the 2020 festival which was postponed due to the pandemic before making its triumphant return for its 50th anniversary this summer.

The previous year's entry tickets cost even less at £248, plus a £5 booking fee.

The line-up for the 2023 festival has yet to be revealed but Robbie Williams recently told the BBC that he would like to fill the legends slot.

Roxy Music has been rumoured to be filling the Sunday tea-time legends slot.

That's interesting because the BBC reported that it was Mr Collins that made the comment about attendees and security numbers in reply to Cllr Carswell's suggestion that the number of drugs seizures by the festival should be released. It appears he was just reminding the councillors that the raw stats don't reveal too much.

[Nestacres]

Well they should lower the capacity back to what it shuld have been in 2022 before they let loads more people in

[Neil]

2 minutes ago, Nestacres said:

Well they should lower the capacity back to what it shuld have been in 2022 before they let loads more people in

busy points is less about the numbers, and more about the management of the numbers.

glasto are quite proactive, and will most likely already have better strategies for what were the pinch points this year.

[Xeph1995]

People doing drugs at a music festival.. well I never. 

Really hope this doesn't amount to anything, I love the grand size of the festival, feels like your at a city. 

The war on drugs is boring, time to decriminalise and offer free testing to users everywhere for better safety. 

Edited October 31, 2022 by Xeph1995

[TheGoodWillOut]

hugs not drugs

[leath02]

Swear these articles come about most years

[gfa]

11 minutes ago, Xeph1995 said:

People doing drugs at a music festival.. well I never. 

Really hope this doesn't amount to anything, I love the grand size of the festival, feels like your at a city. 

The war on drugs is boring, time to decriminalise and offer free testing to users everywhere for better safety. 

Sounds to me the glasto head of security is the key person stopping it and not the local council

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

Bit of a boring article. Lots of 'he said, she said' stuff.

I was wondering about this the other day though, did Glastonbury ever invite the drug testing stands, the ones where you can rock up and give over a bit of your gear to check how pure or dodgy it was?

[Muppetmark]

Just now, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

Bit of a boring article. Lots of 'he said, she said' stuff.

I was wondering about this the other day though, did Glastonbury ever invite the drug testing stands, the ones where you can rock up and give over a bit of your gear to check how pure or dodgy it was?

If I remember correctly the council doesn't want that because it would "encourage" drug use 

[stuie]

1 minute ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

Bit of a boring article. Lots of 'he said, she said' stuff.

I was wondering about this the other day though, did Glastonbury ever invite the drug testing stands, the ones where you can rock up and give over a bit of your gear to check how pure or dodgy it was?

Apparently both the police and the council were against The Loop doing front of house testing at Glasto.

[gfa]

11 minutes ago, Muppetmark said:

If I remember correctly the council doesn't want that because it would "encourage" drug use 

Councillor in this article says he is not opposed.

2 hours ago, henry bear said:

Cllr Francis Hayden added that he favoured front-of-house testing at festivals, where people could get drugs tested before entering to ensure they were safe.

 

[philipsteak]

Sure I remember seeing The Loop or someone with a stall somewhere. Not actually testing (weren't allowed) just advising

[TorontoScot]

1 hour ago, TheGoodWillOut said:

hugs not drugs

hugs AND drugs

[Joshuwarr]

The Chair of the Council's Licensing Board is a friend so I'll see what they say but you'll likely find out at the same time. Always a bit dubious of these kinds of reports though.

[morph100]

I save this paywall remover https://12ft.io to my Home Screen, comes in handy 

[incident]

1 hour ago, stuie said:

Apparently both the police and the council were against The Loop doing front of house testing at Glasto.

Unfortunately, at this point in time, none of the Police, the Council, or the Festival or any combination thereof are in a position to bring in FOH testing regardless of how much they want to so it's a completely academic question until there's a change in policy from central government.

It's not got nearly the publicity it deserves (I suspect that The Loop are trying to play the political game quietly rather than make waves) but Boomtown and every other English Festival that The Loop attend have stopped doing FOH testing. The last time their FOH testing service actually went ahead was 2018, because of pressure from our wonderful government to stop it happening. I doubt we'll see FOH testing return anywhere until the legal situation has been cleared up.

[stuie]

3 minutes ago, incident said:

Unfortunately, at this point in time, none of the Police, the Council, or the Festival or any combination thereof are in a position to bring in FOH testing regardless of how much they want to so it's a completely academic question until there's a change in policy from central government.

It's not got nearly the publicity it deserves (I suspect that The Loop are trying to play the political game quietly rather than make waves) but Boomtown and every other English Festival that The Loop attend have stopped doing FOH testing. The last time their FOH testing service actually went ahead was 2018, because of pressure from our wonderful government to stop it happening. I doubt we'll see FOH testing return anywhere until the legal situation has been cleared up.

Thanks for the info - I wasn't aware of that.  What a step backwards! 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

1 hour ago, Muppetmark said:

If I remember correctly the council doesn't want that because it would "encourage" drug use 

 

1 hour ago, stuie said:

Apparently both the police and the council were against The Loop doing front of house testing at Glasto.

Can't believe that, seems like such a good way of allowing what goes on a chance at being risk free. 

[Avalon_Fields]

The basic premise, lowering the capacity to better enforce drug control, is fantasy. If it was a viable method, they'd have to reduced the numbers significantly, which would make the festival bankrupt. Still, maybe that's their aim...

[clasher]

3 hours ago, Xeph1995 said:

The war on drugs is boring

I find their sound to be nice, although it is a case of "heard one song, heard all of them".

[4AssedMonkey]

"Torygraph may be forced to tell lies for clicks to generate ad revenue."

[gfa]

2 hours ago, incident said:

I doubt we'll see FOH testing return anywhere until the legal situation has been cleared up.

On this note though, the Welsh Government runs their own testing service, detailed here:

https://www.wedinos.org/

Not front of house but a good system nonetheless.