What is your arrival strategy ?

[jamesrfisher]

5 hours ago, btizzle said:

Any idea which way your best coming in to the site to get near gate D? Will be arriving early on the Tuesday afternoon and hoping to camp up at oxlyers like normal but we ended up walking from gate A last year and it was a right trek. Need to save my knees!

I now use A303 and at the Travelodge Yeovil roundabout take the A372 exit, not the A37. 

Then B3151 to Street, through Street to the A39 to and through Glastonbury

[PocketTim]

First time was 2017 with my best mate. 
 

Arrived east gate by car because I live about 10 minutes from it and would have had to drive too far out to come back in another direction. Walk from the car park and all the way through the CV fields was a killer. Then followed squeaky bum time as my mate was coming in with with an artists ticket despite being an IT administrator in Wiltshire 🙂

Thankfully he got through but then the real pain began. It was Friday afternoon and pretty much every campsite was rammed. Must have walked for an hour trying to find somewhere, and our hands were already fucked by carrying our tents and stuff when we got to the wristband area so the rest of the way was absolute agony. Ended up losing my rubber mallet somehow as well and the ground was rock hard so the pegs were not fun. 
 

Ended up finding a spot in Darble. Cracking open that first tinny while sat in the camp chair however melted all the woes away pretty damn quickly. 
 

This year I’m coming with my wife and although she has been eligible for local tickets most of her life (not anymore for some reason as our village was weirdly excluded about 7 years ago despite being really close to Pilton) it’s her first time. 
 

We’ll be coming in east side again just due to how close we are, but it’ll be Wednesday about 1-2pm so I’m expecting slightly better camping results. I’m also bringing a sack trolley which if the weather is good I’ll bring with me on the first run, otherwise we’ll pitch and go back. My wife is nervous about being without some home comforts so we’re bringing a lot more stuff and she’s half the size my mate is so can’t carry as much. It’ll be interesting. 
 

Camping we haven’t really decided. I’m tempted by Hitchin Hill despite it being quite a walk from the gate we’re coming in on. I met some people up there last time and really like the spot. There’s something about having the fence to my back I’d find comforting. 
 

 

[gooner1990]

Bumping this as I have a GA ticket (that's not on the coach) for the first time since 2017! 🙂 

[JayBoogie]

On 4/21/2023 at 1:05 PM, Fishinginthelongdrops said:

For me, the festival is at its best once everyone has acclimatised and begin to act differently than they might in the outside world. Queueing for hours and scrambling for a camping spot are behaviours I associate with the outside world that I’m escaping for a few beautiful days.

An old post but I love this, never thought of it that way

We've got the earliest coach from London on the Weds, so hopefully we get a swift departure, a kind queue and can pace it over to Pennards

[gooner1990]

My main question here is for those that came in via car this year......I'm going to try and get on the PGA/PGD side of the site.....the last few years I've come in on coach and friends who've queued overnight have got us a camping spot in Paines/behind the park.

This year they aren't going, there's  four of us coming down from Oxford together so my question is that given the campsites filled more quickly this year did anyone manage to get in Paines by arriving slightly later when the queues to get in (PGD) had died down or will we have to be in the queue by 6-7am?

[stuie]

30 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

My main question here is for those that came in via car this year......I'm going to try and get on the PGA/PGD side of the site.....the last few years I've come in on coach and friends who've queued overnight have got us a camping spot in Paines/behind the park.

This year they aren't going, there's  four of us coming down from Oxford together so my question is that given the campsites filled more quickly this year did anyone manage to get in Paines by arriving slightly later when the queues to get in (PGD) had died down or will we have to be in the queue by 6-7am?

Paines, Pennard, Park Home and Oxylers are the prime real estate of the South - they start to fill as soon as gates open.  If there's only a couple of you then you might be OK arriving later but more than a couple you'll probably end up in South Park.

[gooner1990]

2 minutes ago, stuie said:

Paines, Pennard, Park Home and Oxylers are the prime real estate of the South - they start to fill as soon as gates open.  If there's only a couple of you then you might be OK arriving later but more than a couple you'll probably end up in South Park.

Yep...feared as such.

There's going to be four of us, and possibly a couple extra once they decide who they are camping with.....

Last time I came in on GA ticket that wasn't on a coach was 2017 , luckily for me the GA ticket holders that came by car in our group got the camping spot sorted early doors.

I think will try to go for a 6am arrival at PGD and hope for the best!

[stuie]

8 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Yep...feared as such.

There's going to be four of us, and possibly a couple extra once they decide who they are camping with.....

Last time I came in on GA ticket that wasn't on a coach was 2017 , luckily for me the GA ticket holders that came by car in our group got the camping spot sorted early doors.

I think will try to go for a 6am arrival at PGD and hope for the best!

Tbh, I think that's reasonable and you should be OK. 

It should be obvious how busy it looks when you get through PGD - there's a campsite hub there too, but they may tell you it's full when it's not really!

[Franky]

1 hour ago, gooner1990 said:

My main question here is for those that came in via car this year......I'm going to try and get on the PGA/PGD side of the site.....the last few years I've come in on coach and friends who've queued overnight have got us a camping spot in Paines/behind the park.

This year they aren't going, there's  four of us coming down from Oxford together so my question is that given the campsites filled more quickly this year did anyone manage to get in Paines by arriving slightly later when the queues to get in (PGD) had died down or will we have to be in the queue by 6-7am?

I got to the car park at roughly 6am this year, left from Buckinghamshire, our camp site is just next to PGD, as I got to the fork for PGD and PGA they closed D off and sent me to A........ Damn near killed me the walk from A

 

Yesterday as soon as I secured my ticket I booked a hotel 30 mins from site for Tuesday night. I will be in PGD queue early this year lol

[gooner1990]

8 minutes ago, Franky said:

I got to the car park at roughly 6am this year, left from Buckinghamshire, our camp site is just next to PGD, as I got to the fork for PGD and PGA they closed D off and sent me to A........ Damn near killed me the walk from A

 

Yesterday as soon as I secured my ticket I booked a hotel 30 mins from site for Tuesday night. I will be in PGD queue early this year lol

Which hotel did you book? Podimore Travelodge is already £250 for the Tuesday night. 😞 

[The Nal]

Should be arriving at 3pm ish at PGA. Will set up in Lime Kiln and miss the morning sillyness.

[Franky]

5 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Which hotel did you book? Podimore Travelodge is already £250 for the Tuesday night. 😞 

Not that one lol, can't say yet as still might have mates looking to book.

[foolee]

Watching Foos on the Tuesday night in Cardiff and the other half works in education so if she’s lucky won’t get down until Thursday night so think I’ll head home Wednesday morning and look at getting a national express early doors to set up camp. It’s just two of us though so shouldn’t be too much of a problem finding a spot. Does anyone know if the national express coaches go to the same point as the Glasto coach sale and if you arrive morning or towards midday how long the wait to get in is? 

[The Nal]

1 minute ago, foolee said:

Watching Foos on the Tuesday night in Cardiff and the other half works in education so if she’s lucky won’t get down until Thursday night so think I’ll head home Wednesday morning and look at getting a national express early doors to set up camp. It’s just two of us though so shouldn’t be too much of a problem finding a spot. Does anyone know if the national express coaches go to the same point as the Glasto coach sale and if you arrive morning or towards midday how long the wait to get in is? 

The wait is anywhere from 1 to 7 hours depending on what a mess they make of it. 

So you could be there at 6am and be set up at 3pm or arrive at 3pm when theres no queue and be set up by 4.30pm. 

[foolee]

1 hour ago, The Nal said:

The wait is anywhere from 1 to 7 hours depending on what a mess they make of it. 

So you could be there at 6am and be set up at 3pm or arrive at 3pm when theres no queue and be set up by 4.30pm. 

Yeah that’s fair. In 2019 we got the coach and arrived on site at around 7/8ish and it only took us 2-3 hours to get through which I didn’t think was too bad for the size of the fest. 

[northernringo]

26 minutes ago, foolee said:

Yeah that’s fair. In 2019 we got the coach and arrived on site at around 7/8ish and it only took us 2-3 hours to get through which I didn’t think was too bad for the size of the fest. 

Similar sort of timings for me in 2022. I think our coach left Bristol around 7.30/8am and once we arrived it took us 2 hours I think to get in.

Edited November 20, 2023 by northernringo

[stuie]

2 hours ago, foolee said:

Watching Foos on the Tuesday night in Cardiff and the other half works in education so if she’s lucky won’t get down until Thursday night so think I’ll head home Wednesday morning and look at getting a national express early doors to set up camp. It’s just two of us though so shouldn’t be too much of a problem finding a spot. Does anyone know if the national express coaches go to the same point as the Glasto coach sale and if you arrive morning or towards midday how long the wait to get in is? 

All coaches go to the festival bus station outside Gate A. 

Expect to wait 1-2 hours to get in when you arrive.

2 hours ago, The Nal said:

The wait is anywhere from 1 to 7 hours depending on what a mess they make of it. 

So you could be there at 6am and be set up at 3pm or arrive at 3pm when theres no queue and be set up by 4.30pm. 

As far as I'm aware, the only time it's ever been close to 7 hours was in 2017 after the Manchester Arena bombing and that was for security reasons.

[Barneym]

5 minutes ago, northernringo said:

Similar sort of timings for me in 2022. I think our coach left Bristol around 7.30/8am and once we arrived it took us 2 hours I think to get in.

Last year PGA queue at 9.40 (6am London coach) tent all set up and beer in hand 12.51 according to my photos 

[Scrump]

We're a group of 4 coming from a whole load of different locations..Devon,London, Sussex and Netherlands!

I'm pretty certain I'm going to get a NE coach for ease but have no idea how we're going to coordinate meeting to set up our camp. 

Anyone with previous in this area?

[The Nal]

8 minutes ago, stuie said:

As far as I'm aware, the only time it's ever been close to 7 hours was in 2017 after the Manchester Arena bombing and that was for security reasons.

2009 was about 5-6 hours. 2017 was 6-7 hours. 2019 was a shambles at Gate A with Gate D empty - after they told eeryone to go to A. Tens of thousands of people there (me included) for 5-6 hours until the news came that Gate D was now empty.

So why bother. Just stroll in at your own pace when the crowd dies down.

[gooner1990]

Just now, The Nal said:

2009 was about 5-6 hours. 2017 was 6-7 hours. 2019 was a shambles at Gate A with Gate D empty - after they told eeryone to go to A. Tens of thousands of people there (me included) for 5-6 hours until the news came that Gate D was now empty.

So why bother. Just stroll in at your own pace when the crowd dies down.

I'm tempted to do this, but don't want to end up camped right out by the fence....

[The Nal]

Just now, gooner1990 said:

I'm tempted to do this, but don't want to end up camped right out by the fence....

Thats where I always camp anyway. Michaels Mead, Hitchin Hill, Lime Kiln. 

[aj6658]

First time coming on Thursday with a Coach - gonna have to negotiate people taking our tent or take whatever we can

[gooner1990]

1 minute ago, The Nal said:

Thats where I always camp anyway. Michaels Mead, Hitchin Hill, Lime Kiln. 

May pick your brains closer to the time about how that is during the festival...!

[foolee]

Does Darble fill up quickly? Like we got a space easily arriving early however if I were to get in late afternoon/evening Wednesday would there still be a spot?