What is your arrival strategy ?

[jow95]

16 hours ago, Toilet Duck said:

Another vote for the simplicity of strolling in at your leisure and camping in lime kiln (though it’s getting busier). I could arrive any time and know where our group will be camped as we’ve been in the same place since 2009 (well, that year wicket ground wasn’t family camping so we were lower down the hill). 

This was our camp on the Sunday in 2017, still plenty of room (though definitely more popular than it was)

Mega walk back from Shangri-La at 5am  if you're that way inclined though. 

[FestiHead]

Nearly every year I've done - Tuesday night, get to Bristol or Bath and stay in a hotel > Weds morning up super early and get a coach. Our campspot is Oxlyers so always like to establish the tent village nice and early. Never seemed to have a huge problem with the coach drop off at Ped Gate A + the resulting queue. Longest I've queued must be 2 hours.

[Crazyfool01]

need a change of approach its been a few years since. we've done GA  tickets so not quite sure how we did it before 🙂 

[Toilet Duck]

11 minutes ago, jow95 said:

Mega walk back from Shangri-La at 5am  if you're that way inclined though. 

Oh it's a trek from anywhere on the south side of the festival, but to be honest, I am generally more focussed on putting one foot in front of the other at that stage and eventually I end up in my tent! 

[The Nal]

35 minutes ago, jow95 said:

Mega walk back from Shangri-La at 5am  if you're that way inclined though. 

I'm not as its been sh*t for the last decade. 

Long walks in the middle of the night can be the highlight of the festival though. You always meet someone interesting.

[Skip997]

10 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Long walks in the middle of the night can be the highlight of the festival though. You always meet someone interesting.

Very true

But less true than in the 80's/90's/early 2000's

[gherkin8r]

2022 I arrived Tuesday night and queued from about 11 by myself as wanted to get big tent pitched in a good spot in family camping. Will be doing same again this year only this time I won't bring the tent and all the gear for the zigzags as I nearly died and lost my position in the process. Will be queueing light this year and returning to car for stuff after I get my wrist band.

[gooner1990]

1 hour ago, Crazyfool01 said:

need a change of approach its been a few years since. we've done GA  tickets so not quite sure how we did it before 🙂 

Same...my last GA ticket was 2017!

[The Nal]

37 minutes ago, gherkin8r said:

2022 I arrived Tuesday night and queued from about 11 by myself as wanted to get big tent pitched in a good spot in family camping. Will be doing same again this year only this time I won't bring the tent and all the gear for the zigzags as I nearly died and lost my position in the process. Will be queueing light this year and returning to car for stuff after I get my wrist band.

Could you not just stroll into Wicket Ground at lunchtime?

[gooner1990]

I'm fairly sure people on here said a lot of the areas that traditionally took longer to fill up on the West/South West of the site filled up a lot faster in 2023.......any one with first hand experience care to comment?

[gherkin8r]

1 hour ago, The Nal said:

Could you not just stroll into Wicket Ground at lunchtime?

Possibly but wasn't taking any chances 

[dotdash79]

 

2 hours ago, The Nal said:

Could you not just stroll into Wicket Ground at lunchtime?

My brother and family stays in wicket he arrived at 9pm on the Wednesday and had a sh*t ton of room.

[The Nal]

1 minute ago, dotdash79 said:

 

My brother and family stays in wicket he arrived at 9pm on the Wednesday and had a sh*t ton of room.

There was loads of room there all weekend. There were kids playing football down at the bottom part.

[Dark Star]

3 hours ago, The Nal said:

Could you not just stroll into Wicket Ground at lunchtime?

Is Wicket all family camping now? That always used to be a great spot. 

That said, none of us can guarantee anything til we see the map, they seem to give over more real estate to hospitality/crew etc. every year. 

[Skip997]

3 minutes ago, Dark Star said:

Is Wicket all family camping now? That always used to be a great spot. 

That said, none of us can guarantee anything til we see the map, they seem to give over more real estate to hospitality/crew etc. every year. 

Re crew, exactly the opposite is happening. For example Glade crew being moved out somewhere near Red Gate, some Green Fields crew being told that there camper vans/caravans would be sited in Bath and West if we ran out of room in the Green Fields and Oxfam outside the fence.

Hospitality can "do one", but crew should be sited as close as possible to where they work.

[gherkin8r]

Might well consider that this year then. Good info. Was 2022 one of the first years Wicket became family camping?

[Dark Star]

14 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

Re crew, exactly the opposite is happening. For example Glade crew being moved out somewhere near Red Gate, some Green Fields crew being told that there camper vans/caravans would be sited in Bath and West if we ran out of room in the Green Fields and Oxfam outside the fence.

Hospitality can "do one", but crew should be sited as close as possible to where they work.

Oh 100% they should! It's not always clear when walking around what's been allocated to what, just that it's not available any more! 

[dicko_belfast]

Hi All - getting so excited for next year now reading these forums. Haven't been since 2017 so can't wait! 

Just 2 of us going this time, our flight gets in to Bristol at 9.45am on the Wednesday then will have to get supplies somewhere and head down. Previously there was more of us so we shared a taxi, perhaps people on here might want to pool also? Otherwise we will book a coach. 

For the previous posters regarding later arrivals, if we arrive mid/later afternoon on the Weds would there be any particular campsites we should consider that will still have space? I'm not even sure what pedestrian gate the coach drops us off at? 

Any guidance is much appreciated! 🙂

[Crazyfool01]

20 minutes ago, dicko_belfast said:

Hi All - getting so excited for next year now reading these forums. Haven't been since 2017 so can't wait! 

Just 2 of us going this time, our flight gets in to Bristol at 9.45am on the Wednesday then will have to get supplies somewhere and head down. Previously there was more of us so we shared a taxi, perhaps people on here might want to pool also? Otherwise we will book a coach. 

For the previous posters regarding later arrivals, if we arrive mid/later afternoon on the Weds would there be any particular campsites we should consider that will still have space? I'm not even sure what pedestrian gate the coach drops us off at? 

Any guidance is much appreciated! 🙂

You’ll be entering gate A the nearest campsite darble should be a safe bet as you get through the gate … but it also depends a little on what you like to get up to … it’s 15mins walk to pyramid stage from there I’d say but the furthest point sec is 45 mins plus . Torts guide is a pretty handy lookup for camping 

[Leyrulion]

1 hour ago, Skip997 said:

Re crew, exactly the opposite is happening. For example Glade crew being moved out somewhere near Red Gate, some Green Fields crew being told that there camper vans/caravans would be sited in Bath and West if we ran out of room in the Green Fields and Oxfam outside the fence.

Hospitality can "do one", but crew should be sited as close as possible to where they work.

The fence line was expanded this year and a massive amount of new crew camping space created, pylon ground isn't customer camping anymore. So I thought more camping was going inside the fence.

They have to make trade offs obviously but I know it all kicked off in 22 with local groups being nowhere nearby their areas. I thought with the pylon changes and back of arcadia being production now they'd solved a lot of the issues. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Leyrulion]

33 minutes ago, dicko_belfast said:

For the previous posters regarding later arrivals, if we arrive mid/later afternoon on the Weds would there be any particular campsites we should consider that will still have space? I'm not even sure what pedestrian gate the coach drops us off at? 

When you arrive there are campsite caravans with stewards with big maps that show you what's full and what isn't. They'll direct you. They're usually a little conservative, got told Oxlyers was 95% full in 22 at 11am and went in and found enough space for probably 5 or 6 4 man tents.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Leyrulion

[dicko_belfast]

9 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

You’ll be entering gate A the nearest campsite darble should be a safe bet as you get through the gate … but it also depends a little on what you like to get up to … it’s 15mins walk to pyramid stage from there I’d say but the furthest point sec is 45 mins plus . Torts guide is a pretty handy lookup for camping 

Thank you! Oh yeah I remember reading torts guide on previous visits, will check that out again. We will be doing a bit of everything and anything really, probably not partying as hard as we used to be able to do! 

[Crazyfool01]

2 minutes ago, dicko_belfast said:

Thank you! Oh yeah I remember reading torts guide on previous visits, will check that out again. We will be doing a bit of everything and anything really, probably not partying as hard as we used to be able to do! 

Is all a bit of a balance as to how far you want to carry kit vs how far you mind walking home … but with one tent that should make things a bit easier if you want to go a bit closer … there should also be stewards close to gate a who can advise 

[Skip997]

3 minutes ago, Leyrulion said:

The fence line was expanded this year and a massive amount of new crew camping space created, pylon ground isn't customer camping anymore. So I thought more camping was going inside the fence.

They have to make trade offs obviously but I know it all kicked off in 22 with local groups being nowhere nearby their areas. I thought with the pylon changes and back of arcadia being production now they'd solved a lot of the issues.

I'm only really familiar with SE corner and Green Fields crew camping. My info re Glade crew camping comes from a friend.

I didn't hear of any Green Fields crew being sited in Bath and West, but we did get told it may happen.

Shangri-La had issues with fitting all their lot in this year, but that's partly due to people turning up early with big vans/trucks/buses/caravans and making sure they have plenty of room and partly due to them having no volunteers organising the parking.  Plus it's a tricky field as it's on a significant slope.

We always manage to fit everyone into Dragon Field, but that's mostly due to us being really organised and on the ball.

[Twiggy553]

Campervan East Quiet. Usually just rock up around Wednes lunchtime. I’m pretty fit so don’t mind the walk to get on site too much

Edited November 21, 2023 by Twiggy553