What is your arrival strategy ?

[blutarsky]

1 hour ago, JoeyT said:

Friends taking my tent / stuff to put up in the EC fields on Tues.

 

Do school run Weds morning then ditch car in glasto town and get the shuttle.

 

Hope to be on site by 11am with a rucksack full of beers. Avalon Inn shortly after.

Using the shuttle from the town to get in the coach queue is a good hack / green way of travelling. Maybe you could go even further and take a bike on the bus to get in the cyclist queue?

[The Clearest Blue]

On 13/05/2025 at 20:12, cidermonkey said:

Normally travel down on the National express coach from Edinburgh to the festival, decided to have a change in plan given they want almost £200 for the return trip.

 

Flying down to Bristol arriving at airport about 11pm. We have a coach booked from Bristol bus station at 4:20am so will probably hang about the airport for a couple of hours before getting the bus into Bristol bus station.

 

Does anyone know what time the bus station starts filling up on the Wednesday morning with people waiting on the coaches to the festival? Empty bus stations are generally not the nicest places to hang around during 

 

I’m doing the NatEx from Bristol bus station this year, got the 5:20am booked. Done this now four of my previous 8 festivals, I’m a ‘be there 30mins early or you’re late’ type of guy so when I arrive at the station it’s usually only a handful of festival folk, but by 5:30am there’s atleast a queue to the door in my experience. Moved quickly once the buses start going though.

[Glastonbury101]

I've been trying to work out whether it's worth risking traffic for parking over just getting the train from London (which obviously requires shuttle bus and getting to the train station). Would people say that from the parked car on the west side to South Park 2 is probably gonna be as long as from the coach terminal to South Park 2?

[incident]

44 minutes ago, Glastonbury101 said:

I've been trying to work out whether it's worth risking traffic for parking over just getting the train from London (which obviously requires shuttle bus and getting to the train station). Would people say that from the parked car on the west side to South Park 2 is probably gonna be as long as from the coach terminal to South Park 2?

 

Train from London is never the right option. If you're looking at public transport, then National Express go direct from Victoria, Wembley, Heathrow, or Stratford and so (unless you live basically across the road from Paddington) one of those will likely be much less faff.

[cheesey_toastie]

7 hours ago, Glastonbury101 said:

I've been trying to work out whether it's worth risking traffic for parking over just getting the train from London (which obviously requires shuttle bus and getting to the train station). Would people say that from the parked car on the west side to South Park 2 is probably gonna be as long as from the coach terminal to South Park 2?

Only advantage to a car is you can bring more stuff. You don't get much choice where you park - you could have a 1 mile + walk just to get to a gate. 

A coach drops you at the gate and that gate A - this usually has priority entry for coach arrivals. You'll be in quicker than a train (as you still have to get a shuttle bus from Castle Cary). 

If you're planning to only take the stuff you can carry in one go I'd go by coach. Also removes any tired driving Monday AM and is better environmentally obviously. 

[EavisAintDead]

The girls in our group are coming in later on Wednesday by car, what is the earliest you can arrive to pink car park and waltz in without having to queue these days? 12-1PM? 

[gooner1990]

12 minutes ago, EavisAintDead said:

The girls in our group are coming in later on Wednesday by car, what is the earliest you can arrive to pink car park and waltz in without having to queue these days? 12-1PM? 

 

I'm changing tactic for arrival this year to avoid lengthy queuing and I'll be aiming for a similar time.

[Twiggy553]

8 hours ago, Glastonbury101 said:

I've been trying to work out whether it's worth risking traffic for parking over just getting the train from London (which obviously requires shuttle bus and getting to the train station). Would people say that from the parked car on the west side to South Park 2 is probably gonna be as long as from the coach terminal to South Park 2?

My wife got the train one year and said the shuttle bus was horrendous in both directions.

 

The following year she got the train to Bristol and got the National Express from outside Temple Meads which she was an absolute breeze.

 

 

 

[Glastonbury101]

Thanks everyone - I guess the issue is coach is twice the price 😅

[cerv]

10 hours ago, Twiggy553 said:

My wife got the train one year and said the shuttle bus was horrendous in both directions.

 

The following year she got the train to Bristol and got the National Express from outside Temple Meads which she was an absolute breeze.

 

 

 

If you’re training from London or anywhere else with good Bristol connection this is hands down the best way to go. Indeed I think it’s the best way to go full stop. Never going back to the car.

[Glastonbury101]

So the idea is you take a train to Bristol temple meads and then you also buy a coach from temple meads to the festival site?

[Twiggy553]

58 minutes ago, Glastonbury101 said:

So the idea is you take a train to Bristol temple meads and then you also buy a coach from temple meads to the festival site?

Exactly 

[neil_d]

Won't be able to get down until the Thursday, arriving by train. Hoping there might be some space up on Lime Kiln for me and my tent.

[Powder_Finger]

Taking my mother this year, her first Glastonbury. We will be arriving at Gate A and probably camping in Darble as don't want to carry our stuff far.

Any suggestions for a good route/itinerary to take on the Wednesday/Thursday? Want to use those days to give her a tour

[Glastonbury101]

On 16/05/2025 at 16:30, Twiggy553 said:

Exactly 

Can I ask - anyone feel free to contribute - but do they actually let you get on the coach from temple meads that you've booked? I'm just wondering whether there wont be the same queues as there would be for shuttle buses at Temple Meads and then they just make you queue and you get on whenever you get on (i.e. could be a later one that you actually booked)? Just curious to hear more of your experience with it 🙂

[Quark]

On 17/05/2025 at 09:46, Powder_Finger said:

Taking my mother this year, her first Glastonbury. We will be arriving at Gate A and probably camping in Darble as don't want to carry our stuff far.

Any suggestions for a good route/itinerary to take on the Wednesday/Thursday? Want to use those days to give her a tour

Loads of suggestions in here 🙂

[Quark]

On 17/05/2025 at 09:46, Powder_Finger said:

Taking my mother this year, her first Glastonbury. We will be arriving at Gate A and probably camping in Darble as don't want to carry our stuff far.

Any suggestions for a good route/itinerary to take on the Wednesday/Thursday? Want to use those days to give her a tour

 

Also some discussion in here for camping with / for older people (if appropriate!)

 

 

[Respectfatfrog]

arriving at gate A straight into wickets set up and then head back for the kids after school quick explore of the site first tho

[aident93]

Hopefully arriving in east car parks/blue route by 3am with the hope of camping in Big Ground, 3 medium sized tents between us. Only ever used PG C in two previous attendances but PG B feels better for Big Ground. Have normally ended up being parked in E9. Can I still get to PG B from there?

[Sundance]

Hello! I had some WV questions before that a couple of veterans gave incredibly helpful answers to but then I lost the messages and couldn’t find them to say thanks, so thank you! I’m wondering if they might be able to help me again and give me a sense of when the busiest time is to arrive at WV? 
 

We’re coming from fairly local, so I was thinking we could set off at a leisurely pace at around 9/9:30 and it’s usually a 30 min ish drive to site. Is that gonna be peak arrival time and a nightmare to get into WV? Would we be better off leaving it a bit later? The priority is always maximum time on the farm but cba sitting in a queue unnecessarily. TIA!

[Worky_gla]

On 06/05/2025 at 16:06, Worky_gla said:

Current plan is to drive down from Scotland on Tuesday evening, aiming to get in and parked up in the west car parks around 2/3am and then likely opt to try have a couple of hours sleep in the car before heading for the queue at PGD 6/7am. Although weather dependant might be able to persuade the driver to just join the queue when we arrive (noticed it does say to stay in your car til the gates open on the website but joining the queue at 2am was never an issue in my previous years & i assume that hasn't really changed)

Update to this now driving down on the Tuesday afternoon and staying at the premier inn in Glastonbury (my mate who's driving insisted as he wanted to get a decent sleep after the drive before the fest which is fair enough) and then up bright n early to still get into the carpark and join the queue before gates open all being well.

 

Have tried searching the forum as I know there defo was a thread for this but it's proving difficult to find since the word glastonbury appears in almost every thread 😂 but any recommendations for the Tuesday night in the town itself? especially somewhere for dinner rather than the brewers fayre at the premier inn aha.

[EavisAintDead]

3 minutes ago, Worky_gla said:

Update to this now driving down on the Tuesday afternoon and staying at the premier inn in Glastonbury (my mate who's driving insisted as he wanted to get a decent sleep after the drive before the fest which is fair enough) and then up bright n early to still get into the carpark and join the queue before gates open all being well.

 

Have tried searching the forum as I know there defo was a thread for this but it's proving difficult to find since the word glastonbury appears in almost every thread 😂 but any recommendations for the Tuesday night in the town itself? especially somewhere for dinner rather than the brewers fayre at the premier inn aha.

The best food places will be fully booked I suspect but worth a try at The Queen of Cups (Middle eastern flavours with british ingredients - fantastic, Michelin Bib Gourmand) The Crown/Mitre inn (both same owners, good pub food) 

 

The fish and chips at Knights won best F&C in the country in 2024 for good reason - download their app and pre order as it'll be rather busy

 

 

Most interesting pub garden is the King Arthur and they might have a BBQ going and probably some live music

 

Climb the Tor when you get there and view the site from afar, so exciting! 

 

[phillyfaddle]

1 hour ago, Sundance said:

Hello! I had some WV questions before that a couple of veterans gave incredibly helpful answers to but then I lost the messages and couldn’t find them to say thanks, so thank you! I’m wondering if they might be able to help me again and give me a sense of when the busiest time is to arrive at WV? &nbsp
 

We’re coming from fairly local, so I was thinking we could set off at a leisurely pace at around 9/9:30 and it’s usually a 30 min ish drive to site. Is that gonna be peak arrival time and a nightmare to get into WV? Would we be better off leaving it a bit later? The priority is always maximum time on the farm but cba sitting in a queue unnecessarily. TIA!

It’s never been a nightmare to get into WV. Have been going since 2014. As you’re not competing for a camping space, arrivals are spread out and it’s a much more leisurely, steady stream of traffic. If you arrive after 9, you’ll be fine.

[RosaAG]

So, I've got a few doubts about my arrival strategy. Unfortunately, our coach departs Thursday afternoon, so we won't be getting to Glasto until around 8pm. This year we'll be camping at Holt Farm, and I was wondering what's the best way to get there with all our stuff from the coach drop off point.

 

Is the route I've marked on the pic viable? The idea is to head straight to the campsite and then enter the festival through PGD. Any advice or better routes? I've never really walked around the edges of the site before. 

 

 

 

[Blisterpack]

Mates arriving by coach on Thursday - about 1pm I reckon, five of them. What sort of options will they have? South West and up above Woodsies?