What is your arrival strategy ?

[Ayrshire Chris]

23 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

If it was me I would be more inclined to travel down Tuesday afternoon and stay in a nearby hotel, get a full nights sleep then into WV, or leave Glasgow early Weds AM and sail straight into WV at lunchtime.

No point depriving yourself of sleep before the festival has started when you don't need to.

Which is why we travel down a few days in advance and stay in Glastonbury, treat it like a holiday. We do however book the glastonbury hotel a year in advance, they book up really quickly. Local travelodge and  premier inns are mostly booked up by the bbc though you can still get the Tuesday night this year  in the premier for 230 quid !    If travelling down on the Tuesday best bet would be a hotel a bit further out from the site. 

[gooner1990]

2 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

Which is why we travel down a few days in advance and stay in Glastonbury, treat it like a holiday. We do however book the glastonbury hotel a year in advance, they book up really quickly. Local travelodge and  premier inns are mostly booked up by the bbc though you can still get the Tuesday night this year  in the premier for 230 quid !    If travelling down on the Tuesday best bet would be a hotel a bit further out from the site. 

There's plenty of options, also given that Glasgow is so far whoever is driving is going to be completely shattered before the festival even starts if they do 6-7 hours driving, no sleep then straight into the festival.

Could even break the journey by doing 4-5 hours Tues evening then do the last two Weds am then straight into WV.

Surely the beauty of WV is that you don't need to do things like driving through the night etc and can just rock up at any point with everything all arranged for you and no queues.

[Ayrshire Chris]

1 minute ago, gooner1990 said:

There's plenty of options, also given that Glasgow is so far whoever is driving is going to be completely shattered before the festival even starts if they do 6-7 hours driving, no sleep then straight into the festival.

Could even break the journey by doing 4-5 hours Tues evening then do the last two Weds am then straight into WV.

Surely the beauty of WV is that you don't need to do things like driving through the night etc and can just rock up at any point with everything all arranged for you and no queues.

Yes the only trouble we ever had getting to WV was in 2016 when we were stuck like everyone else for hours on end in slow moving dead stop traffic on the main road from the M5. Once we reached the WV turn off it was no problem. 

[coma girl]

I come down from Glasgow on Boilerman's bus and don't find it too bad leaving here Tuesday AM then doing the overnight queue, have stayed in a local hotel before the festival once and it was fun but not bothered about doing that again.

A hotel locally on the Monday after the festival is a must though. Need to be on the ball checking the Premier Inn and Travelodge websites months in advance though to make sure of getting enough rooms for us all.

[phillyfaddle]

Cross-country to WV Wed morning. Arrive 8ish and park up. Short Q to gate 100m away. Wristbands. Wheelbarrow assistance to tent. Unpack. Open can of G&T and flop into chair soaking up the atmosphere while waiting for friends to arrive. 

Edited March 31, 2023 by phillyfaddle

[Breeze]

Going to be near by Wednesday morning so Taxi to B&W via Tesco in Wells or Shepton for slabs of beer (all other booze already in pack) then to B&W by about 10-11am for shuttle bus to site. I foresee big queues.

Edited March 31, 2023 by Breeze

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, Breeze said:

Going to be near by Wednesday morning so Taxi to B&W via Tesco in Wells or Shepton for slabs of beer (all other booze already in pack) then to B&W by about 10-11am for shuttle bus to site. I foresee big queues.

youll  breeze in ... 

[___DGH___]

5 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

If it was me I would be more inclined to travel down Tuesday afternoon and stay in a nearby hotel, get a full nights sleep then into WV, or leave Glasgow early Weds AM and sail straight into WV at lunchtime.

No point depriving yourself of sleep before the festival has started when you don't need to.

Can’t do the Tue afternoon due to others shifts etc. Going to go for the early start on Wednesday now that I think more about it. Have everything ready to go then get up at 5 and jump in the car.

[___DGH___]

5 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

There's plenty of options, also given that Glasgow is so far whoever is driving is going to be completely shattered before the festival even starts if they do 6-7 hours driving, no sleep then straight into the festival.

Could even break the journey by doing 4-5 hours Tues evening then do the last two Weds am then straight into WV.

Surely the beauty of WV is that you don't need to do things like driving through the night etc and can just rock up at any point with everything all arranged for you and no queues.

Yeah, we are not doing it now, going to leave early Wednesday and see how that goes.

[gooner1990]

3 minutes ago, ___DGH___ said:

Can’t do the Tue afternoon due to others shifts etc. Going to go for the early start on Wednesday now that I think more about it. Have everything ready to go then get up at 5 and jump in the car.

That would be my tactic too. 🙂 

Should be on site by 12...throw your stuff in the tent then down the hill onto the main site and straight into the bars. 🙂 

[___DGH___]

Just the 82 days to wait now 😫

[rwoo]

I have an overwhelming urge to use Delta Airlines for my arrival strategy…

[ahoykatie]

5 minutes ago, rwoo said:

I have an overwhelming urge to use Delta Airlines for my arrival strategy…

viral marketing 😄

[JamieKThomas]

We are camping at Hitchin Hill and coming from South Wales. Last time we went in 2016, we left the house at 2:30am and parked up for 6am. Felt like we were towards the front of the queue as we only waited a short while when gates actually opened. I'm wondering how different it has become since 2016? Should we be looking to arrive a lot earlier and sit in the queue overnight? 

[Gnomicide]

On 3/30/2023 at 12:01 PM, ___DGH___ said:

First timer this year. 4 of us driving down from Central Scotland. Thinking of leaving about 10pm on Tuesday night, roughly 7 hour drive. Staying in Worthy View so I’m guessing the queuing is not so bad. Or is that naivety on my part 😂

One thing to note before any overnight drive is the possibility of overnight motorway closures for repair work. One year we had to take two massive diversions as the M5 was closed in 2 places.

[stuie]

30 minutes ago, JamieKThomas said:

We are camping at Hitchin Hill and coming from South Wales. Last time we went in 2016, we left the house at 2:30am and parked up for 6am. Felt like we were towards the front of the queue as we only waited a short while when gates actually opened. I'm wondering how different it has become since 2016? Should we be looking to arrive a lot earlier and sit in the queue overnight? 

I'd say you got pretty lucky in 2016 - it was a nightmare getting on to the farm for most people due to the wet ground.  Maybe it was just after you got on to the site it went crazy! 

[Crazyfool01]

7 minutes ago, stuie said:

I'd say you got pretty lucky in 2016 - it was a nightmare getting on to the farm for most people due to the wet ground.  Maybe it was just after you got on to the site it went crazy! 

warnings went out not to travel if you hadn't set off ... we were 10 mins into our journey and thought sod it ... due to finding a cut through it was only 3 hours or so for the 50 min journey . might have been far longer 

[stuie]

10 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

warnings went out not to travel if you hadn't set off ... we were 10 mins into our journey and thought sod it ... due to finding a cut through it was only 3 hours or so for the 50 min journey . might have been far longer 

haha only 3 hours! Not bad.  We were at Podimore services on the A303 when we heard the warning on radio1 not to set off so we tried to get on site from Pylle anyway.  After about 4 hours we turned around and tried to approach from Shepton Mallet and that took a couple more hours! 

[Ayrshire Chris]

2 hours ago, ___DGH___ said:

Yeah, we are not doing it now, going to leave early Wednesday and see how that goes.

Should be fine, just check in advance for pre planned roadworks on M6 M5. There’s been a lot of work and diversions where the motorways merge. We’ve stayed at the Hilton Park services travelodge to break the journey when leaving on Tuesday. Usually other Glasto goers there. Once through Glastonbury town, if that’s the way you are coming keep an eye out for the WV sign. It’s not long after the town. Plenty folk stationed at the junctions in the lanes to make sure you find the car park. 
in 2016, the mud year it took us about the same time to get  from theM5 to the festival site than it took us to drive from home to the M5 turn off.!😊

Edited March 31, 2023 by Ayrshire Chris

[Obiginnaw]

I'm very very tempted to do the overnight Tuesday this year, purely because the Solstice is on the wednesday so seeing that come up in the fields could be a bit special

(having said that it could piss it down with rain so then i'm sleep deprived and i don't get the sunrise)

[jamesrfisher]

Have tried a number

1st time - Thursday afternoon, never again. Thereafter Wednesday

Have set off first thing Wednesday 

Have set off Tuesday after work, arrive about midnight, park, beer, sleep in car then join queue at sunrise

Now, pack Tuesday evening. Drop son at school Wednesday morning, home, pack car and drive in, from South East, A303 but go past and double back through Glastonbury so West car park. Queue not so long if at all, in, get to camping area (Dairy or Baileys). Open beer drink and put tent up. Chair out, beer, watch other arrivals, say hello to those around. Beer and bimble as now HOME

[Crazyfool01]

3 hours ago, rwoo said:

I have an overwhelming urge to use Delta Airlines for my arrival strategy…

I’m going by plane now thanks to the new persistent sales strategy 

[Sawdusty surfer]

Bump

[dotdash79]

We have a hotel booked for the Tuesday night on the side of the site we want to be. 
will travel down on the Tuesday, early night up at 4am shower and then in the queue. Worked great last year hope it works the same this year. 

[grumpyhack]

Not going this year but before I took a caravan and we were allowed into the CV fields at midday Tuesday (if not a bit earlier).  So trundle in and get set up on Tuesday.  Leisurely breakfest on Wednesday morning and then stroll in a get wristbanded whilst everyone else is still setting up their tents.