Jibbing?

[Guest]

There was a pretty big bottleneck trying to get between the Other and Park area after the headliners on Saturday night.

[CaledonianGonzo]

Bottlenecks happen. I'm off to storied gig venue the Barras tonight and there'll be a bottleneck on the way out as per.  They're not dangerous solely by the fact that they exist.

[Ayrshire Chris]

5 hours ago, 09matthewsw said:

23 was much less crowded than 22 but still above pre-COVID levels IMO

I’d agree with that. Thought the Avalon area had a few overcrowded times and the movement from the other to park was a real bottleneck when folk were going to see Wetleg. It’s all to do with clashes and deciding where to place certain bands. 

[Metal Monkey]

I didn’t notice any big crowd crushes this year but there didn’t seem as much space for camping as usual. Everywhere I looked seemed packed, even the usually quiet fields. 

[Miathedog]

On 11/24/2023 at 9:12 PM, Metal Monkey said:

I didn’t notice any big crowd crushes this year but there didn’t seem as much space for camping as usual. Everywhere I looked seemed packed, even the usually quiet fields. 

Our theory on that is that nowadays everyone seems to have such massive tents. 

[Leyrulion]

On 11/24/2023 at 2:40 PM, incident said:

Yes, there's enough.

I'd be surprised if the number unofficially* on site in the last festival was less than 10,000. Via a whole variety of different means so there's not one single hole to plug, it's more like a sieve.

*by unofficially, I mean vs what GFL have provisioned for - more locally it may not be thought of in those terms. I believe that at least some Area Managers are aware of it happening and either actively enable it or at minimum turn a blind eye.

It's all a careful balancing act, they've got the 210k cap and in theory I think if it got to a point where they knew there were that many people in the festival they'd have to stop entry. 

But in reality theres never that many on site at once. From people arriving late and leaving early, resting at off site camping. Some people will even be leaving on the Friday or not turn up entirely (I think it was about 100 coach tickets weren't used in 2022). Then artist guest list passes etc might only get used for one day. 

So there's quite a bit of fluidity in the actual numbers on site each day which will help with any people sneaking in. 

The biggest issues with crowding is surges which can happen with relatively small numbers of people. 

[Superscally]

On 11/24/2023 at 5:20 PM, CaledonianGonzo said:

Bottlenecks happen. I'm off to storied gig venue the Barras tonight and there'll be a bottleneck on the way out as per.  They're not dangerous solely by the fact that they exist.

I don't think I've ever seen a dangerous bottleneck at Glasto, but recent overcrowding has happened in dry years. I worry about what could happen in a year like 2007 or 2016. There are too many people on site now. It's about 20k over at least. Mostly manifested by certain areas just being grim busy at times. Depressing when you turn up somewhere like Avalon Inn afyer a trek there and take one look and give it a big fat "nope".

[clarkete]

1 hour ago, Leyrulion said:

It's all a careful balancing act, they've got the 210k cap and in theory I think if it got to a point where they knew there were that many people in the festival they'd have to stop entry. 

But in reality theres never that many on site at once. From people arriving late and leaving early, resting at off site camping. Some people will even be leaving on the Friday or not turn up entirely (I think it was about 100 coach tickets weren't used in 2022). Then artist guest list passes etc might only get used for one day. 

Well supposedly there's never been that many since the fence.  There were definitely some things they had to address that occurred in the past...

"Glastonbury in doubt after Danish deaths
100,000 fans without tickets got into Britain's longest-running festival this year. Now fears about crowd safety are threatening its future"
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/oct/02/jeevanvasagar 

"Music festival peace and love marred by overdose death and gun attack"
https://www.theguardian.com/music/1994/jun/27/glastonbury2003.glastonbury

Plus the riots after 1990 which I believe were a key part of the 50th anniversary programme on the telly
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife/glastonbury-festival-39-things-never-2980498

[CaledonianGonzo]

9 hours ago, Leyrulion said:

The biggest issues with crowding is surges which can happen with relatively small numbers of people. 

This is the key point.

Doesn't matter if they sell 123k tickets or 130k, 200 folk in a tight space can cause a problem. So no matter how many tickets they sell there's the possibility of a crowd issue. Buy generally speaking it gets mitigated by the stewarding.

 

[Leyrulion]

9 hours ago, clarkete said:

Well supposedly there's never been that many since the fence.  There were definitely some things they had to address that occurred in the past...

"Glastonbury in doubt after Danish deaths
100,000 fans without tickets got into Britain's longest-running festival this year. Now fears about crowd safety are threatening its future"
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/oct/02/jeevanvasagar 

"Music festival peace and love marred by overdose death and gun attack"
https://www.theguardian.com/music/1994/jun/27/glastonbury2003.glastonbury

Plus the riots after 1990 which I believe were a key part of the 50th anniversary programme on the telly
https://www.somersetlive.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife/glastonbury-festival-39-things-never-2980498

Yeah I meant mostly this century 🤣

It's a good point though, if numbers start climbing significantly they'll put the festival at risk again. I do worry that it's getting to the stage where everyone knows you can get in without a ticket.

[VCK2]

On 11/20/2023 at 9:04 AM, LS-Charlton said:

I’ve never experienced a sale like yesterday where myself, none of my friends and none of their friends managed to bag tickets. The question has been asked a few times already, is the jib still possible. 
 

This is serious post, if anyone knows of any legit ways in please feel free to send a DM. I know of one method that comes at a financial cost, if anyone has any connections please let me know. 

Good morning officer.

[clarkete]

7 hours ago, Leyrulion said:

Yeah I meant mostly this century 🤣

It's a good point though, if numbers start climbing significantly they'll put the festival at risk again. I do worry that it's getting to the stage where everyone knows you can get in without a ticket.

I struggle to remember which things where what century 😂

One of those links mentioned the Wells Journal and we always had that plus Somerset Gazette and a bunch of other "scintillating" local papers. 

[ProperTea]

22 hours ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

This is the key point.

Doesn't matter if they sell 123k tickets or 130k, 200 folk in a tight space can cause a problem. So no matter how many tickets they sell there's the possibility of a crowd issue. Buy generally speaking it gets mitigated by the stewarding.

 

I wonder if part of the issue is the homogenisation of music tastes   - everyone wanting to go and see the same things, which wasn't so much of a thing even ten years ago?

[Radi0Head]

On 11/23/2023 at 2:03 PM, Leyrulion said:

Stops all the wristband, pass out, ticket schemes. On the gates now you always have people who've "lost the pass out" or the photo is probably not them (but it's hard to tell). 

EPOs (which off site staff use) you scan a QR code and if it's not legit or someone's already in it makes a big error sound and says on the scanner "DO NOT LET THIS PERSON INTO THE FESTIVAL". 

Little bit late to the whole EPO thing. But having worked on plenty a gate. The vast majority of people scanning EPOs couldn’t give a monkeys when they get the error message. Wether it’s your average volunteer or exhausted security they’d simply rather not have the agro of telling people they can’t come in when the reason they’re getting the error in the first place was that they weren’t properly checked out in the first place. 
 

 

[Leyrulion]

1 hour ago, Radi0Head said:

Little bit late to the whole EPO thing. But having worked on plenty a gate. The vast majority of people scanning EPOs couldn’t give a monkeys when they get the error message. Wether it’s your average volunteer or exhausted security they’d simply rather not have the agro of telling people they can’t come in when the reason they’re getting the error in the first place was that they weren’t properly checked out in the first place. 
 

 

That's not my experience on the EPO scan on the gates. 

[stuie]

9 minutes ago, Leyrulion said:

That's not my experience on the EPO scan on the gates. 

Nor mine. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

2 hours ago, ProperTea said:

I wonder if part of the issue is the homogenisation of music tastes   - everyone wanting to go and see the same things, which wasn't so much of a thing even ten years ago?

I don't think so - there have always been acts that attracted big crowds.  From memory the bottlenecks used to be a lot worse as the exits from the main arenas used to be a lot narrower so it was easier for a jam to develop.

[Hugh Jass II]

2 hours ago, ProperTea said:

I wonder if part of the issue is the homogenisation of music tastes   - everyone wanting to go and see the same things, which wasn't so much of a thing even ten years ago?

I think a lot of it is FOMO, nobody wants to miss that "Glastonbury moment".

[CaledonianGonzo]

Which is perfectly reasonable. I'd rather go and see a Macca or an Elton than a journeyman band that plays my town every year and I could see anytime.

[tarw]

1 hour ago, Leyrulion said:

That's not my experience on the EPO scan on the gates. 

Nor mine. I was working on the accessibility shuttle last year and my wristband was scanned religiously every time we went through the gate which was a lot of times 

[EavisAintDead]

On 11/25/2023 at 10:12 PM, Miathedog said:

Our theory on that is that nowadays everyone seems to have such massive tents. 

They removed pylon fields and the area behind the park in the last 2 years and didn't make any more space available for public camping

[tarw]

6 minutes ago, EavisAintDead said:

They removed pylon fields and the area behind the park in the last 2 years and didn't make any more space available for public camping

Although they didn’t make any more public camping available they did create Sticklinch which probably holds more than Pylon. There seems to be far more demand for pre-erected than general camping nowadays. 
 

Tents used are far bigger now than they used to be. I do the same. I used to bring a 2 man hiking ridge tent that took up 3.5 m2 my tent now is a f&b pop up that takes up 6.5m2. It’s still a small tent compared to a lot of people’s 

[Skip997]

1 minute ago, tarw said:

There seems to be far more demand for pre-erected than general camping nowadays.

It's a sign.

Not a good sign

[tarw]

Just now, Skip997 said:

It's a sign.

Not a good sign

Agreed but we are probably old farts hankering for the old days. The festival should be for people younger who have different needs and expectations 

[Hugh Jass II]

8 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

It's a sign.

Not a good sign

WHy CaNT EVreEThInK jUs STay lIKe i REmEmBA?