Glastonbury Festival Scrutiny Report 2023

[Dukeicon]

Somerset Council had the Glastonbury Festival Scrutiny meeting last Wednesday (13th December).
Point 6 on the agenda here: https://democracy.somerset.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=203&MId=2498

Includes recommendation from the Council to the festival.

Summary from the County Gazette

Quote

Dave Coles, the council’s head of regulatory services, said that this year’s event “overall was very well-run”, with the majority of the feedback from the 2022 festival being taken on board and acted upon.

However, he said that “continuous improvement” was needed in light of the festival “evolving” over the last few year.

Mr Coles and his team have produced a number of recommendations for how the festival could be improved next year – including:

• Review the decision to remove Row Mead from the public camping area
• Assess the crowd densities at the Glade crossroads, which may impede movement from the south-east of the site to the south-west
• Develop a procedure for people bringing and removing chairs to watch acts at the Pyramid stage
• Ensure all food and drinks vendors display relevant allergen information
• Improve the walkway to Worthy View to minimise “steep bends” and ensure its safety during muddy weather
• Explore further proactive measures to “help address excessive loudness and low frequency noise” associated with the festival
• Provide additional toilets and water refill stations throughout the site to reduce queues
• Introduce a “reporting system” to ensure those found entering the festival ground with “prohibited substances” are not permitted to return the following year

Councillor Gwilym Wren, who chaired the committee meeting, praised the council’s licensing team for ensuring that there were relatively few issues with the running of the festival.

 

 

[tarw]

Wow! A banned list for Glastonbury 😯😯

[AndyL16]

3 minutes ago, Dukeicon said:

Assess the crowd densities at the Glade crossroads, which may impede movement from the south-east of the site to the south-west

agree with everything there but specifically this point. The decision to have Example on the Thursday afternoon in that area needs reviewing. Far too big an act for that point of the festival, no other clash meant a good proportion made there way there. Got to admit though, of a night I never really had a problem personally but did hear of overcrowding at times.

[Skip997]

Quote

Develop a procedure for people bringing and removing chairs to watch acts at the Pyramid stage

Long overdue

Quote

Explore further proactive measures to “help address excessive loudness and low frequency noise” associated with the festival

Not sure about this, plenty of venues and stages are far too quiet already.

Quote

Provide additional toilets and water refill stations throughout the site to reduce queues

Agree. I included this in my feedback to the festival, esp lack of water points near The Levels, but this was more of a H&S issue (in an area of high MDMA consumption) than a queue issue.

Quote

Introduce a “reporting system” to ensure those found entering the festival ground with “prohibited substances” are not permitted to return the following year

Not sure I like the way this is potentially going.

[Skip997]

5 minutes ago, tarw said:

Wow! A banned list for Glastonbury 😯😯

Generally this frightens me a bit. However, I would like to see those who piss on the land banned.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

29 external campsites

 

[incident]

On a similar note - for what it's worth, and if anyone wants to pick through them, the accounts for GFL ( https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02737866/filing-history ) and GFEL ( https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04348175/filing-history ) were published yesterday.

[The Nal]

31 minutes ago, Dukeicon said:

Somerset Council had the Glastonbury Festival Scrutiny meeting last Wednesday (13th December).
Point 6 on the agenda here: https://democracy.somerset.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=203&MId=2498

Includes recommendation from the Council to the festival.

Summary from the County Gazette

 

Councillor Gwilym Wren, who chaired the committee meeting, praised the council’s licensing team for ensuring that there were relatively few issues with the running of the festival but later added "Carhenge was f**king sh*t"

[giantkatestacks]

I would like to see the next crossroads along from the Glade also included in that assessment especially Weds/Thurs.

[giantkatestacks]

Gah. There was a huge increase in the amount of disposable vapes found within the waste streams this year.

[Jay Pee]

3 minutes ago, giantkatestacks said:

Gah. There was a huge increase in the amount of disposable vapes found within the waste streams this year.

Those bastard things just are the scourge of humanity.  In many ways

 

[Gacheezbo]

• Ensure all food and drinks vendors display relevant allergen information

 

Would love this. The initial effort of doing this saves a lot of time for everyone involved whenever have to ask

[moogster]

Develop a procedure for people bringing and removing chairs to watch acts at the Pyramid stage

Please. Yes. Finally. Do include Other as well.

[parsonjack]

• Introduce a “reporting system” to ensure those found entering the festival ground with “prohibited substances” are not permitted to return the following year

This will need to be carefully managed to avoid over-zealous gate security issues.

No-one wants to get banned for bringing in a bag of crisps.

[sedra]

3 hours ago, parsonjack said:

• Introduce a “reporting system” to ensure those found entering the festival ground with “prohibited substances” are not permitted to return the following year

This will need to be carefully managed to avoid over-zealous gate security issues.

No-one wants to get banned for bringing in a bag of crisps.

It’s specifically refers to employees and EPO wristbands holders bringing in banned substances and not being invited back - not general public. 

[Aeroplane Over the Sea]

6 hours ago, incident said:

On a similar note - for what it's worth, and if anyone wants to pick through them, the accounts for GFL ( https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02737866/filing-history ) and GFEL ( https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04348175/filing-history ) were published yesterday.

Any idea why they don’t have to publish a p&l? 

[Nduja]

6 hours ago, incident said:

On a similar note - for what it's worth, and if anyone wants to pick through them, the accounts for GFL ( https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/02737866/filing-history ) and GFEL ( https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04348175/filing-history ) were published yesterday.

When you see it like that, pretty astonishing cultural and social impact achieved against fixed assets that equate to a couple of houses on a street in London.

[dotdash79]

13 minutes ago, Aeroplane Over the Sea said:

Any idea why they don’t have to publish a p&l? 

It’s a private business. 
 

they do publish the amount of corporation tax they paid, which was significantly higher this year than last year. 

[stuie]

17 minutes ago, Aeroplane Over the Sea said:

Any idea why they don’t have to publish a p&l? 

The criteria is to meet two of the following:

less than £10m turnover

net worth of less than £5m 

fewer than 50 employees

but that’s all about to change soon - all companies will have to file full accounts including p&l and balance sheet 

[stuie]

12 minutes ago, Nduja said:

When you see it like that, pretty astonishing cultural and social impact achieved against fixed assets that equate to a couple of houses on a street in London.

Several companies owning a couple of London houses each!  And land in private ownership of individuals too 

[Aeroplane Over the Sea]

9 hours ago, stuie said:

The criteria is to meet two of the following:

less than £10m turnover

net worth of less than £5m 

fewer than 50 employees

but that’s all about to change soon - all companies will have to file full accounts including p&l and balance sheet 

Thanks! They must’ve been carefully managing that balance sheet as their turnover must be multiples of that

[Aeroplane Over the Sea]

9 hours ago, dotdash79 said:

It’s a private business. 
 

they do publish the amount of corporation tax they paid, which was significantly higher this year than last year. 

Makes sense I guess as the festival hadn’t been on the previous year 

[stuie]

1 hour ago, Aeroplane Over the Sea said:

Thanks! They must’ve been carefully managing that balance sheet as their turnover must be multiples of that

They have two main trading companies and land ownership is separate to those trading companies - as you'd expect it to be, so it's ringfenced.  

[Crazyfool01]

Never really noticed the toilet numbers increase … some areas of the site are still lacking … the park is poor in my opinion for loos … but I guess at least the portaloos and turd mountains are a thing of the past 

[CaledonianGonzo]

18 hours ago, Dukeicon said:

Develop a procedure for people bringing and removing chairs to watch acts at the Pyramid stage

Hmmmm. Not massively keen on the thought of them monitoring the entrances to the Pyramid pit.