Which acts will "shut down" an area?

[nikkic]

DJ WANTED 

 

Must be able to mix the same 15 songs for 25 years and have the ability to shout “oi oi”. 

[Quark]

14 hours ago, philipsteak said:

 

Except for the ones that will be completely deserted  

Schroedinger's Crowds

[Paul ™]

19 hours ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

It's odd isn't it.  Only really in the past couple of years its become an obsession.

 

19 hours ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

 

Depends what's meant by 'issues'.  Occasional bottlenecks at pinch points and stages getting really busy if acts are very popular for where they've been booked have been a fact of life for as long as I've been going.

Gotta love these armchair crowd management experts 

[Crazyfool01]

19 minutes ago, Paul ™ said:

 

Gotta love these armchair crowd management experts 

They have extensive cctv and a control room covering the farm don’t they to manage any crowd issues and pinch points … any idea on numbers of cameras ? 

[Paul ™]

1 minute ago, Crazyfool01 said:

They have extensive cctv and a control room covering the farm don’t they to manage any crowd issues and pinch points … any idea on numbers of cameras ? 

Yes they do plus a huge number of crowd management teams with years of experience and qualifications that cover all the required zones, with senior managers overseeing each of those zones plus 4 or 5 overarching management team.

Add on the specific people such as event silvers who are based in EC to just manage that operation.... 

[The_Fish]

2 hours ago, matrainertje said:

But why? I never see a lot of chat about festival crowd sizes elsewhere, why is this such a big thing in here? 

 

Glasto is pretty unique with all the stages and clashes and therefore people are going to discuss which acts have been booked in the wrong position, either through being too popular or not being popular enough. 

[Mr SnoozySquid]

On 15/04/2025 at 15:18, Ben7amin_ said:

i think the Sunday night is gonna be the toughest clash - So I dont think anyone will get an oversized crowd -  Prodigy competing with Olivia Rodrigo, Maccabees, Big Moon before we even know who the Woodsies and Park headliners are so I think it will be fine. 

Do we know Big Moon are headlining on Sunday?

[Ben7amin_]

13 minutes ago, Mr SnoozySquid said:

Do we know Big Moon are headlining on Sunday?

 

It came to me from the other place not sure on the due diligence that was done sorry 

[CantWaitForGlasto22]

I think we also felt Big Moon as headliner was likely because they were only Avalon artist on original poster drop?

[nikkic]

1 hour ago, The_Fish said:

 

Glasto is pretty unique with all the stages and clashes and therefore people are going to discuss which acts have been booked in the wrong position, either through being too popular or not being popular enough. 

This.

The forum chats about all sorts, it's normal because it's the best festival in the world.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

2 hours ago, Paul ™ said:

 

Gotta love these armchair crowd management experts 

 

The fact you've posted that would suggest you have first hand experience of crowd management but I don't necessarily think that anyone here thinks they're an expert, obviously the festival have done a fantastic job in controlling the movement of 200,000 people for several decades without major incident, but on-topic, there have been a few puzzling artist positions that have resulted in an influx of people towards an area that doesn't have the capacity to accommodate them. Those situations appear to have been more frequent over the past few festivals, and it could be argued that they could have been avoided with more suitable artist placement. One or two of them could possibly have been predicted beforehand, others were maybe more of a surprise. You don't have to be an expert to recognise that. Hence this thread.

[Quark]

7 minutes ago, nikkic said:

This.

The forum chats about all sorts, it's normal because it's the best festival in the world.

 

It's probably also fair to say that we (collectively) can fixate on something and not let go of it for a while.

[AdrianH]

The festival are generally quite proactive - there were previous problems around Arcadia, the entrance to The Park and the bottle neck between Silver Hayes and The Other.

 

The main ball drop last year was Avril Lavigne as you got a large proportion of the Shania crowd all heading over to an already busy Other stage. Chaos and gridlock ensued at the back towards the food stalls.

[gfa]

22 minutes ago, AdrianH said:

The festival are generally quite proactive - there were previous problems around Arcadia, the entrance to The Park and the bottle neck between Silver Hayes and The Other.

 

The main ball drop last year was Avril Lavigne as you got a large proportion of the Shania crowd all heading over to an already busy Other stage. Chaos and gridlock ensued at the back towards the food stalls.

It wasn't busy before Avril - we got there as NBT ended and it was pretty quiet

Edited April 17, 2025 by gfa

[siblin]

1 hour ago, Quark said:

 

It's probably also fair to say that we (collectively) can fixate on something and not let go of it for a while.

I think that describes the experience, and purpose, of going onto a forum dedicated to Glastonbury festival 😉

[Acid_Haze]

Has JADE been mentioned on here? She's playing an early set at Woodsies so I reckon she'll get a hefty crowd. Might not shut it down, but might be similar to Barry Can't Swim levels on Park last year.

[gfa]

52 minutes ago, Acid_Haze said:

Has JADE been mentioned on here? She's playing an early set at Woodsies so I reckon she'll get a hefty crowd. Might not shut it down, but might be similar to Barry Can't Swim levels on Park last year.

Woodsies is a much bigger area and there's screens outside now - vs barry where the park was literally shut down

[bob323]

1 hour ago, siblin said:

I think that describes the experience, and purpose, of going onto a forum dedicated to Glastonbury festival 😉

just thinking that!!

 

are people shocked that a forum that dicusses just one festival all year long has people on it that are obsessive about that festival? possibly a strange co-incidence?

Edited April 17, 2025 by bob323

[DL50]

3 hours ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

 

The fact you've posted that would suggest you have first hand experience of crowd management but I don't necessarily think that anyone here thinks they're an expert, obviously the festival have done a fantastic job in controlling the movement of 200,000 people for several decades without major incident, but on-topic, there have been a few puzzling artist positions that have resulted in an influx of people towards an area that doesn't have the capacity to accommodate them. Those situations appear to have been more frequent over the past few festivals, and it could be argued that they could have been avoided with more suitable artist placement. One or two of them could possibly have been predicted beforehand, others were maybe more of a surprise. You don't have to be an expert to recognise that. Hence this thread.

Very well said

[clarkete]

1 hour ago, DL50 said:

Very well said

 

I'm confused as it appears that you also downvoted that same post? 

 

It's possible I misunderstood 

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

7 hours ago, Paul ™ said:

Yes they do plus a huge number of crowd management teams with years of experience and qualifications that cover all the required zones, with senior managers overseeing each of those zones plus 4 or 5 overarching management team.

Add on the specific people such as event silvers who are based in EC to just manage that operation.... 

 

Hello Paul,

 

Hope you and your partner / wife are happy and well (and still rocking life and travelling around)

 

I always thought that at some point (quite long ago) that footstep traffic calculations would be in place. Flow systems etc - even if on a rudimentary scale - which is where it would have 'developed'.  Surely H & S would be all over you like a rash if you didn't have state of the art (AI) foot fall flow systems in place, should something go wrong?

[Paul ™]

18 minutes ago, Yoghurt on a Stick said:

 

Hello Paul,

 

Hope you and your partner / wife are happy and well (and still rocking life and travelling around)

 

I always thought that at some point (quite long ago) that footstep traffic calculations would be in place. Flow systems etc - even if on a rudimentary scale - which is where it would have 'developed'.  Surely H & S would be all over you like a rash if you didn't have state of the art (AI) foot fall flow systems in place, should something go wrong?

Hi Yog, yes due to return end of the month after 6 months touring India.

Yes crowd density and flows can all be integrated into the CCTV these days fairly easily, using software such as Neoma and a lot of festivals use similar, normally Front of Stage and Ingress/Egress routes

Enhance Safety and Crowd Management with Real-Time Crowd Monitoring | Better Spaces

Edited April 17, 2025 by Paul ™

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

4 minutes ago, Paul ™ said:

Hi Yog, yes due to return end of the month after 6 months touring India.

Yes crowd density and flows can all be integrated into the CCTV these days fairly easily, using software such as Neoma and a lot of festivals use similar, normally Front of Stage and Ingress/Egress routes

Enhance Safety and Crowd Management with Real-Time Crowd Monitoring | Better Spaces

 

Now, why doesn't it surprise me that you are in India? Nice one. I went once, and when they opened the plane door I thought that I was in a pre-heated over at Gas Mark- a f**kety f**kety high number. I could barely breathe. Got accustomed to the heat though, thankfully

 

Thanks for the clarification on traffic control. One of my mates once got two VIP tickets from some traffic control person for free. The bloke didn't (at that point) know just how valuable those 'just pop name in' Glastonbury tickets were. 

[Watergirl]

22 hours ago, Ben7amin_ said:

 

It came to me from the other place not sure on the due diligence that was done sorry 

 

I have a screenshot (can't remember source...) of the Avalon line-up that has Alabama 3 as headliner (hoping this is correct!), with Bear's Den and the Big Moon on before them.

[Cherry Tree]

Taking it back to the overcrowded debate, a comfortably moderate crowd at the pyramid prior to Brandi Carlile slot, then someone posts on the socials that a roadie has just rolled a big piano onto the stage, 30 minutes later all routes to the field are mayhem.