SECURITY - Issues

[TalkShow Bob]

So what happened to all the weed they got ?? I never got a reciept or my name asked, they searched my mate and shouted BINGO when they found his £20 bag of weed, very very unprofessional, obnoxious causing people to become very angry and ruining peoples fest, how much did they actually find ?? I,m sure they will have sold our gear on and had a laugh in the process !!! *******s

[Baby On A Stick]

Sixth Glasto and first serch at Gate D. Guy had a serious attitude problem; Confiscated my 4D maglight as it was 'a weapon' although quite safe the other 5 years and clearly more dangerous then, well you name it. Anything can be a weapon in the wrong hands. He then took my 4 plastic cups. When I pointed out they were plastic he told me 'this is a farm and plastic isn't good for a farm.' PRICK!

He didn't even search me that well!

[disasterplan]

Some guys we met had been raided early on the Wednesday. After discovering ten pills and a few nitrous canisters, security dragged their entire crew to Bath & West and handed them over to the police. Being more concerned with dealers than users, the police let them go after going through all the formalities. Upon returning to their tents, the guys discovered their tents had been turned over and emptied of all valuables. Coincidence? I think not.

[Dave F]

Why did,nt they hand me over to police as i asked, not worth wasting police time eh ! w*nkers !!!

Some guys we met had been raided early on the Wednesday. After discovering ten pills and a few nitrous canisters, security dragged their entire crew to Bath & West and handed them over to the police. Being more concerned with dealers than users, the police let them go after going through all the formalities. Upon returning to their tents, the guys discovered their tents had been turned over and emptied of all valuables. Coincidence? I think not.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

I noticed those zebra ones I wanted one

[Rufus Gwertigan]

Would love to tell you why though of course you don't say where you were working or what you were doing. What I posted was the general rule and a couple of exceptions doesn't mean the whole thing goes to hell in a handbasket. I don't have a high enough view of the ticketing at Glasto to know the full rules (and even if I did, I wouldn't post it here), and neither do you - but what I can piece together is that the basic rule is that if you get a 'P' ticket (given to traders / some workers / some crew / some performers) you don't get an easy passout. Of course plenty of people on other arrangements get easy passouts but it's equally wrong to say that all workers on site get one, because that simply isn't true. I've also heard it said in previous years that the festival have handed out easy passouts to some crew that should get crew wristbands when they've run out of crew bands, so, y'know...

At the end of the day, some staff get them, others don't, and punters don't. Mendip are obviously happy with the risk of issuing a small number of EPOs, but not issuing them to everyone.

If you don't like it then please, please, please, don't waste your energy here, go and convince Mendip council that it's all OK to not use passouts, because you obviously have some really strong arguments that FR / GR, who would stand to save a shedload of money without needing to employ people to administer passouts, haven't thought of.

[paulo999]

Talkshow Bob and posthuman are talking sense, and from a position of knowledge.

The EPO system is new, and limited. Expanding it ad-hoc isn't a good idea IMHO.

Only a few weeks back, people on here were boasting how they could do gate scams.

Collectively, you can't have it both ways folks.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

Talkshow Bob and posthuman are talking sense, and from a position of knowledge.

The EPO system is new, and limited. Expanding it ad-hoc isn't a good idea IMHO.

Only a few weeks back, people on here were boasting how they could do gate scams.

Collectively, you can't have it both ways folks.

Edited July 2, 2009 by Rufus Gwertigan

[mattchu]

You're bang on. I attempted to get a stewards atttention by leaning on the crush barrier at the Pyramid stage and he went mental. He really looked like he wanted to punch me the little ginger f**ker.

They're a bunch of f**king tools the lot of them. I hope they f**king rot in the hell the dirty c**ts.

[posthuman]

I may do have ideas, yet also I am distrubed that people pay 65 quid to stay in the campervans raising over 300k for GFL with no allowances made for their pass out system at Gate C, which is what if you remember the original argument was.

Once through that fence people are classed as been on site, i.e. adhering to the rules of the festival. I and others are asking why an EPO system would not be extendable (after all everyones photo is on a database). In the past I have worked, and had to use the pass outs every day, so I presume that there is some review of the situation as we go.

[oafc0000]

Do you want mine before I pimp it on Ebay.

[Sam Crawley]

It's a complex and wieldly system, but the reason it's there is because:

[posthuman]

Thanks for your explanations posthuman, I've been wondering about the system all festival

Anyway I guess the reason I was confused is that initially I thought the gate staff were scanning tickets under those hoods to record entry electronically - but now I realise it's just a UV light to check the ticket is valid, right? They also seem to pay little attention to photo after the initial entry check.

So, why don't they have a barcode or something machine readable on the ticket, that way they could drop passouts and those having to hand them out. I guess the flipside is the expense of barcode reading infrastructure on the way in, plus the civil liberty lot would start ranting about being tracked.

[loosechange]

I've often thought the same thing, I think it would be better to have an RFID chip / barcode in the wristband / ticket to scan when someone enters the site and when someone leaves the site - and you would not be able to enter if the database said your ticket was already 'on site' (i.e. if someone had smuggled out other peoples' in their pockets).

I guess the problem is that barcodes would get destroyed by the end of the weekend.. all it would take is some rain or a few torn tickets and then stewards would be left keying in barcode numbers, which would slow the whole process down. Same goes for RFID in tickets (if the ticket is bent, then the antenna is stuffed), but then maybe have tickets printed on something akin to an Oyster card and use those instead? They'd be a bit more sturdy than paper...

[Mikee B]

the blue vested security guy at G stage went and got cups of drinking water for us without even being asked

on the flip side a different steward confiscated my mates weed by offering the alternative of expulsion. w@nker!!

[inspectedinspector]

Do you want mine before I pimp it on Ebay.

[Guest Flip]

The campervan situation really does need a solution. Its the reason we don't bother with Glasto anymore.

Would love to go back oneday but while the entry/re-entry queues and searching continues I fear we will not return..

[beamends]

You don't need to worry about Security selling on or smoking your stuff - one of the "legal highs" traders was only to happy to reveal that Security were his best customers by a mile.

Without doubt Security were on the whole a bunch of useless people who think wearing stupid sunglasses and tearing about in jap 4x4's somehow makes them look well 'ard. Give 'em a radio and wowee - look at e! IF we go again, we will be camping, the campervan field passout system provides to many easy targets for these losers. Personally I would feel violated by the Police searching me, never mind some meathead who I have no respect for, or trust in. The only solution is to include the campervan field in the site by extending the fence. It's sad to reflect that opposing such searches was once one of the very things that people went to Glastonbury for!

Someone commented that people were pushing past the gates on gate C. Well, that's hardly surprising since Security, on three occasions, stopped their vehicles on the crossing while they had a nice little chat, completely ignoring the queue to get in/out.

Professional is not a word I would associate with those blokes, and I wouldn't trust them to help me across the road never mind deal with a real "incident" - which, I suspect, they would have created in the first place through their lack of professionalism.

[TalkShow Bob]

The electronic solution is all well and good but remember it has to be portable so it can be rolled out to vehicle gates and be brought upto the car so everyone dosent have to get out and in all the time.

[emmmmma]

When my car was stuck in the mud when I was trying to get out of the festival a security woman shouted through her 4x4 window 'MOVE OUT THE f**kING WAY' at me. They definitely weren't very friendly.

[stonerboy]

the blue vested security guy at G stage went and got cups of drinking water for us without even being asked

on the flip side a different steward confiscated my mates weed by offering the alternative of expulsion. w@nker!!

[stonerboy]

There seemed to be four distinct groups of authority there-

Police

Stewards

Security

'Specialized' 'Response' Security

I got along with the Police the most out of all of that group.. I never thought I'd say that

The stewards were pretty cool aswell, mostly student volunteers.

however the security were mostly brutes and I witnessed them being rude and heavy handed.. and they were f**king mayhem in those 4x4's. I guess most of them are ex or failed public service employees.

and the Response Security were like f**king stormtroopers.. ''come on team alpha! lets move move!''

[smiley33]

Thirded. The pass out system at present is silly! It is too prone to loss of ticket or pass out. I also don't understand why a pass out is necessary as well as a ticket. A system just using wristbands would speed things up.

[Red Day]

Security lot in front of the Pyramid for Quo were great, especially the bloke with the shades who was singing his heart out

[ShadyBlueBell]

I've been to the Glastonbury Festival every year since 1997, and this is the first time that I've felt a need to raise issues relating to the way that the Security Company (SLS?) has acted this year.

In previous years Security have conducted random searches in order to ensure that no glass bottles or 'weapons' are brought onto the site - which is unarguably sensible. This year they appear to have extended their 'remit' to include the searching for, and confiscation of, illicit substances.

This year I stayed in one of the campervan fields, and therefore had to pass through the Security gate at least twice daily, entering and leaving the site. What I saw, experienced, and was told about does not sit comfortably.

1. RANDOM SEARCHES - these did not appear to be 'random' - one guy I spoke with got searched on three separate occasions over three days. When there was only a trickle of people coming onsite they searched everyone, if there were spare Security staff sitting around doing nothing. I spoke with Security when being stopped myself - he claimed that they could stop and search anyone, and without having reasonable suspicion (seems that they have more power than the police on this issue). When challenging their right to me being searched, I was asked in a surly manner "Do you want to go into the festival?". They were very nice to me after my consenting to their search and them not finding anything, but I've heard them being overjoyed at finding someones personal stash, and lecturing them on the wrongs of their activities. I've also heard stories of people being asked to remove their wellies whilst being searched !!

2. BEHAVIOUR - I witnessed one occasion where Security were driving their 4x4 at speed down a path - people having to jump out of the way to avoid being run over. Another time as I was leaving the site, back to the campervan field, I watched as someone was manhandled and verbally threatened by Security staff, before being bundled into the back of an awaiting van with 'SLS' emblazoned on its side. I don't know the reason why he was asked to leave, but the level of force used to evict him appeared to be unreasonably excessive.

3. Other thoughts...

a) No record appears to be kept of how many people are searched, how many are 'clean' and how many have items confiscated. What accountability is in place ?

What happens to all confiscated items ?

c) At what point, if at all, do the police become involved with regards confiscated items ?

Glastonbury festival is THE place to be - the best in the world, but my personal experiences of the way Security have handled things this year, such as the above incidents, and others stories reported elsewhere in this forum are well out of order.