Hero Of The Day - It was me

[t8yman]

I heard many horror stories when I arrived yesterday morning from friends who had been there since thursday. Security stopped my mate for a random search on the way into the arena and found his painkillers (for his serious back trouble) I forget the name, but they are 1 step short of morphine apparently. They detained him and gave him a thorough search whilst they checked some national medicine database to check that he was indeed prescribed them, they then let him go.

My brother was "taxed" by the stewards last night whilst quietly sat having a smoke in the porch of his tent. They took a good portion of his stash and left him with the rest??? they also made him take off his shoes and socks.

By far the worst story I was told was by a young couple who were camped near us. At about 6:30am on Sunday, 3 stewards entered their tent!! (I shit you not) whilst they were asleep, they were shouting "drug search", and made them both leave the tent immedeately and wouldnt let them move anything in their tent before they commenced the search. When they left empty handed - the girl went into her bag to find £150 stolen from her purse.The police werent interested either. I told her she should tell the police one of the stewards grabbed her tit or something, that would make them take it seriously.

So anyway, I had very little patience with the jobsworth pricks who appeared to have "inconvenience the rvellers for no apparent logical reason" as one of their main briefs. As we were readying to leave this morning, I went to collect the car from the nearby pub carpark, and parked it just outside orange gate whilst me and the boys brought the stuff from the orange camp to the car. As we made our first journey back to the car - we noticed the gate had been closed, and locked with zipties. I said to another kid struggling with heavy gear "whats going on mate?" "Apparently they havent got anyone to man the gate so we have to leave via red gate"

that was red rag time, I could see 8 stewards not 20 feet away - all talking and laughing whilst looking at the small crowd of people now waiting at the gate. "f**k this" I said and approached the gate. Immedeately one of the (larger) stewards came towards me "whoa whoa - what are you doing?" "I'm going out of this gate mate" "Its sealed" "Why?" "Because it is, you have to leave via red gate" "My car is 100 yards through there" "You have to leave via red gate, this gate is now sealed" and left "f**k you" was my retort.

"anyone got a knife?" said I to the crowd, they were all stood lookiung sheepish, dreading their walk all the way round.

I shouted at them all "Where are you lot going? we dont have to take this shit, everyone move up here, they arent gonna stop us getting out this way"

So I approached the gate, and pulled the lever as hard as I could, snapping the wire ties and opened the gate.

A small cheer erupted from the assembled tired and grubby crowd. And I walked out feeling 10 feet tall!

[Cooter]

Hero to you maybe, to me you sound like a bit of an idiot. You've acted on several as you say "stories" (apart from your brothers who I assume is believeable to you anyway) by breaking open a shut gate that was shut for a reason and also had nothing to do with the "stories" you heard anyway.

Not to mention the shout out to everyone for a knife in front of security. Get a brain mate!

[t8yman]

thanks mate, I'm sure you would have been happy to walk an extra 2 miles carrying all of your camping gear when your car was 100 yards away.

shut for good reason? what good reason was that? there were 6 or 8 stewards stood pointing and laughing at us looking at the locked gate.

I didnt act on any stories, I acted against a load of f**king jobsworths who thought it was funny to cause plenty of completely unnecessary inconvenience to tired people carrying very heavy camping gear with absolutely no justification whatsoever.

edited to add

the shout out for the knife was to cut the zipties. nothing more sinister than that.

Edited August 30, 2010 by t8yman

[FiestaDave]

Fair play to you sir, why lock a gate when everyone is leaving?

However the security/stewarding seems to have been better this year, although you'll always find a few power hungry pricks.

[gooner1990]

Security was definatly beefed up this year.

We had a small fire in a steel bucket (used for food in the morning) and had it hosed out most nights, told to turn our stereo down, not allowed in brown on the last night because were camped elsewere (wanted to get to the 24 hr shop) so had to walk round.

I took our stereo round green last night and had security up in my face saying "turn that f**king thing off or i'll throw you out"

Reason?

Because it attracts crowds apprently...and we don't want people having fun do we?

[doobie ninja]

nice one mate!

we used the orange gate so cheers (our car was only about 100 yards out side the gate too)

[lharris92]

tell you what i had an earlybird and on the wednesday night we got asked to turn our music down and to quieten down.... the field was 1/4 full.

thats the only joke from jobsworths that we had... apart from one who was stoned in the arena

[Cooter]

thanks mate, I'm sure you would have been happy to walk an extra 2 miles carrying all of your camping gear when your car was 100 yards away.

shut for good reason? what good reason was that? there were 6 or 8 stewards stood pointing and laughing at us looking at the locked gate.

I didnt act on any stories, I acted against a load of f**king jobsworths who thought it was funny to cause plenty of completely unnecessary inconvenience to tired people carrying very heavy camping gear with absolutely no justification whatsoever.

edited to add

the shout out for the knife was to cut the zipties. nothing more sinister than that.

[Sawdusty surfer]

I heard many horror stories when I arrived yesterday morning from friends who had been there since thursday. Security stopped my mate for a random search on the way into the arena and found his painkillers (for his serious back trouble) I forget the name, but they are 1 step short of morphine apparently. They detained him and gave him a thorough search whilst they checked some national medicine database to check that he was indeed prescribed them, they then let him go.

My brother was "taxed" by the stewards last night whilst quietly sat having a smoke in the porch of his tent. They took a good portion of his stash and left him with the rest??? they also made him take off his shoes and socks.

By far the worst story I was told was by a young couple who were camped near us. At about 6:30am on Sunday, 3 stewards entered their tent!! (I shit you not) whilst they were asleep, they were shouting "drug search", and made them both leave the tent immedeately and wouldnt let them move anything in their tent before they commenced the search. When they left empty handed - the girl went into her bag to find £150 stolen from her purse.The police werent interested either. I told her she should tell the police one of the stewards grabbed her tit or something, that would make them take it seriously.

So anyway, I had very little patience with the jobsworth pricks who appeared to have "inconvenience the rvellers for no apparent logical reason" as one of their main briefs. As we were readying to leave this morning, I went to collect the car from the nearby pub carpark, and parked it just outside orange gate whilst me and the boys brought the stuff from the orange camp to the car. As we made our first journey back to the car - we noticed the gate had been closed, and locked with zipties. I said to another kid struggling with heavy gear "whats going on mate?" "Apparently they havent got anyone to man the gate so we have to leave via red gate"

that was red rag time, I could see 8 stewards not 20 feet away - all talking and laughing whilst looking at the small crowd of people now waiting at the gate. "f**k this" I said and approached the gate. Immedeately one of the (larger) stewards came towards me "whoa whoa - what are you doing?" "I'm going out of this gate mate" "Its sealed" "Why?" "Because it is, you have to leave via red gate" "My car is 100 yards through there" "You have to leave via red gate, this gate is now sealed" and left "f**k you" was my retort.

"anyone got a knife?" said I to the crowd, they were all stood lookiung sheepish, dreading their walk all the way round.

I shouted at them all "Where are you lot going? we dont have to take this shit, everyone move up here, they arent gonna stop us getting out this way"

So I approached the gate, and pulled the lever as hard as I could, snapping the wire ties and opened the gate.

A small cheer erupted from the assembled tired and grubby crowd. And I walked out feeling 10 feet tall!

[Cooter]

good man! that sort of attitude is what made the free festival/free party scene happen many years ago. if i had my hat on i would take it off to you!

[DaLumberjack]

Saturday night, me and 2 friends had a fire going, I was ill and was sat there with a huge bottle of water infront of me and only 4 burning logs at a time on the fire.

Fire marshall comes round "no higher than that please", I turn and smile and say okay.

Second lot come round, and says the same apart from his partner has one of those back packs with water and says "but if you do want to make it bigger go ahead, it means I get to use this cool machine" which chuckling to himself.

Third lot, "that is a bit too close to your gazebbo dont you think?", to which I say "two nights ago the fire was where your standing as you can see from the ash below you, so your colleague came along and kicked it here and said this is fine, but dont go too big", "Oh, well if thats the case keep it small"

Finally, 5 of them come over, one says "They have been warned already, squirt it", and as suddenly I and the fire get attacked with the thing. "I have just have three groups of your colleagues say this is okay here, what was that for, im ill and trying to stay warm to not get worse", "They were wrong" and walks away.

That saga happened in a space of 10 minutes, so I waited half an hour, re built the fire in the exact same spot and didn't see another fire marshal for the rest of the festival...looking out for safety my arse, they were bored and f**ked with me because I was one of the only fires at 21:00 because the only people in the campsite are drunks...they seemed to forget those who werent well enough to move far...

sorry rant over.

[choadus]

So I approached the gate, and pulled the lever as hard as I could, snapping the wire ties and opened the gate.

[t8yman]

You're rather lucky they didn't launch you from the site for good man.

Hero? Or just Lazy?

[Paul ™]

I was at Orange Gate just after they closed it, they wouldn't even open it for me despite telling them it is always open for egress. Anyway we got it sorted, and got them to open it and man it. By the way, that was Stuart Security who ran the gate, I was the supervisor for Orange Camp for Specialized.

Also the couple who had the money stolen, it was me and the zone manager who were dealing with it. Turns out it wasn't security who raided her tent as the uniforms she described were not any companies that were on site.

Edited September 1, 2010 by Paul ™

[Megahurtz400]

I was at Orange Gate just after they closed it, they wouldn't even open it for me despite telling them it is always open for egress. Anyway we got it sorted, and got them to open it and man it. By the way, that was Stuart Security who ran the gate, I was the supervisor for Orange Camp for Specialized.

Also the couple who had the money stolen, it was me and the zone manager who were dealing with it. Turns out it wasn't security who raided her tent as the uniforms she described were not any companies that were on site.

[D-Low]

Security in red were completely fine. Not one single problem. We had our stereo on till the really early hours pretty loud every night and not once asked by any campers or security to turn it off/down.

Same as our fires. Completely fine every night.

Good job I didn't get searched coming in then I guess if they took your mates prescribed pain killers as I had a pack of herbal tablets for stiff joints. Their completely plain/white so could have been anything for all they know. Phew.

Only time security came over was twice to ask us nicely to clean up the camp as fair enough it was a state! They were cool about it though even sat down with us for a little and had a joke.

[Chris12345]

Mate, I suggest you google 'Love Parade 2010' or 'Roskilde 2000'... maybe even 'Hillsborough' or other such searches might be relevant.

I trust it you have co-ordinated security at 50k+ events?

[t8yman]

yawn

[Chris12345]

Wow, good argument... what a hero!

[t8yman]

Wow, good argument... what a hero!

[angrymammal]

Well don't talk to me like I'm some f**king stupid arse who put the safety of thousands of people at risk. I opened a gate that maybe 1000 people use every year for getting in and out, and some jumped up twat decided it was a good idea to "seal" because they couldnt be arsed to man it, and then stand nearby pointing and laughing as people were facing a 2 mile walk to get 100 yards. It takes 2 people to man it, yet there were at least 7 stood laughing nearby.

9 years I have used that gate, and the only time it has ever been closed has been when large vehicles have been moving around outside (which is perfectly understandable).

The whole point of my post was that a small crowd of people cheered me like a hero at the time, and it felt good. I'm not asking to be your poster boy.

[zeppelin]

i also love the fact you felt the need to come on here and brag about your "heroics"

other than that, can't comment; wasn't there, never used the gate.

even so, to be fair you came across as a bit of an idiot in the OP. Just worded badly perhaps?

[Huwbacca]

I think you deserve a Blue Peter badge.

[t8yman]

Its quite obvious that none of this has come across as it was meant to to some people.

I'll leave it at that.

[Vacant0]

Christ, some festigoers are miserable, self-righteous f**ks aren't they...

To the OP, I get the thread - not brilliantly worded, but still - nice one.

Edited September 18, 2010 by Vacant0