Guilfest camping - a warning!

[jaysel]

GUILFEST - A WARNING!

Being a regular festival & rally goer for the last 25 years, and having been to Guilfest on a number of occasions as a day visitor in the past, my family & I decided to make a weekend of it and stay for Guilfest 2011.

The facilities where great and the festival arena is amazing. There are far more festival shops & food outlets than at Camp Bestival! On the face of it, it appeared to be the ultimate family festival.

However, when evening came the horror began.

We had decided to camp in Family / Quiet Camping area. Unfortunately, this did not deter a number of youths from causing havoc in this area. On the Friday night, we had the contents of our cold box – food & drink, stolen and spread about our site. Our eggs were smashed over our tents. Our neighbour’s had their clothes stolen on the same night.

The following night, our flag & pole was stolen. Our friends had 2 chairs stolen and 2 or 3 other people that I spoke to had had flags & poles stolen. On top of this, a colleague of ours padlocked his tent – and on his return on Saturday evening, found that someone had slashed open his tent and covered all his belongings in spaghetti hoops & tomato sauce. When I complained about the theft & vandalism, I was told by your staff that I was lucky that I had not had anything of value stolen!

In 25 years of camping at festivals & bike rallies, I have never come across such blatant thievery & criminal damage. I understand that you cannot be held responsible for this, and a festival in a town centre does invite a certain element. However, in light of this, perhaps it might be an idea to have some kind of campsite security in future. At least an official presence would be useful. All there seemed to be where people by the fire exits, and a bloke asleep up the central lighting tower!

It’s a shame that the security & sniffer dogs put on at the main gate to stop people from bringing their own alcohol & drugs in to the arena were not utilised in the camping area. It did feel that we were very much left to our own devices and had no one to turn to when there was any trouble. The stewards where not at all interested in our problems.

I did accost two chaps of about 18/20 who were trying to steal a neighbour’s tent and saw them off. This was not before they threatened me in front of my children, and told us that they would be back in the night to do me. This ruined my 10 years old daughter’s birthday and she had to be taken home, as she understandably did not want to camp anymore.

You seem to have a great festival at Guilfest; however, I could never camp there again until some kind of security is put in place. I had to spend all Sunday night sitting outside our tents to protect from anything else being stolen or other violence. It really left a bad taste in our mouths after what could have been one of the best festivals we have been to.

Sadly, a festival where you fear for your safety of your possessions & your personal safety can not be classed as a family festival!

I have contacted the Guilfest team by email & letter - but never had any reply back from them.

[eFestivals]

Sorry to hear about your awful experiences.

I'm aware that thieving and obnoxious kids on the campsite has got worse in recent years, but I'm also aware that last year action against it was stepped up even if it still fell far short of perfect. I saw a few kids being arrested by the police on the campsite.

In attending GuilFest for over 10 years and camping each time, I've never encountered threats etc anywhere on site, so while your experience sounds awful it's certainly not the experience of everyone.

I did have a camera stolen from my tent a few years ago, but for that I mostly blame myself for having left it in the tent. It's a sad reflection of the world but he first rule of festivals is "don't take anything you're not prepared to lose". I didn't follow what I know is very good advice.

The same year I had my camera stolen I was camped near-by to a teenagers 'party tent', who were a little rowdy but not too bad. I was mightily impressed with them on the Sunday tho, as they cleaned up the area very well when they packed up their things.

I know for certain that the organisers do take notice of the sorts of problems you encountered, so hopefully they'll be an improvement this year. But thieving at festival campsites is just about impossible to stop and is a problem at just about every festival to a smaller or greater degree, and often those thieving scumbags move onto a different festival the next year so it doesn't necessarily follow that because things were bad one year they'll be bad the next.

[gjammer]

I would also add never padlock a tent as it only highlights there may be something worth stealing. As your friend found out, it will just get slashed. Also don't look too affluent ie don't be seen with the latest phone/gadgets/camera around your tent as the thieves watch and will stay behind and do your tent when you go.

Edited June 17, 2012 by gjammer

[Bisque]

I stewarded at Guilfest in 2010 at the main campsite entrance checking wristbands, glass iems etc. Unfortunately I heard of many cases of tent theft & vandalism, witnessing it first hand on a few occassions. Each time the trouble was being caused by pre-legal drinking age youths with the odd older hanger on. The security were abyssmal in responding to cases & when action was finally taken they were rather ruthless (unlike that of the understanding & approachable security at Glastonbury). I would recommend Guilfest for families but never to camp overnight.

[Bisque]

Neil was this issue of unruley behaviour at night one of the reasons the official forum for Guilfest was closed down?

[Bisque]

Neil was this issue of unruley behaviour at night one of the reasons the official forum for Guilfest was closed down?

[eFestivals]

Neil was this issue of unruley behaviour at night one of the reasons the official forum for Guilfest was closed down?

i've no idea. I'm only barely aware that it has been closed down, from a post or two that's been made here.

To be fair to Guilfest around its forum, it's a festival that kept its forum going an awful lot longer than many other fests - Glasto, T in the Park, and others shut theirs down years ago, for whatever reasons.

[sonny]

Neil was this issue of unruley behaviour at night one of the reasons the official forum for Guilfest was closed down?

[eFestivals]

the feral young were totally out of control at night in 2010.

last year wasn't as bad as 2010 - they're defo cracking down on the problems from what I saw last year, tho they still need to do more. Hopefully they'll be further improvement again.

[sonny]

last year wasn't as bad as 2010 - they're defo cracking down on the problems from what I saw last year, tho they still need to do more. Hopefully they'll be further improvement again.

[jaysel]

Don't get me wrong - the festival arena is one of the best organised with some of the best food outlets at any festival. However they just don't care about the camping. It is an after thought and only policed by students in exhange for free tickets.

There was no one I could escalate the issue to when I was on site either.

After the event, I did some research and found that a number of people have complained about this issue since 2008!!!! So I am not the first! And it is nothing new to the organisers.

[eFestivals]

However they just don't care about the camping. It is an after thought and only policed by students in exhange for free tickets.

those things are simply not true.

There is professional security (who are trained and govt badged) for the campsite, as well as plain clothes police operating there as well (who I witnessed with my own eyes arrest a few lads).

If GuilFest don't care then nor do Surrey Police.

After the event, I did some research and found that a number of people have complained about this issue since 2008!!!! So I am not the first! And it is nothing new to the organisers.

The simple fact is that people always complain, but that doesn't mean that their complaints are always justified, or alternatively, that a justified complaint is for an issue that's running out control.

And, just as a comparison, people have been complaining about crime 'out on the street' (rather than within festivals) since the year dot, but it still happens. That doesn't mean that the police, councils, and govt doesn't care about it, and neither are those who are trying to stop it only useless at trying to stop it.

I'm not trying to suggest that your complaint was unjustified, but nothing about you having a justified complaint that couldn't be resolved to your satisfaction says anything about how much GuilFest might or might not care about these sorts of campsite issues - the sorts of campsite issues that happen at just about every festival to some degree, and ultimately (tho not in your case from what you've said) an awful lot of complaints come about just because of harmless "high jinx" by some that are to other people's dislike.

[eFestivals]

well, I can definitely and personally confirm that lots of plain clothes coppers were on duty around the campsites at GuilFest this year, as well as uniformed coppers patrolling, and much more activity by security.

And while there were still plenty of teenagers having a wild weekend (and why not? ), I was camped very near to a very large group of them and apart from a bit of late night rowdiness (again, why not ) they were no bother to me or anyone around me.

In fact this was the first GuilFest for a few years where I didn't hear of any cases of people having their tents robbed. That of course doesn't mean it didn't happen (it's pretty rare for any festival to be incident free), but I'd be confident to guess that the numbers were right down on more recent years.

If nothing else, I reckon what I saw this year can put to bed the idea that GuilFest don't care about stopping trouble happening on the campsite.