Any advice for 6 Danes travelling to Glastonbury for the first time?

[GlastonburyDane]

Hi all! Been lurking on this site for rumours and info about the festival since me and 5 friends coming from Denmark were so lucky to get tickets in October. We are extremely excited as this will the first time for all of us!

However, before booking plane and coach tickets we are a bit confused… Mostly about when and how to actually arrive and (sadly) leave the festival…

Arriving: We want to experience the whole festival and would love an attractive camping spot as well. At what time would we have to be the perfect time to get there? Wednesday morning? Or do people actually queuing up the day before (as they do at Roskilde)?

We are planning on flying to London and going by coach from there – any better solutions?  

Leaving: We are all attending Roskilde Festival as well, where the warm-up days already start during Glastonbury. So at what time does the festival actually end? We want to get to Roskilde during the Monday 26th, so we are thinking about leaving late Sunday around midnight, catching a plane Monday morning. Would that make sense or should we go earlier/later? 

Hope some of you can help us out! Thanks in advance  

[Flysheet]

Gates open Weds at 8am, car parks open at 9pm night before, not sure on coaches and the National Express ones are likely to be booked up now which means you'd need to get from Bristol or Bath.

Things finish at midnight or later on the Sunday but again the coach issue may be a problem. Could you fly to Bristol?

[daisylane]

You might want to book a later flight on Monday in order to give you more time in case of delays getting out of the festival   

[GlastonburyDane]

Thanks for the replies both of you! It seems that we are still able to book some coaches leaving from London to the Festival with National Express luckily at about £ 50 each for a return, seems pretty reasonable. 

Do you think there will be a lot of traffic during the night between Sunday and Monday as well? If we pick a departure leaving at 2 am, scheduled for London at around 5:30? 

[daisylane]

I can't imagine it'll be that busy on the roads at 2am so if that is an option, I'd go for that and book a flight back for AFTER 10am, just to be careful

[Ovechkin]

Last time, 2013, we took a bus 0300 back to London, No delays.

this time we're thinking of going earlier, 0100, directly after the mainstages Close. Our flight back to sweden departs 0900. But we rather Walt at Gatwick than half a night at glasto.

Last time we had packed Our bags and tent and kept it in the property lockups during the day. 

We arrived 0800, went straight in. Not much people at all at Our gate, we camped at the oxlyers, near other stage. Was like 3 other groups in the entire field. Dunno how It looked in pennards which is more popular

 

Edited April 28, 2017 by Ovechkin

[guypjfreak]

Try and camp in big ground or kidney mead.. You are right next to the pyramid stage but can quickly get down to other parts.. That's just my point of view but if you want to party like it's 2017 oxlers or Pennard.. Depending on what you want to do....as others have said get there as early as possible.. 

[p.pete]

Take a look at https:///s/g2016/ for an idea of how much is still going on Sunday night after the main stages stop - there's plenty still going on until 5/6am.  (you may need to go into settings to enable all stages to be viewed).

I guess you need to decide what's better - a full last night at Glastonbury when everything is still going on verses getting to Roskilde as early as possible.  I know being at Glastonbury in the first few days when everything is building up is wonderful - and I can guess Roskilde is the same.  Also, if you've a full night on Sunday, and travel the next day, you shouldn't try to get to a flight until late on Monday, as you have no gaurantee how many hours it will take you to get out of the festival once traffic builds up and everyone starts queueing for the same bus.  So having a full night on Sunday could delay you by upto a full day maybe.  If you like late night stuff then the Sunday at Glastonbury might be worth sticking round for, if it's mainly about the bands then probably not...

[StoneCircle]

Sorry not offering any advice, but I am amazed and envious of your stamina doing the two festivals back to back! 

[Smeble]

30 minutes ago, StoneCircle said:

Sorry not offering any advice, but I am amazed and envious of your stamina doing the two festivals back to back! 

I second this, me and my wife are going to 4 festivals in 6 weeks but at least we get some breathing space in between. 

[Brave Sir Robin]

Entirely agree with @p.pete. There's plenty of stuff going on until 6am Sunday night/Monday morning. Often a really nice atmosphere as the place empties out a little, and everyone knows it's the last night. Seeing the final sunrise over the site  from the Stone Circle/flagtopia/top of the Park is a nice way to wrap things up (makes me emotional just thinking about it...). Plus, knowing you are leaving at midnight/2am can interfere with your enjoyment of Sunday night.

So if you possibly can, I wouldn't leave until later on the Monday - either 6/7am if you want to get straight on the coach or later if you want a bit of kip first.

Getting out can take a looong time. I would book the latest flight you can to ensure you don't miss it.

[GlastonburyDane]

Thank you all so much for the advices! We seriously can't wait to pleasure/pain our bodies with a double header of two of the biggest festivals out there. Plan must be to never get sober during those 11-something days in order to keep avoiding the massive hangover. Might be our best or worst idea yet, don't think there is any in between. 

Bus tickets were as one of you said going pretty fast, but we still managed to book some going from London around 1.30, scheduled for arriving Wednesday morning 5 am... Only bus available Sunday night is leaving at 2.30 am so we booked that as well.

How worried should we be about delays in those middle-of-the-night-hours? Any experiences in leaving around that time?

We are going to book our plane tickets very soon but if the bus heading back to London is more than one hour delayed, we will have some troubles catching the plane we are hoping to get on... 

 

[jo1980]

I can't help with traffic on the Wednesday, but I would have thought you should be fine on the Sunday night. I've left between midnight and 1am on the Sunday night for the last two years, and barely seen another car on the roads back to London, no traffic at all at that time. Hope you have an amazing festival, and as others have said, super impressed with your stamina!

[p.pete]

I'd still allow a few hours leeway for your flights on Monday, even in the middle of the night - if the bus breaks down (or turns up late) ye should be covered by travel insurance for a new flight, but that'd still be a pain.

[e_p]

wear this 

[pie_and_a_pint]

13 hours ago, GlastonburyDane said:

Thank you all so much for the advices! We seriously can't wait to pleasure/pain our bodies with a double header of two of the biggest festivals out there. Plan must be to never get sober during those 11-something days in order to keep avoiding the massive hangover. Might be our best or worst idea yet, don't think there is any in between. 

 

 

I too am in awe of your stamina doing two massive festivals (and international travel) back to back. But with that attitude to life I think you're going to fit in brilliantly at Glastonbury. You're going to have an AMAZING time!  

 

[the beadle]

Just get there as early as possible and leave as late as possible, longer festival = more fun. 

[balti-pie]

Bring us over some of those insane Mikkeller imperial stouts!