What's your exit strategy?

[BambooShanks]

1 hour ago, Keithy said:

Do you know if you're on a booked train, can you just march to the front of the queues and get on your booked train? Or does all order breakdown and it's just packing people on any train?

You could try but the train station resembles a really polite re-imagining of Mad Max 

[Ruth1980]

1 hour ago, theDandy said:

Did you get the job?

I did! Still haven't managed to tell my boss what my pre-interview prep consisted of...

[gratefulbread]

1 hour ago, Lubic87 said:

SE corner on Sunday night as it's less busy, few hours kip, then the morning packing and trip to the coach station. Same every year.

Love the Thursday, but I guess I'm old school, and still see the main 3 days/nights of Glastonbury being Fri-Sun. Can't imagine ever wanting to leave on the Sunday, or spend part of that day packing etc, unless I had a very good reason for needing to be back early on Monday.

It feels people are increasingly eager to get there early and start queuing from Tuesday, but then just as keen to leave on the Sunday.

It's like the people who turn up an hour early for a football match so they can park close to the ground, and then leave before the final whistle to beat the traffic. Yeah you can stand around the concourse, having a pre-match pint of cooking lager with your mate. But it's not worth missing that 93rd minute winner, just so you can get home in time to watch Pointless celebs.

For me it's the fact that I'm new to driving and it's a long way back to Northumberland. I'm going to feel more comfortable if I can get out of the site on Sunday night and into a travel lodge bed for 6 hours solid kip. Fry up breakfast then the drive north. 

My previous 10 or so Glastonbury's have all been public transport and leaving mid morning on the Monday. 

[EZYSEY]

22 hours ago, Phoenix Girl said:

Good to know for next time. My husband does the driving tbf but I’d rather we got the coach then he can fully enjoy the Sunday. Arriving midday Wednesday is fine for me - I’m not one for queuing all night.

I live in St Margarets so I’m practically your neighbour. I love Deal (Moscow I’m not as familiar with!) 

WTF! I live in deal also.

[EMorgz92]

Got the coach back my first year (2014), 8.30am which was pretty grim to say the least, home by 3pm ish (Norwich)

2016 - can't remember, but I do seem to recall stumbling around a hot and sunny central Manchester in wellies with a load of stuff as people were leaving work, so it must have been coach!

2017 - got a lift back with friends leaving site around 7am and got home for about 11.30 (Manchester)! That was top although my driving friend did have to take it easy on the Sunday night whereas I got my most leathered I had been for the whole festival ?

This year I got tickets in general for once so will be getting a lift back with friends. Reading this thread has convinced me to scrape up the last of my annual leave and book the Tuesday off work... couldn't face it if I was forced into work on the Tuesday morning as I've always taken it off in previous years just to wash and rest (and grieve that it's over!) .

[grilladelphia]

Its my first glasto - however with previous festivals I tend to do an all nighter on sunday, pass out some time in the Monday morning, and eventually get moved on by the security at some point on the Monday afternoon  

[Display-Name]

We always do an all nighter Sunday night, topped off at the top of the park awaiting the sunrise. We then head back to camp and pack up around 6am and get the shuttle bus back to Glastonbury. Home and asleep by 8/9ish.

I remember in 2014 we'd been to the UV paint fight that night so you can imagine the state of us. Walking back through Glastonbury on the Monday morning as all the kids were walking to school we did get some funny looks as we were an absolute mess. Straight in the shower and straight to bed. Bliss.

[gooner1990]

Ok here goes (this is all going back to the Oxford area)

2004: Monday mid morning....not much traffic iirc was home in Abingdon by early afternoon.

2005: Was going with some mates who lived near Winchester so got a train there from Oxford weds am, met them, did the reverse coming back...can't recall there being much traffic.

2007: Awful...decided to hit it hard Sunday night after watching the Chemical Brothers, woke up in my tent to the sound of rain about 9am...looked out from my tent in Big Ground and the Pyramid Field looked like the end of the world. Took AGES to get back to the car, got stuck in mud, got stuck on A303 in traffic, got home about 6pm....comedown and covered in mud, mother wouldn't let me in the house and hosed me in the garden.  Thankfully I had the Tuesday off work.

2008:  Again, hit it hard Sunday night, mate driving us home was in a bad way so he slept it off in his tent till nearly lunchtime and we left after...hit traffic coming off site but once on the M4 it was fine.

2009: Some friends were leaving Sunday night and I couldn't get the Tuesday off work so I ended up grabbing a lift and leaving after the Prodigy/Blur headline clash, was home by 4am....had that odd feeling of being back home and the festival coverage/highlights had just finished on BBC2/BBC3 when I got in I think...and I had recorded it so watched a small bit of it after a shower.  Some other friends had stayed and they called me spanged when I was jhaving a fag at my back door before going to bed at around 5amVery odd end to the weekend.  Only time I've ever left on the Sunday.

2010:  Got smashed in Shangri-La till 4am or so, mate who drove did the same and we ended up leaving about 2pm on the Monday....missed all the traffic and was home by 5.30pm which was very good...although I did pine to be at home for most of the day whilst he was getting his head straight.

2011: Hit it hard again in Shangri-La/Stone Circle, till 6am, dropped a Valium and went to sleep at 6.30am...mate woke me up at 9.30am and said to get up, managed to sort myself out and got in the car ,grabbed my pillow and slept the whole way home...got slammed in traffic but I have no recollection of it. 😄

2013: Hit it hard again at Shangri-La, then went to bed around 5am, mate of mine took it easy leaving think we got off site just after 1pm and were home by 6pm so not great but not horrific. Seem to recall a Shell garage sandwich tasting a lot better than it should have done at a petrol station near Bristol.

2014: I drove for the first time (!), drank quite a bit on the Sunday but stopped after Kasabian and got irritated with everyone around me gurning on mdma so went to bed. Slept in a fair bit, left camp around 10am, off site by 12, but hit traffic on the A303 and didn't get back to Oxford till gone 4pm and had to drop a mate off and then I got stuck in rush hour traffic. Wasn't a very good exit that year.

2015: Me and a mate got see tickets bus, had to curtail the sunday night after the who to try and get some sleep, got up at 6am, got to Ped gate A for coach, for 7.30am departure, coach turned up 90 mins late then got lost trying to take a shortcut to Oxford, then had to get a cab back home from there, was easy in terms of not having to do anything but took 8 hours from getting up to getting through the door. Not great.

2016:  I drove again, didn't hit it particually hard sunday night but woke up 10am, off site by 12 then was home by 6pm...again loads of traffic around A303 and recall not having dinner much before Englands debable against Iceland.

2017: I drove, didn't want to make the same mistake as previous year so set an alarm for 6am, was off site by 8am, stopped quickly near Frome for breakfast and was home and in bed by 11am with a Dominos on order.  Probably best exit so far. 

2019: I worked so came in via coach from Bristol, worked the sunday night till 3am, was in bed by 4am, took a while for coach to take us off site but then got waved off fairly quickly, got back to drop off point in Bristol, cab to Temple Meads, train to Didcot, then cab back to Abingdon. sounds worse than it was as I had been working I wasn't horrendously hungover like normal.

2022: Coach from Oxford so hopefully goes smoothly. 🙂

I do think the take it slightly easy sunday night and set an alarm for 6/7am then up and go is the best for me if I'm not on a coach.....usually lost most of my energy by that point anyway these days!

[Hugh Jass]

Roughly speaking down the years:

04-10: Same mate would always drive, which I hated as we’d always have to wait around on the Monday until he had finished coming down until he was fit to drive. Always hated being on site and watching it slowly empty as people left their shit behind, so bleak! Would end up being amongst the last to leave and wouldn’t get back to Manchester until late on the Monday night. Hated it.

11-16: Mrs J and I would share the drive. Always tried to get on the road before 8am with the aim of being back in London with a cup of tea by early afternoon. Results varied based on how bad the A303 was.

17, 19 and the future: I am a full convert to packing up on the Sunday and getting on a coach circa 2-3am. As naughty as it is I’ve managed to blag on to a See coach to London (they’re never full as people just don’t show up as they’ve made alternative arrangements), they go to the O2 which is a ten minute taxi ride for me. Being back home in your own bed by about 9am on the Monday is just amazing.

[blutarsky]

2017 - packed up Sunday lunch, straight out of the WV car park around midnight and home by 2am. Was back to work Monday evening. 
 

2019 - we were working this year and we’re on shift 4pm - midnight on Sunday, so wanted to make the most of Sunday night. We made it through to about 5 before tiredness from the hard graft and partying caught up with us. Woke up about 9-10 on Monday, and got to the east car parks about 11am. We were then stuck in the car park for 2 hours and eventually got home about 5pm, not helped by the fact we had to drop a friend off in Bristol en route (it’s not en route for us but we dropped her off as she didn’t have a ticket and had got the taxi to the site on Thursday afternoon when one of the workers at the restaurant we were at went awol and they needed a last minute replacement). Ended up having Mon-Weds off work sick as I was fucked. Was meant to be back on Tuesday. 

[balthazarstarbuck]

2014- total disaster. Car left about 8 am Monday. 2.5 hours getting out of the car park. Traffic the entire way back to North London. Home around 6pm. 

2015- Different tack but just as bad. Drove after the Who. 90 minutes out of the car park. Driver nodded off twice on the A303 and was only woken up by rumble strips. Home around 9am after one of our party insisted on being dropped in Central. 
 

2017- drove, left around 7am, 1hr getting out, relatively clear ride, home by 2.30.

2019- trained it, left around 8, on train at 1015, home around 2.30. Definitely the least stressy way I’ve done it and wouldn’t do anything else going forward.

Edited July 14, 2021 by balthazarstarbuck

[dondo]

2003 got train down and other than having to lug stuff from Pennards to coach station it wasn't too bad.  Most of the queues at Castle Cary were for London bound trains and we were going in opposite direction. 

2004 wife (well girlfriend at time) drove and recall some queues to get out but not too bad

2005 was 1st year working and my wife drove again.  We had a shift Monday afternoon so didn't leave until later on and traffic was fine

2010 I worked but left from Cornwall as we were down there visiting family. Got lift from mate and we left Monday afternoon as we had early shift Monday morning. Other than pretty horrendous queues out of car park wasn't too bad.

2011 worked again and drove myself and a mate so took it easy Sunday night for the drive back but I also had a 6am start on the Monday. Queues out of the car park but pretty good journey back to Leeds. 

2013 worked and was going on my own and recall it being an awful journey back, one of the worst.  Again had 6am start on Monday so left mid afternoon 

2016 worked and this was only time I left on the Sunday. I'd had pre-festival shifts so had been on site for a week and was fed up with the mud. So left after ELO and whilst I'd parked next to a track in the car park someone had blocked me in so couldn't get straight onto the track so had to go another way and got stuck in the mud. Waited an hour or so to be towed out and after that journey wasn't too bad.

2019 worked again but last shift was Sunday morning but still took it easy Sunday night and headed back to my tent after the Cure. Left Monday mid morning and got out of car parks surprisingly easily so probably my best journey back.

[Leyrulion]

So what time do they get pissy on Monday if you're still on site? I'd assumed it was like midday but reading this thread it might be a lot later?

[Hugh Jass]

5 hours ago, Leyrulion said:

So what time do they get pissy on Monday if you're still on site? I'd assumed it was like midday but reading this thread it might be a lot later?

Think you have to be gone by 4/5pm.

[jimmillen]

2 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

Think you have to be gone by 4/5pm.

Wasn’t there a brilliant post a few years back from some poor person who’d gone big on the Sunday night and woke up on Monday evening in a deserted field? I seem to remember they were still extremely dazed & confused, had missed their coach and only had a tiny bit of phone battery left… 😂

Sure it’s happened to quite a few people over the years. 

[gooner1990]

6 minutes ago, jimmillen said:

Wasn’t there a brilliant post a few years back from some poor person who’d gone big on the Sunday night and woke up on Monday evening in a deserted field? I seem to remember they were still extremely dazed & confused, had missed their coach and only had a tiny bit of phone battery left… 😂

Sure it’s happened to quite a few people over the years. 

Reading Festival 2004 me and my two mates, made friends with the two camps next to us which were about 5 people from London and another 5 lads who had come over from Ireland...on the last night we had a big bonfire with another nearby camp who were a huge crowd of about 20 from near Portsmouth.

Everyone had a great night drinking and taking all sorts of stuff, it was still going strong when others around us were packing up and going...I eventually crashed at about 8-9am and then woke up to complete devestation at about 2pm with security kicking all our tents telling us to leave, all the various groups (London, Ireland and Portsmouth) were still there, however the entire rest of the festival had packed up and gone home.

Was very, very odd when we left to a ghost city of rubbish and abandoned tents!

[gooner1990]

I think a lot of the exit strategy depends on mode of transport, who you're with, who's driving, how far you have to travel home, how hard you like to party, weather conditions and bands people want to see on the final night.

Its almost like its a year by year case.

However, I think now I'm older I would going forward prefer, few drinks Sunday until about 10-11ish, bed after headliners, up at 6-6.30am, and hopefully off site by 8 at the latest. For me that gets me home by 11-11.30am depending on how many people I have to drop off and what the traffic is like.

Given I'm there Wednesday morning I'm usually done by that point anyway, the only other tactic could be, arrive late on Wednesday or even Thursday morning and then still go at it Sunday night and wait until lunchtime/early afternoon to leave.

[gooner1990]

2 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

Think you have to be gone by 4/5pm.

2010 we didn't leave till 2pm and no one came around and said anything so I think you're probably right!

[gooner1990]

15 hours ago, Hugh Jass said:

17, 19 and the future: I am a full convert to packing up on the Sunday and getting on a coach circa 2-3am. As naughty as it is I’ve managed to blag on to a See coach to London (they’re never full as people just don’t show up as they’ve made alternative arrangements), they go to the O2 which is a ten minute taxi ride for me. Being back home in your own bed by about 9am on the Monday is just amazing.

I assume you book onto a coach coming down as well or do you get the train and chance your arm with the coach coming back?

We have see ticket coach tickets for next year, which I don't mind but slightly there is that little bit of freedom of doing what you want taken away, and you can't bring as much, however when I did it in 2015 the queues were only about 30 minutes and we got dropped off quite close to the site entrance. 

Edited July 15, 2021 by gooner1990

[Hugh Jass]

12 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

I assume you book onto a coach coming down as well or do you get the train and chance your arm with the coach coming back?

We have see ticket coach tickets for next year, which I don't mind but slightly there is that little bit of freedom of doing what you want taken away, and you can't bring as much, however when I did it in 2015 the queues were only about 30 minutes and we got dropped off quite close to the site entrance. 

19 we had coach tickets through See to/from Brighton has Mrs J’s parents were looking after Baby J. We swapped with a friend of someone on here to get the earliest coach back (think it was 3/4 am) and we were back in Brighton by 9.

17 we travelled NE, but after realising that See dropped off much closer to ours we asked if we could get onto a See coach as it was only half full as loads of people hadn’t turned up for it. Nobody actually asked to see a ticket so we just walked on.

[gooner1990]

2 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

19 we had coach tickets through See to/from Brighton has Mrs J’s parents were looking after Baby J. We swapped with a friend of someone on here to get the earliest coach back (think it was 3/4 am) and we were back in Brighton by 9.

17 we travelled NE, but after realising that See dropped off much closer to ours we asked if we could get onto a See coach as it was only half full as loads of people hadn’t turned up for it. Nobody actually asked to see a ticket so we just walked on.

Not bad! Does the limit on the amount of stuff get a bit annoying?

I have other friends driving down so will offload my alcohol to them and just pack really, really light and have one bag and my camping chair (absolute essential now I'm about to turn 40!)

[Hugh Jass]

8 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Not bad! Does the limit on the amount of stuff get a bit annoying?

Not really, you just have to pack the essentials and ask mates to sort the rest (I tend to be the guy who sorts tickets for everyone so somebody usually owes me a favour and will bring my booze in their car).

Gave up a long time ago on bringing too much food and drink. Carrying it is a pain, warm beer is shite and the food never gets eaten. Plus I treat GF as a bit of a holiday these days, I can afford to spend a bit more if I want to.

[gooner1990]

9 minutes ago, Hugh Jass said:

Not really, you just have to pack the essentials and ask mates to sort the rest (I tend to be the guy who sorts tickets for everyone so somebody usually owes me a favour and will bring my booze in their car).

Gave up a long time ago on bringing too much food and drink. Carrying it is a pain, warm beer is shite and the food never gets eaten. Plus I treat GF as a bit of a holiday these days, I can afford to spend a bit more if I want to.

I stopped taking food to Glastonbury after the first year!

I finished uni in 2005 and have worked ever since so I agree, its like a bit like a holiday for me too.  I like to take one crate of beer with me as otherwise it just gets far too expensive and a lot of time wasted queing!

Edited July 15, 2021 by gooner1990

[kalifire]

Well, this year I’m exiting differently. Back in October 2019 when we booked tickets for 2022 (!), I was together with my long term girlfriend and we broke up the following May. I’d promised her Glastonbury tickets (if we could get them) as a 40th birthday present. Then we broke up, but I decided to honour the gift, if she wanted it. I didn’t think she would but it turns out we’re now good mates and she’s quite happy to act as the beneficiary of my pre-break up generosity. Whatever. 

So cue 2022 and she’s coming with. Now. 2022 will be my fifth Glasto and I’m pretty settled into a routine which won’t suit her one bit. I queue up from very early on Wednesday morning. I pull an all nighter on Sunday and catch the first train back to Frome. 

I’ll do the same thing on arrival (that’s a little tradition and I love it) and she’ll arrive later Wednesday afternoon when there’s less queue. But leaving is a different story. We’ve decided to bail after the main stages close. I know that’s sacrilege to some here, but honestly? I’ve always been totally exhausted by that point and it’s not a huge sacrifice to go, especially if I avoid a lot of complaining. 

So in 2022 we’re booking a taxi from the private rank near the bronze gate and hot footing it to an AirBnB in Bath (don’t want to go to my elderly parents in Frome immediately until I test negative for Covid). We’ll be in bed by 2am and it’ll be weird not to stagger around half-dead exhausting the last remnants of energy to god knows what, god knows where. 

Not entirely sure how I feel about it but the accommodation was booked today so it’s locked in. 

[Tartan_Glasto]

I never go too hard on the Sunday. Usually sitting by my tent after the headliner with a tea and just thinking my thoughts. 

Sunday morning I wake up about 6am, pack everything up and head for the Bristol shuttle stop for about 7-7:30am.

Arrive at Temple Meads, chill out and have a breakfast at the Wetherspoons and then get the train back up to Glasgow around 12ish.