Gate C

[gizmoman]

Just now, stuie said:

I think @March Haremight have meant C to B - yes you can walk around the perimeter between them in about 10 mins.  C to A I've never tried but I'd guess an hour or so. 

Yes I realised and edited my post, wasn't sure you were allowed to walk around the fence though, will bear it in mind for future!

[noplacelikehome]

Fri/Sat mornings there were stewards at the top if the hill, directing everyone Diagonally and through the zig zag barriers. Took a while but steady going. On Sunday we got to the top of the hill around 12 45, no stewards in sight so everyone just went straight down resulting in a crowd about 30 wide at the bottom. Stewards at the gate had to let people out and also seemed to be letting loads through from the posh camping who filled up the ticket check lanes and the gates seemed to be closed for ages. Basically lack of stewards at the top caused the problem, took over an hour to get through. Am told they put stewards back on a bit later and it sorted itself out

[The Nal]

I've done C to A to collect tickets and you end up having to walk through a church and a graveyard. Takes about 50 mins.

[noplacelikehome]

4 minutes ago, gizmoman said:

Yes I realised and edited my post, wasn't sure you were allowed to walk around the fence though, will bear it in mind for future!

Problem is to get to the road bit to walk round you still need to queue- once you cross the road there was never much of a wait through the ticket check barriers - unless you mean go out the back of CV through the car parks to Gate B? That's is quite  a walk?

[Cooter]

Think I know the church you're on about, blue route on the corner of that little lane? Opposite a pond I think. Nice in the daytime, spooky at night.

[The Nal]

Just now, Cooter said:

Think I know the church you're on about, blue route on the corner of that little lane? Opposite a pond I think. Nice in the daytime, spooky at night.

Think its this one

[gizmoman]

7 minutes ago, noplacelikehome said:

Problem is to get to the road bit to walk round you still need to queue- once you cross the road there was never much of a wait through the ticket check barriers - unless you mean go out the back of CV through the car parks to Gate B? That's is quite  a walk?

Yes that's true so March Hare's suggestion wouldn't work unless you could walk past the queueing hordes and straight onto the road, people would think you were queue jumping.

Edited July 1, 2022 by gizmoman
spell

[prog seller]

On 6/30/2022 at 1:43 PM, MikeandSan said:

First timer question. What wristband were people showing to take the shortcut down the hill from the campervan fields where everyone else was being directed down the longer side at busy times?

I was camping with friends in the accessible field (E21)  they had a specific wristband and were allowed to use several access points. 

[March Hare]

40 minutes ago, stuie said:

I think @March Haremight have meant C to B - yes you can walk around the perimeter between them in about 10 mins.  C to A I've never tried but I'd guess an hour or so. 

@gizmoman sorry, I meant walk up the country lane from gate C to gate B. My bad, still jaded 😂

thanks for correcting @stuie

[March Hare]

30 minutes ago, gizmoman said:

Yes that's true so March Hare's suggestion wouldn't work unless you could walk past the queueing hordes and straight onto the road, people would think you were queue jumping.

Ah that’s a good point. You’d have to shout “I’m headed to gate b” or you’d get heckled 😂

[gizmoman]

1 minute ago, March Hare said:

Ah that’s a good point. You’d have to shout “I’m headed to gate b” or you’d get heckled 😂

Might end up like the pied piper and have half the queue following you!

[The Nal]

Just put on a high vis jacket and walk like you know where you're going. Could probably get onto the Pyramid stage that way

[March Hare]

Just now, gizmoman said:

Might end up like the pied piper and have half the queue following you!

You can’t win! 😂

I did few bad for people coming through Friday lunch time.  Everyone was working as quickly as possible to get them through but there was just a lot of people to process

[Boomtowner]

On 6/30/2022 at 1:05 PM, stuie said:

Everyone arrives at the gate at the same time.  If you get up a bit earlier there's no queue.  Likewise, an hour later there's no queue. 

That rush literally lasts for an hour or so each morning after Weds, obviously!  

We were camped by the school bus in E20 and I can assure you that queueing to get in vis Gate C was horrendous. Sunday morning about 12.00 they closed the gates for 20 minutes just as I approached to collect a bag. By the time they reopened it there were hundreds of people queueing down the hill. Stewards had no idea why the gate was closed and security didn't have enough staff to man the slope entrance. When they did reopen they gave priority to the two posh sites, Love Fields and Festi Bells, which did not go down well. It wasn't at all well managed. One security bloke was more inclined to argue with punters than he was in trying to solve the problem.  That queue remained in place all afternoon Sunday and it took over an hour to get in again. Did make me pine for CvW.

Edited July 1, 2022 by Boomtowner

[stuie]

6 minutes ago, Boomtowner said:

We were camped by the school bus in E20 and I can assure you that queueing to get in vis Gate C was horrendous. Sunday morning about 11.30 they closed the gates for 20 minutes just as I approached. By the time they reopened it there were hundreds of people queueing down the hill. Stewards had no idea why the gate was closed and security didn't have enough staff to man the slope entrance. When they did reopen they gave priority to the two posh sites, Love Fields and Festi Bells, which did not go down well. It wasn't at all well managed. That queue remained in place all day Sunday and it took over an hour to get in again for the afternoon.

As I said, my last shift was Saturday but on Saturday morning, 4am to 10am no queue at all outbound people only, sent all my stewards on their breaks so they were back by 10:30 for the rush to start.   From then up to when I finished at 1pm there was no queue at the front gate (free flowing people walking through the big tall green gate) but a queue of people at the turnstiles having wristband checks. 

The priority to Love Fields bit confused me... where was this happening?  Across the road?  Before the vehicle point? 
These sites aren't affiliated to the festival at all, so no one under the festivals organisational structure should be giving priority to them!

 

[jimmillen]

1 hour ago, noplacelikehome said:

Fri/Sat mornings there were stewards at the top if the hill, directing everyone Diagonally and through the zig zag barriers. Took a while but steady going. On Sunday we got to the top of the hill around 12 45, no stewards in sight so everyone just went straight down resulting in a crowd about 30 wide at the bottom. Stewards at the gate had to let people out and also seemed to be letting loads through from the posh camping who filled up the ticket check lanes and the gates seemed to be closed for ages. Basically lack of stewards at the top caused the problem, took over an hour to get through. Am told they put stewards back on a bit later and it sorted itself out

 

17 minutes ago, Boomtowner said:

We were camped by the school bus in E20 and I can assure you that queueing to get in vis Gate C was horrendous. Sunday morning about 12.00 they closed the gates for 20 minutes just as I approached to collect a bag. By the time they reopened it there were hundreds of people queueing down the hill. Stewards had no idea why the gate was closed and security didn't have enough staff to man the slope entrance. When they did reopen they gave priority to the two posh sites, Love Fields and Festi Bells, which did not go down well. It wasn't at all well managed. One security bloke was more inclined to argue with punters than he was in trying to solve the problem.  That queue remained in place all afternoon Sunday and it took over an hour to get in again. Did make me pine for CvW.

I knew something was up on Sunday! Sounds like things just went FUBAR… just my luck to get caught in it. 

[noplacelikehome]

23 minutes ago, Boomtowner said:

We were camped by the school bus in E20 and I can assure you that queueing to get in vis Gate C was horrendous. Sunday morning about 11.30 they closed the gates for 20 minutes just as I approached. By the time they reopened it there were hundreds of people queueing down the hill. Stewards had no idea why the gate was closed and security didn't have enough staff to man the slope entrance. When they did reopen they gave priority to the two posh sites, Love Fields and Festi Bells, which did not go down well. It wasn't at all well managed. That queue remained in place all day Sunday and it took over an hour to get in again for the afternoon.

This must be what we stumbled into. Agree they were giving priority to the glamping sites which was not popular!

[noplacelikehome]

Have to say that when we got through the gates the oxfam stewards were lovely 😍 

[stuie]

16 minutes ago, noplacelikehome said:

This must be what we stumbled into. Agree they were giving priority to the glamping sites which was not popular!

Understandably so.  I'm pretty sure that shouldn't have been happening and I'd question the motives of those who were doing that.  Might feed it back actually.  Not because I'm a jobsworth but because one of the things I love about festivals in general (and particulary Glasto) is that everyone becomes more equal.  I hate people paying for privilege. 

[Smeble]

Gate c should be renamed gate clusterfuck, utter shambles Friday and Sunday, Sunday busiest day of the festival and they had no queuing system running at all.

the gate needs a rethink, needs to be widened and capacity increased.

[March Hare]

1 minute ago, Smeble said:

Gate c should be renamed gate clusterfuck, utter shambles Friday and Sunday, Sunday busiest day of the festival and they had no queuing system running at all.

the gate needs a rethink, needs to be widened and capacity increased.

Clusterfuck is a slight exaggeration for the gate. I’m not privy to what has happening outside the fence. If glamping was being given priority that a poor show but how many love fields punters showed up?  It was busy for 2-3 hours around lunch time on each day. I was working on both days around that time. 

More lanes is a possibility (maybe).

[March Hare]

2 hours ago, noplacelikehome said:

Fri/Sat mornings there were stewards at the top if the hill, directing everyone Diagonally and through the zig zag barriers. Took a while but steady going. On Sunday we got to the top of the hill around 12 45, no stewards in sight so everyone just went straight down resulting in a crowd about 30 wide at the bottom. Stewards at the gate had to let people out and also seemed to be letting loads through from the posh camping who filled up the ticket check lanes and the gates seemed to be closed for ages. Basically lack of stewards at the top caused the problem, took over an hour to get through. Am told they put stewards back on a bit later and it sorted itself out

I wonder which stewards these are. Oxfam only covered the gate. Is there dedicated stewards for the campervan fields?

[TheGoodWillOut]

Presume there were less campervan tickets this year if they closed CVwest and only had east or did they squeeze more into CV east ?  

Edited July 1, 2022 by TheGoodWillOut

[Smeble]

2 minutes ago, March Hare said:

Clusterfuck is a slight exaggeration for the gate. I’m not privy to what has happening outside the fence. If glamping was being given priority that a poor show but how many love fields punters showed up?  It was busy for 2-3 hours around lunch time on each day. I was working on both days around that time. 

More lanes is a possibility (maybe).

Nope it was a clusterfuck, too many stewards standing around doing nothing, or even worse trying to tell people who have just been queuing for an hour to cheer up, whilst stood around doing nothing, it’s one of the downsides to using untrained people for that sort of thing, when things go wrong they have no idea how to sort it. There didn’t actually seem to be anyone in charge.
 

the re entry procedure isn’t fit for purpose and takes too long, it either needs to be changed or the number of lanes increased.

[March Hare]

I appreciate I’m saying this as a seasoned hiker, but this would be a 30 minute walk and I’d take that over the 90 minutes people told me they had to queue. Unless they were exaggerating.  Is this possible or is it fenced off?

Edited July 1, 2022 by March Hare