Gate C

[March Hare]

4 minutes ago, Smeble said:

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.

Which stewards are in the campervan site? Genuinely curious. I honestly felt bad for people as they came through the gate (apart from one handsy lady who felt she had to explain how bad it was by stroking my arm 😂). It didn’t feel like a great start to their day

Edited July 1, 2022 by March Hare

[Boomtowner]

4 minutes ago, stuie said:

 

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!

 

Across the road.

Initially, it was a flurry of vehicles passing and everyone was understanding. Then it dragged on, it was security who decided to let the posh folk through first. That was galling. To collect a bag from the lock up by Gate C and return up the hill took just over 90 minutes.

 

[Smeble]

3 minutes ago, March Hare said:

Which stewards are in the campervan site? Genuinely curious. I honestly felt bad for people as they came through the gate (apart from one handsy lady who felt she had to explain how bad it was by stroking my arm 😂). It didn’t feel like a great start to their day

Haven’t got the faintest idea, it was whoever  was running the gate who were crap.

[Ryan1984]

I’m confused by this whole thread. We took our stuff back to the car in car park E11 up the hill of death on Sunday morning and strolled straight back in through Gate C around 10.30am. Guessing we were just ahead of the rush?

Unless you’re talking about vehicles leaving. We were on foot!

Edited July 1, 2022 by Ryan1984

[gizmoman]

4 minutes ago, March Hare said:

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?

I actually looked at that after your previous suggestion, your starting point is close to where we were, I could do that in 30 mins easy IF the queue at gate B was any better, you would have no way of knowing before you set off and if it's a quieter gate usually there would be fewer staff, this is assuming there is way through and it's permissible to go past any security that may be there.

[Boomtowner]

45 minutes ago, noplacelikehome said:

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

They were indeed, it was just one or two of the security that were a little abrupt. What was really annoying was the fact that they said they were short of staff yet when I eventually crossed the road, they had two of them doing bag searches. Surely they should have been deployed to manage the queue when they were short staffed. 

[Cooter]

6 minutes ago, March Hare said:

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?

whether that's possible or not does seem a bit odd punters should have to divert to another gate much further away from where they are. I appreciate the golden Glasto rule is steer clear of crowds but PGC does seem very small nowadays in comparison to the huge amount of foot traffic that want/need to use it.

Needs a rethink and an update imo.

[bucko]

I've been in C/V east since 2011 and it was a mess on Friday and Sunday its never took a hour to get in before even at the peak times.

I don't think the problem was the ticketing stewards but more the security for holding up the flow of people over the flow of traffic on the lane.

when it did start to flow well they stopped the traffic which looked like 4x4s dropping off glamping guests.

[gizmoman]

4 minutes ago, Ryan1984 said:

I’m confused by this whole thread. We took our stuff back to the car in car park E11 up the hill of death on Sunday morning and strolled straight back in through Gate C around 10.30am. Guessing we were just ahead of the rush?

We went in around 12.45pm Sunday after a short queue, never had a problem all weekend, guess I was lucky.

[noplacelikehome]

Not sure who the stewards were in the field, suspect a paid security firm- there was a little gazebo at the top of the hill but no one to be seen anywhere Sunday morning. As I said before the oxfam stewards inside were lovely, it was whoever was outside the gate from the road and in the field that caused the problem

[Boomtowner]

20 minutes ago, March Hare said:

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

I think there was, I saw the same young guy sat by the school bus on many occasions. Was also privy to 10 of them getting a bollocking on Monday morning as they all queued for a tea together as the supervisor asked why it needed all of them to queue for teas. The look on their faces was priceless.

[noplacelikehome]

16 minutes ago, March Hare said:

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?

Think the bit through the black was not accessible you would need to go out between E16 and E17 walk along the car parks to E4/5  then through to gate B I know because I arrived Thurs parked in E7 and had to do that route although my group were in E14 having arrived Wed

[March Hare]

It needs feeding back to the festival for sure or it won’t change

[incident]

27 minutes ago, March Hare said:

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?

It'd be - at minimum - strongly discouraged.

They don't want people walking along Blue Route - it's a narrow lane, with in places not much space to stand back from the road, and as the main route in to the Eastern side of the site gets a decent amount of traffic including tractors, trucks, tour buses, etc.

The section through Blue Gate should in theory be Staff wristbands only, although it's open enough that public walking through probably won't be stopped, as long as they keep to the sides (again, it's hot some properly heavy vehicles going through constantly).

The advised route for public would be via Car Park Purple 5.

[March Hare]

Looks like the gate c queue is the only realistic option then. That’s a shame 

[bucko]

4 hours 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).

I can understand why more lanes didn't open because from the inside it just looked normal busy but the Queue outside was at the back of east 20.

only after a good 45min long Queue did all lanes inward open up.

If security are not letting enough in so the Queue maybe backs up to the bag search area then it would never look like you need more lanes open.

i would happily place a bet that the same security team did the gate at the bottom of the hill on friday and sunday but not saturday.

the oxfam stewards where great as always once we got to them.

Edited July 1, 2022 by bucko

[iamsam]

It was our first year in Campervan East and while I loved being closer to the action than West, I didn't enjoy the amount of additional queuing involved.  That said, the Tuesday evening on the hill overlooking the site was really special and worth the pain.

[Rufus Gwertigan]

1 hour ago, March Hare said:

Which stewards are in the campervan site? Genuinely curious. I honestly felt bad for people as they came through the gate (apart from one handsy lady who felt she had to explain how bad it was by stroking my arm 😂). It didn’t feel like a great start to their day

The CV fields are run by DC Services and have nothing to do with queues for the gates or shouldn't at least 

[Boomtowner]

1 hour ago, iamsam said:

It was our first year in Campervan East and while I loved being closer to the action than West, I didn't enjoy the amount of additional queuing involved.  That said, the Tuesday evening on the hill overlooking the site was really special and worth the pain.

This echoes my thoughts exactly, realised that we'd missed a great chunk of Wednesday waiting for the queue to subside but Tuesday evening was quite magical on the hill.

[Summertime]

20 hours ago, bucko said:

I can understand why more lanes didn't open because from the inside it just looked normal busy but the Queue outside was at the back of east 20.

only after a good 45min long Queue did all lanes inward open up.

If security are not letting enough in so the Queue maybe backs up to the bag search area then it would never look like you need more lanes open.

i would happily place a bet that the same security team did the gate at the bottom of the hill on friday and sunday but not saturday.

the oxfam stewards where great as always once we got to them.

Yeah it was bizarre - you’d queue for an hour in the field on the other side of the road and as soon as you got across to gate c you’d fly through the ticket checks.  We couldn’t work out why we were held in the field for so long.  Agree with the point about the view from east campervan hill being really great though. 

[Upside down frowner]

Compared to the last year the security were a lot better in terms of searching. Real pain in the ass in and out in 2019, no search throughout the festival thankfully

[mufcok]

This was my first year in the CV fields (camped in Oxylers every year previously). We ended up in E17 - after arriving around 1/1.30pm, from memory. I was in a tent outside a van so didn't have most of the luxuries, though a friend did provide me with food and coffee some mornings which was nice. 

Getting my stuff taken in and out was obviously great but man, that walk in and out of the festival was brutal - and I say that as someone who got lucky with the queues. I just found the walk was in the back of my mind daily, sometimes ending nights earlier than I usually would - knowing I had a 30 - 45 minute hike (longer on the Wednesday night) on my hands.

I'll always do what's best for the majority in our group if we're lucky enough to get tickets, because it's best to be together - but I really don't fancy that walk everyday again. The hill itself didn't particularly bother me, more just the amount of time it took for the whole thing. Something to weigh up in October if I manage to get lucky I guess.

[Boomtowner]

1 hour ago, Upside down frowner said:

Compared to the last year the security were a lot better in terms of searching. Real pain in the ass in and out in 2019, no search throughout the festival thankfully

And yet I had my first ever exhaustive search there this year. They went through all 6 of the compartments in my belt and then sent me off to a white tent for a more thorough search after finding a couple of pre rolled joints. I had no bags so I was a little nervous of where they might search. At least the supervisor had the sense just to send me in.

Edited July 2, 2022 by Boomtowner

[Troop Dogg]

21 hours ago, mufcok said:

This was my first year in the CV fields (camped in Oxylers every year previously). We ended up in E17 - after arriving around 1/1.30pm, from memory. I was in a tent outside a van so didn't have most of the luxuries, though a friend did provide me with food and coffee some mornings which was nice. 

Getting my stuff taken in and out was obviously great but man, that walk in and out of the festival was brutal - and I say that as someone who got lucky with the queues. I just found the walk was in the back of my mind daily, sometimes ending nights earlier than I usually would - knowing I had a 30 - 45 minute hike (longer on the Wednesday night) on my hands.

I'll always do what's best for the majority in our group if we're lucky enough to get tickets, because it's best to be together - but I really don't fancy that walk everyday again. The hill itself didn't particularly bother me, more just the amount of time it took for the whole thing. Something to weigh up in October if I manage to get lucky I guess.

There are a lot of pros and cons of staying in the campervan fields. I do it because my friends I normally go with have a camper, and I put my tent up next to them. I do like the fact we can just drive in and don't have to do the big walk carrying all our gear to the campsite, and can also wait until the big queue has gone before getting our wristbands etc. I also like that you get a much bigger space to camp, and as a Glasto veteran, the peace and quiet is rather welcome! But yes on the downside, the walk there and back every day is a pain, and you can't just pop back if you forget anything or to top up beer supplies etc.

[bucko]

How did people find the queue this year, i'm not sure if i timed it right but didn't have a problem apart from a little wait on the thursday.