Crowd control issues

[BenG92]

6 minutes ago, willgooneday said:

Presumably so to the kids can go to it. Move it to Thursday night would be in the inspired move no? Keep as many people as you can away from the night spots? 

Defeats the point when there's even less choice though - Camelphat are a good shout but after that the Thursday headliners drop off real hard in terms of popularity. Would probably be even worse. 

Legend b2b with your shortest headliner would work fine. Diana + Kendrick played for 2:45 total where Paul played for 2:15 alone. 

[steviewevie]

4 minutes ago, Billy Corgans hair said:

Not sure it's elitist to call nobheads acting like nobheads nobheads 

yeah, but you get nobheads everywhere...it's unavoidable...especially in Liverpool HAHAHA.

Plus, one man's nobhead is another man's top geezer.

I think as I have got older and straighter and more introverted the nobhead range has expanded to fit in pretty much everyone, except maybe myself.

[Nobby's Old Boots]

5 hours ago, dirtysteve said:

Here’s my observations; first of all, I had a great festival and it went too damn quick. But I did recognise some of the issues mentioned here. 

 

Toilets - seemed to be fewer toilets around then I remember, certainly fewer and smaller urinals. I had to do the ultimate cardinal sin on Saturday night and piss in a bush because I walked through several fields without even sight of a toilet and I was going to wet my drawers otherwise...

 

Bins - likewise, seemed fewer bins around, had to hike a fair way with handfuls of rubbish to deposit quite a few times. That said, people did seem to be being quite tidy and I didn’t see total devastation anywhere other than at the main stage fields. 

 

Crowds - everywhere was very busy, noticeably more so than in previous years. I’m not convinced that they oversold or that thousands of people snuck in though, just a combo of lovely weather bringing everybody out all day and night and bad scheduling sending too many people to places.

 

Security - a lot fewer security around, just lots of volunteer stewards, so everything often felt a lot more chaotic than other years when there’s been proper marshalling. 

 

Cokeheads - lots of people obviously coked up at all times of the day. I’ve nothing against this personally, but it’s never been as noticeable before imo. 

 

Chair and blanket knobs - i couldn’t believe the amount of people who thought it was a good idea to set up chair and blanket camps at the front of Pyramid for McCartney. I get what they’re trying to do, stake out a good spot for the show, but they couldn’t have really expected not to have thousands of pissed up people thronging all over them, could they? I saw some really angry middle-aged people getting the right jump throughout that set. Clearly, this was the first festival most of them had ever been to, they obviously had no idea what the headline crowds are like. 

 

Guy ropes - so many massive tents with dozens of guy ropes holding them upright in Cockmill, and so many people getting upset about them getting uprooted by people tripping over them. 

 

Top of Cockmill Lane shortcut to Gate B - this was supposedly closed off throughout the festival unlike in previous years but the stewards made no real attempt that I saw to stop people using it until Sunday, and when I asked why the change they said that there was too much lorry movement that day so it had to be strictly closed that day. This route is a great way in to the top, flat part of family camping. I used it several times on Wednesday despite the signs and it’d be good if a “safe” path could be made to allow people to go in and out that way in future, much easier route and would help with crowds on Muddy Lane  

 

None of this put a damper on my week though. I think this was my 15th Glastonbury, my 7th taking kids, and I’ve learnt over the years to just go with the flow. We spent most of our time in the Theatre, Circus, Acoustic, Green and Kidz Fields and had a lovely time. Only watched two musical acts, Macca and Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott and they were both excellent. Like I said, I had a great festival! Those that didn’t, maybe the festival has changed and you’d have a more Glasto-like experience if you changed too, not into becoming a chair-camper or cokehead I mean but by doing different stuff next time. There’s a whole lot of festival to enjoy!

Genuinely glad you had a great festival but I've always had issues with posts like this - if you don't like crowds then don't go and watch big bands, go and sit in the circus all day. I've no bones in admitting than even though I find the scale of the places and all the things available to do/see completely mind boggling and, literally, unbelievably impressive, I am there for the music, which I love. Seeing a good set at Glasto can change your life and often the best performances you will ever see from a band/artist will be at the farm. Also not ashamed to admit I spent a lot of time at the big stages, again because I wanted to see those bands. 

Suggesting people can avoid some of the issues watching the big stages by instead sit in the theatre fields is an utter nonsense. You get what you get out of the experience and I get what I get out of it - different things, and that's fine, but because of the type of weekend I have I had to deal with the crushing, overcrowding and slow moving traffic issues people have been describing. You can't dismiss that by telling people to "change", or decide what a "glasto experience" is.

And there bins were everywhere , you really didn't have to walk far to find them except in the middle of the crowds in the stages or campsites, neither of which are ideal places for bins.

Weeing in the bushes has a massive effect on the festival, and absolute nightmare for the organisers (hence the many, many signs!!!) and definitely causes a knock on effect - someone sees someone else doing it and thinks they can get away with it too. If you love the place as much as you say then do better.

[Rose-Colored Boy]

15 minutes ago, Ozanne said:

Morale of the story is to book The Killers more 😉

Well yes 😛 

[hodgey123]

Glad to hear I wasn't the only person that noticed the larger than usual wood chippings!

[dogeggs]

Genuinely surprised to hear about all of the scary congestion as our weekend went by without anything too scary at all. That said, we do go out of our way to walk round or avoid the obvious congestion areas though. 

I hope it didn’t impact on your weekend too much. 

[DTichborne]

Some things are hard to predict - I thought Jarvis Cocker would have a big crowd, but we were near the front in loads of space. But one thing they should definitely do is cut out the "secret sets" and poor schedulings of large acts. Other than that, it was noticeably busier than when I last went in 2016 but I didn't have any major problems. This however is coming from someone who has been going since 1994, and experienced an horrific crush in 1999 that meant - whether it's in the "spirit of things" or not, the superfence was a necessary thing.

[Aeleanor]

Apart from being crushed at the Sugababes, I got down to the front for Diana Ross, Elbow and Jessie Ware extremely easily (and only half an hour before the start or so).

There were loads of people all the way in the front, down the center, sitting down, which I hadn't really noticed in previous years (so that's new?). On the plus side, that meant plenty of room around me once the show started and they stood up. Getting out also wasn't too much of a hassle to be honest. 

[KPSandwiches]

26 minutes ago, Billy Corgans hair said:

Not sure it's elitist to call nobheads acting like nobheads nobheads

Nope. But sneering at people because they're just not enjoying the festival in the way you think is "correct" definitely is.

[Billy Corgans hair]

1 minute ago, KPSandwiches said:

Nope. But sneering at people because they're just not enjoying the festival in the way you think is "correct" definitely is.

I don't think shoving people, pissing on the land or chatting through an entire set are unreasonable requests at a music festival 

[KPSandwiches]

1 minute ago, Billy Corgans hair said:

I don't think shoving people, pissing on the land or chatting through an entire set are unreasonable requests at a music festival 

Are you feeling a bit cantankerous after a long weekend and just deliberately misinterpreting me? Why would I defend that?

I'm talking about some of the posts here looking down on (generally younger) crowds who want to see more popular acts and maybe aren't that interested in aligning their chakras at the healing fields yet.

Didn't think I'd need to spell it out but here we are.

[Tartan_Glasto]

Do we know if there was more tickets up for grabs this year which is why it felt busier? 

[Spindles]

Maybe I had a different experience because of experience.  Crowds were easy to manage, people were respectful and I didn't encounter a single dickhead.

I have strategies for movement in and out of crowds, am prepared to walk further rather than enter fields through the most used points and it did me well.

I'm someone with anxiety issues, coped all bar a panic attack during macca that was unrelated to the crowd, I made it out to somewhere I could collapse and work through it.  Apologies to anyone who thought I was an inconsiderate dick on the way out.

 

[Dave_c]

I managed to avoid most of the crushes. Knowing your way around it makes it a hell of a lot easier as you can take longer routes to places and get there quicker as you avoid the masses on the most direct route. 

[Nobby's Old Boots]

16 minutes ago, Spindles said:

Maybe I had a different experience because of experience.  Crowds were easy to manage, people were respectful and I didn't encounter a single dickhead.

I have strategies for movement in and out of crowds, am prepared to walk further rather than enter fields through the most used points and it did me well.

I'm someone with anxiety issues, coped all bar a panic attack during macca that was unrelated to the crowd, I made it out to somewhere I could collapse and work through it.  Apologies to anyone who thought I was an inconsiderate dick on the way out.

 

Sorry you had to deal with that, I hope you were able to manage it fairly quickly, enjoyed the rest of the weekend and are feeling OK now.

The vastness of the site means I'm constantly getting lost/taking wrong turns - finding your way of doing things & routes that work for you sounds ideal.

All very well everyone moaning about people leaving half way through sets or sitting down etc etc but goes to show you never really know what people are going through.

[Spindles]

Thanks, it was nightmarish at the time but I've enough experience with panic attacks to get myself to safety before it goes nuclear.  Missed the end of macca but didn't impact beyond that.  

[lomac]

Genuinely scary at times this year to be honest. Along with being quite exhausting. I find it kind of embarrassing to admit but I left on Sunday morning and judging by the queue for the train at Castle Cary that morning I wasn't the only one. The main things for me were

• Absolutely everywhere being completely fronging.
• Always a queue for the toliets even for a piss.
• Huge queues for food at all times of day unless you go either really out of your way or in the middle of the night.
• The crowd at TLC and the crush after outside the park.

I'm kind of torn, I initially hadn't read all these messages but my friends and I had discussed how busy it seemed this year before. To be honest I booked these tickets three years ago when I was a) younger (25 and at uni v 28 and mostly stay home) and more socially active. I thought it was just my anxiety getting the better of me and I spent most of my sat night feeling quite upset and overwhelmed in my tent alone.

 

Decided to bite the bullet and leave the festival Sunday morning as I genuinely felt I wasn't really having a good time.  I've always been prone to anxiety and the pandemic certainly hasn't helped but it definitely just felt way busier than 2016/2017 when I last came. Had the most fun in the late evenings this year as I had to get sloshed to enjoy it. This thread has validated my feelings somewhat and made me feel a bit less embarrassed about it, my friends were very understanding too. I think I'll be giving large festivals a miss for a while which is a shame but this year has left a bad taste in my mouth for a lot of reasons (not all of which are necessarily Glasto's fault).

 

[kingbadger]

30 minutes ago, Spindles said:

Maybe I had a different experience because of experience.  Crowds were easy to manage, people were respectful and I didn't encounter a single dickhead.

I have strategies for movement in and out of crowds, am prepared to walk further rather than enter fields through the most used points and it did me well.

Yeah perhaps we were both really lucky but none of our group had any complaints either, 30+ of us with different tastes and no qualms about anything. Vintage year for me. Do think being patient and having a bit of nous helps massively, plus seemingly not wanting to go to Arcadia or other sets that were shitshows in terms of bottlenecks/crowding issues. That being said it was noticeably busy and queues for most things were insane. Taking a longer route distance wise really can save you plenty of time and hassle too.

[Mark0]

Went to the Arcadia twice with my daughter , first time to see Groove Armada and found the crowd there a bit ott leaving my daughter feeling a bit intimidated after being pushed and shoved, which wasn't in keeping with the other stages where most people were pretty considerate considering the crowds. The second time just before Calvin Harris she was actually pushed so hard she hit the floor by some shitfaced young lady trying to drag her even more shitfaced boyfriend to the front. Needless to say she didn't apologise, killed the evening for us.

Ive been to gigs all my life and just found the Arcadia area having a bad vibe, maybe because it was often late and a lot of people were tanked up and being very full on with pushing and shoving , I don't know , people will disagree no doubt but I stand by what I say.

[jparx]

Seeing a lot of “having experience and knowledge helps” type posts. This was my 5th Glastonbury and I’ve going to festivals for 16 years now, I know the festival and I know how to avoid crowds, I know how to get to the front for a headliner if I want to, I know how best to exit a crowd. I still faced issues mentioned by others with more regularity and severity than my previous visits.

If you avoided the issues mentioned here, genuinely I’m happy for you because it was a drag, but it was down to luck rather than just having experience. I followed the same plans that have worked many times before yet there were still three separate instances where it honestly felt like someone was about to get seriously hurt.

I hate to keep railing on this but it really needs addressing seriously by the festival. Thursday needs addressing urgently for next year for one. It was overall a great time and still a great festival, but the crowd control issues were a very real concern, not some whinging on the day after by those inexperienced with festivals and crowds.

Edited June 27, 2022 by jparx

[JakeBillo]

16 minutes ago, Mark0 said:

Went to the Arcadia twice with my daughter , first time to see Groove Armada and found the crowd there a bit ott leaving my daughter feeling a bit intimidated after being pushed and shoved, which wasn't in keeping with the other stages where most people were pretty considerate considering the crowds. The second time just before Calvin Harris she was actually pushed so hard she hit the floor by some shitfaced young lady trying to drag her even more shitfaced boyfriend to the front. Needless to say she didn't apologise, killed the evening for us.

Ive been to gigs all my life and just found the Arcadia area having a bad vibe, maybe because it was often late and a lot of people were tanked up and being very full on with pushing and shoving , I don't know , people will disagree no doubt but I stand by what I say.

I also noticed this at Arcadia. I think it’s because of the type of music there caters for the young, drunk “rugby lad” crowd. I’ve always found that people are chiller and the vibe is a bit better in other nightlife spots like the SE corner. 

[kemosabe]

14 minutes ago, jparx said:

Seeing a lot of “having experience and knowledge helps” type posts. This was my 5th Glastonbury and I’ve going to festivals for 16 years now, I know the festival and I know how to avoid crowds, I know how to get to the front for a headliner if I want to, I know how best to exit a crowd. I still faced issues mentioned by others with more regularity and severity than my previous visits.

If you avoided the issues mentioned here, genuinely I’m happy for you because it was a drag, but it was down to luck rather than just having experience. I followed the same plans that have worked many times before yet there were still three separate instances where it honestly felt like someone was about to get seriously hurt.

Couldn't agree more. Also, if we all spent our time in the T&C fields and/ or Greenfields then they would be fucked too. On that note actually a friend of ours who spends the entire festival in those fields said even they were far busier this year then normal...

 

[Fred Zepplin]

Williams Green on a Thursday is a pointless exercise. So many people want to get in that small tent. I didn’t even bother looking at who was playing since I knew how busy it was going to get 

[mikegday]

I’ve always hated the other stage -> pyramid via markets, so we always went via bbc introducing - I find this a much better way to get around.

I also don’t do the nighttime stuff, we went to the theatre & circus field after headliners.

Can’t say I noticed it being any busier than previous years tbh in regards to getting towards front. Stone circle also felt far less busy on the opening night than I remember ( because tipi and park now?? )

[ghandi]

The bad conjestion was caused by terrible band / act placement, simple as that. Putting the Sugababes on at the Avalon at that time when poeple were on the way to the SE corner was madness. Should have been on a bigger stage like the Park. Also who thought it a great idea to put Bastille on at Williams Green on a Thursday? Stupidity.