Crowd control issues

[Nobby's Old Boots]

8 minutes ago, robin said:

People posting about their experiences in a crowd at Williams Green or The Park when nothing else was on and using that as the basis for saying that it was busier than normal are not necessarily reliable witnesses as they put themselves into the middle of that crowd and seem to be surprised that there was then a crowd. 

The numbers of additional tickets sold doesn't support the claim of it being significantly more busy than normal recent years, and it certainly wasn't as busy as 2000.

Bowing out of this one now, just going round and round.

Glad you had a good one.

[Jimmyjam1]

I'm on the side of most saying it was ridiculously busier at times, worst for crowding /queing over the several times I have been over the past 20 years I've been going. 

 

Calvin Harris at Arcadia entering from the park was just like sardines and dangerous as everyone was at a standstill and no where to go and tempers were fraying with some. 

 

George Ezra at John Peel tent was a mistake, he needed his own stage, couldn't even get into the field there was that many people 

 

Ques for toilets and food just seemed longer than ever before, alot of the compost toilets were full to the brim in the mornings putting them out of action at peak time, where as previously they had crews there changing them around all the time. 

Food stalls were like 30+ people queing for each throughout the day and the prices £12-17 for a small portion meal was just outrageous, I ended up spending over £320 just on food from weds onwards. Never spent no where near that much before. It was £5 just for a tiny portion of rubbish chips. 

[beatlemania]

had two critical situations with our buggy with a 3.5y old girl. from wolf alice we walked to the croissant neuf passing west holt. suddenly thousands of people and no go-through at the toilets. waited 10 min, then a young girl helped us to get moving, telling people there‘s a young kid. then mcfly, we walked to a shop and just couldn‘t get out. I think (as a foreigner) that the „typical“ english queing helped a lot as the people walked back very calm. but really dangerous. what are the stewards actually for? just being there for free isn‘t enough. wonderful experience, specially at the green fields and circus but def. too many people. why why why not having a few bands at the pyramid/johnpeel on thursday?

[ivan]

2 minutes ago, beatlemania said:

had two critical situations with our buggy with a 3.5y old girl. from wolf alice we walked to the croissant neuf passing west holt. suddenly thousands of people and no go-through at the toilets. waited 10 min, then a young girl helped us to get moving, telling people there‘s a young kid. then mcfly, we walked to a shop and just couldn‘t get out. I think (as a foreigner) that the „typical“ english queing helped a lot as the people walked back very calm. but really dangerous. what are the stewards actually for? just being there for free isn‘t enough. wonderful experience, specially at the green fields and circus but def. too many people. why why why not having a few bands at the pyramid/johnpeel on thursday?

I don’t think the licence will allow bands on the main stages Thursday .

[Kashkin]

Regarding security and management. I was with Oxfam and working with security. They said over 100 security staff had left the first day so they were really short staffed. 

[prog seller]

36 minutes ago, Nobby's Old Boots said:

Bowing out of this one now, just going round and round.

Glad you had a good one.

I'm hearing a few opinions- Glasto purists who have been loads of time and 'plan accordingly' 

And others who agree with the crushes and busy parts of the sites. 

 

I had a great time, just miffed I had to avoid crowds as its really not my thing.  Never queued ages for drinks/food, but also missed a lot of what I really wanted to see.  I'm sticking to smaller festivals.

 

 

[beatlemania]

24 minutes ago, ivan said:

I don’t think the licence will allow bands on the main stages Thursday .

oh ok… don‘t know how that works with licences etc. thanks for the informations

[Troop Dogg]

I got caught up in a terrifying crush at front of Pyramid at end of Sam Fender, with Billie Eilish fans flooding in an hour before she was due on. I've been going Glasto since 1998 and have never experienced anything like it, genuinely thought I could die. 

Also the ridiculous queues to get in from the campervan fields were something I've not experienced before.

Something is definitely not right.

Edited June 27, 2022 by Troop Dogg

[DTichborne]

1 hour ago, Kashkin said:

Regarding security and management. I was with Oxfam and working with security. They said over 100 security staff had left the first day so they were really short staffed. 

Actually arrived on site and left? What causes 100 people to do that? 

[LondonTom]

People really telling on themselves here about how they treat others in crowds when they don't notice queues or it being busy at all while apparently being at all the busy places of the site or apparently they are very special and the only ones with " the nous" to avoid crowds and how to do Glasto.😂

[mph]

It's no busier than it has been for years, people have changed, people want what they want straight away. 

Those who have patience control themselves sensibly instead of thinking "I want to be there now" 

Do you want gates and fencing at every stage? 

[robin]

4 hours ago, LondonTom said:

People really telling on themselves here about how they treat others in crowds when they don't notice queues or it being busy at all while apparently being at all the busy places of the site or apparently they are very special and the only ones with " the nous" to avoid crowds and how to do Glasto.😂

Thread title is "Crowd control issues" which is different from "There were loads more people on site". 

 

We know there were crowd control issues because, well there were crowd control issues. 

However, there were not loads more people on site because we know there was not a mass fence jump, and the number of people with tickets is set. The increase in number of tickets is tiny compared to the overall numbers on site. 

Two totally different things, and being in a crush at Sugarbabes doesn't mean there were massive numbers more on site. Would be like claiming the site was empty because there wasn't any queues at the cash machines this year. 

[westholtschic]

I think a lot of the crowd issues on Thursday night were also down to not having a silent disco on as well. Really missed it.

[Cheesey]

8 hours ago, Jimmyjam1 said:

Food stalls were like 30+ people queing for each throughout the day and the prices £12-17 for a small portion meal was just outrageous, I ended up spending over £320 just on food from weds onwards.

Yeah, the food prices were insane. Like eating out at a restaurant two or three times a day for five days straight.

I was feeding a family of four and even after bringing our own cereal for breakfast, and with me skipping meals to try and save money, I still spent about £500 on food. That's fucking mental.

[Zoo Music Girl]

2 hours ago, westholtschic said:

I think a lot of the crowd issues on Thursday night were also down to not having a silent disco on as well. Really missed it.

Ah have they ditched it? Haven't been in last couple of years but used to love the one in the Park.

[westholtschic]

12 minutes ago, Zoo Music Girl said:

Ah have they ditched it? Haven't been in last couple of years but used to love the one in the Park.

Wasn’t there this year

[DeanoL]

10 hours ago, robin said:

The numbers of additional tickets sold doesn't support the claim of it being significantly more busy than normal recent years, and it certainly wasn't as busy as 2000.

It doesn't support the claim of it being no busier either.

7 hours ago, mph said:

It's no busier than it has been for years, people have changed, people want what they want straight away. 

There were literally more people there in the same space, that's a matter of record. How it felt for you is one thing but it's inarguable that it *was* busier.

[KPSandwiches]

10 hours ago, robin said:

People posting about their experiences in a crowd at Williams Green or The Park when nothing else was on and using that as the basis for saying that it was busier than normal are not necessarily reliable witnesses as they put themselves into the middle of that crowd and seem to be surprised that there was then a crowd. 

The numbers of additional tickets sold doesn't support the claim of it being significantly more busy than normal recent years, and it certainly wasn't as busy as 2000.

As someone who's just had my eighth Glasto, and wasn't in any of the really bad "crushes" (other than maybe TLC) this one was just busier.

Everywhere, all the time, for everything, for reasons that I personally can't just attribute to some bad scheduling.

I'm not intimidated by big crowds, I'm not in a rush to get places, I know how to pre-empt a busy space, choose a quieter route or just be patient, but this year was so obviously overpopulated and multiple people on-site were noticing it. I've never had to put so much time aside to get food, use a urinal (!!) or just move between stages before. Places like the West Holts field which are normally pleasantly buzzing in past years just felt stacked ALL of the time.

I spotted stewards / security staff looking really exasperated trying to manage that many people, and some were taking photos in particularly bad moments to presumably show how bad it was. I asked a couple of staff/ traders if it was just us imagining it and we got the same response each time: "I've never known it to be like this before".

Now either they've oversold and there was a marked increase in the number of people on-site, or they've closed off / removed enough areas that a comparable number of people to past years are just milling around a notably smaller site. Either way, that's a capacity-to-space issue.

It didn't stop me having a blast, but it did mean I decided against certain acts, went for food I didn't particularly want, spent about an hour queuing to get back in after nipping to the car, and spent longer in toilet queues than ever before.

Or maybe I'm the problem 😅

[Chewie]

8 hours ago, DTichborne said:

Actually arrived on site and left? What causes 100 people to do that? 

I think it's more they turned up, got their free ticket, and then never turned up for their shifts, rather than leaving the festival as a whole

[Jay Pee]

8 hours ago, DTichborne said:

Actually arrived on site and left? What causes 100 people to do that? 

Combination of folk doing one to meet mates as they were wrist banded and folk not being able to cope with the work 

[The Nal]

Theres just too many people now. Can barely get food at any time with a massive queue. 

Thought the toilet situation was excellent this year though. Very well managed.

[jimmillen]

6 minutes ago, Chewie said:

I think it's more they turned up, got their free ticket, and then never turned up for their shifts, rather than leaving the festival as a whole

Wouldn’t be free, they’d have lost their deposit so effectively have paid. 

I believe there also may be a blacklist for people who do this - not sure if that’s for future volunteering though or general admission too. 

Whichever, still a shitty thing to do. 

[ShuMart]

Well having been for many years I found it was way busier than any previous year, and speaking to lots of people today they are all of the same opinion.

8 minutes ago, KPSandwiches said:

As someone who's just had my eighth Glasto, and wasn't in any of the really bad "crushes" (other than maybe TLC) this one was just busier.

Everywhere, all the time, for everything, for reasons that I personally can't just attribute to some bad scheduling.

I'm not intimidated by big crowds, I'm not in a rush to get places, I know how to pre-empt a busy space, choose a quieter route or just be patient, but this year was so obviously overpopulated and multiple people on-site were noticing it. I've never had to put so much time aside to get food, use a urinal (!!) or just move between stages before. Places like the West Holts field which are normally pleasantly buzzing in past years just felt stacked ALL of the time.

I spotted stewards / security staff looking really exasperated trying to manage that many people, and some were taking photos in particularly bad moments to presumably show how bad it was. I asked a couple of staff/ traders if it was just us imagining it and we got the same response each time: "I've never known it to be like this before".

Now either they've oversold and there was a marked increase in the number of people on-site, or they've closed off / removed enough areas that a comparable number of people to past years are just milling around a notably smaller site. Either way, that's a capacity-to-space issue.

It didn't stop me having a blast, but it did mean I decided against certain acts, went for food I didn't particularly want, spent about an hour queuing to get back in after nipping to the car, and spent longer in toilet queues than ever before.

Or maybe I'm the problem 😅

I'm exactly the same as you. I've been for many years, I don't expect to be able to get everywhere in 5 mins, I know how it all works.

I don't every remember it being that busy. I was not in any major crushes as we kept well out the way due to having kids in tow.  But just queues for food, toilets, size of crowds at pretty much every band to me seems much bigger, to the point its starting to put me off.

Maybe I'm just too old and need to stick to smaller festivals

 

[jimmillen]

Yeah, it was definitely busier. 

Was never in anything that felt remotely dangerous to me, sad to hear some others were. 3 particular points:

- Railway track around SL on Thurs daytime, not even any acts on - what was that all about?!

- Crowd after Libertines on Fri afternoon - we weren’t even trying to watch, we just wandered through at the wrong time on the way to the Park and got stuck for ages. 

- Exodus from George Ezra at JPT on Sun - was going the opposite way through the woods to watch Clairo and it was hopeless. Usually you can make slow progress against the flow but gave up & stood to one side until it died down a bit. 

Otherwise didn’t really affect me too badly, but as others have said it changes your experience of the festival. 

Other than reducing numbers I’m not sure what the festival can do about it. Maybe more use of one way systems… but v difficult to enforce without totally changing the layout. 🤷‍♂️

[chickenfire]

I haven’t been since 2013/14 so my memory of the crowds is a bit hazy but overall this year had more “busy” moments than I remember. 

Ignoring the Wed/Thursday scheduling and the Avalon mess (although leaving Diana after 1 song to wander along for McFly was a great choice on our groups part), the main problems for me were all around folk sitting down or having masses of stuff on the ground taking up space.

This was really bad at the Pyramid (as usual) but was really noticeable at the Other and John Peel. Creating these crowd crusts and general difficulty moving around. The “sitters” were also generally rude when you tried to get round their practical campsite in the middle of a crowd.

also, the pyramid front section needs a better system 100%. Even T in the Park had a better system 12 or so years ago!