Crowd control issues

[CaledonianGonzo]

Yeah - he overran by like 50 minutes and then the field took and age to clear out.

[Pinhead]

I was there and left going South, then back down from there about hour later. Were they all still spilling out, and how come many seemed to be coming from W to E via different stage paths...

[kaytee...]

I've seen quite a few videos on tiktok of people claiming to have got in without tickets this year. Wouldn't surprise me, I know it happens every year but no doubt there would have been more chancers than ever this year

[blue6field]

On 6/28/2022 at 7:49 PM, Olshansky said:

we got stuck in a bad crush after lorde finished. We were down front (which had plenty of space) and kendrick folks were trying to enter as we were trying to get out.  People were actually screaming for help, and one girl had a panic attack.  I've been in worse crushes, but this wasn't cool.  

There was also almost zero security at the park during Squid. 

Yeah it was pretty bad at that change over, only time I felt genuinely apprehensive!

[Drivad]

This was my 7th glasto and probably my 20th festival and I’ve never seen anything like it. Barely moved anywhere any quicker than a snails pace, couldn’t buy a coffee before 2pm because all of the queues were a mile long. Had a horrendous crush at Skream on the Thursday night where I spent 30 minutes pressed against a barrier at the entry to Stonebridge bar. Luckily I’m quite a big guy and I was literally holding the crowd back for about 10 mins as there was only one guy working the entrance. They finally got some proper security along but when I finally got in, everyone inside was too afraid that if they left they wouldn’t get back in, so the right hand wall was just an ocean of piss. 
 

I probably sacked off around half of the bands that I wanted to see because I just knew I didn’t stand a chance of getting there.

 

Would love to see some official stats or statement on how and why this happened.

[Boomtowner]

It was my 14th Glastonbury, can't say that it appeared any busier than 2017 or 2019. Got caught in one crush near the  other stage but nowhere near as bad as previous years. Had an awesome time, avoided the well known crush points, Arcadia, WG on Thursday, SE on Saturday night. I think some of the over reaction is down to people not being used to crowds and lots of first timers chasing the big acts 

[Cabaret_Tent]

Interesting to see some say no different to other years and others say much busier. 

This was my 9th and it was easily the busiest ever from my point of view. Queues for food, toilets, getting away from stages all massively increased. 

 

[gooner1990]

4 hours ago, philipsteak said:

No idea what it was like elsewhere but where we were for Macca had plenty of space. Busy enough there was an atmosphere, but enough space that 10 of us had plenty of room for a dance. 

Sort of inline with the left hand screen, just at the 2nd row of repeaters. 

I was stood at the pyramid in the same spot from AJ Tracey through to Macca and in a similar spot to you.

I was stood in line with the 2nd row of speakers and the back entrance to the cider bus, the gents urinals in the pyramid field were about 20m north west in front of me.

our group had plenty of room to dance about but the problem during Macca was people stood on the edge of the field (going towards back cider bus entrance) was really dense.

took me ages to get out to go to toilet/bar and then when I tried to come back in it was a nightmare saying excuse me people were saying no room etc until one bloke recognised me from coming out 15 mins earlier and got his entire group to move for me….I got my way through and then almost popped out in to the main crowd like a champagne cork.

got quite frustrating for people as the evening went on more and more were wanting to go out to toilet and get to the bar but people on the edge were being quite unhelpful. 

[swordfishtrombone]

Have been to 7 glastonbury's including this one, has never been this busy before. Everything i went to see was pretty crowded, including fairly small stuff on park like confidence man. There were 100% more people there than usual. As for why i don't know. I did meet someone on Friday who claimed to have come in through a tunnel in the unfairground so maybe there was some truth to the people sneaking in thing. 

Getting to any of the late night dj stuff without leaving for it well early was basically impossible. Wandering about in the day was far more difficult than usual. Just endless people. I remember festivals where west holts and park was fairly quiet for the entire day even when decent acts played. In 2019 the likes of Lizzo and Janelle Monae did not have crazy crowds. This year both were fairly packed for anything beyond lunchtime. Part of this was a poor lineup, sometimes no clashes so almost everyone would go to the same stuff, sometimes mega clashes, like on sunday night when there were 6 acts at once i wanted to see. Why not spread this stuff out. 

In addition, seemed like, less toilets, less oxfam water points. Just worse in every possible way. I loved 2019 and found this way below par. Probably the worst I've been to, despite a few memorable acts, particularly kendrick and macca. 

 

Really gutted, and don't think I'll go next year. 

 

If there was mud this would have been a total disaster and probably the worst for a long long time. The crowds were ridiculous and it would have taken hours and hours to get anywhere 

[DeanoL]

5 hours ago, Rufus Gwertigan said:

It's how the noise can drift along. It carries at night. But what people are essentially saying is start the festival on a Thursday rather than han the Friday. A massive change to the licence and does everything else start earlier like you opening the gate so the car parking

All this need stuff that needs paying for.

I mean the problem is the festival *does* start on Thursday now. I think we all agree a good solution would be to go back to starting it on Friday, but if the festival are going to have some stuff on a Thursday, they really need to have more.

[Dennis22]

Just had a quick Google, Glastonbury overcrowding to see if any outlet's reporting yet and first article was from 2010 when overcrowding and crushing was raised by the council and they advised more areas and smaller stages on earlier to combat it. Interestingly enough, capacity was only 175k then also.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-11300255.amp

Almost like history repeating itself with this article.

[Furq]

Someone wisely mentioned how Glastonbury stages no longer have a unique identity, and that popular acts are now spread across the entire site.

I think this definitely created more movement, with everyone rushing around to see the numerous 'big names'.

But I also blame bad programming - Wet Leg obv should not have been on at The Park following a No.1 album.

The Chemical Brothers (yes, I know they cancelled) and Calvin Harris are way, way too big to DJ at Arcadia - a tiny area between the speakers - when there's not much else on.

(I like the idea of BBC Introducing running into the night)

Finally, there was no crowd control - eg stewards moving people on from busy junctions. Rubbish.

Oh, and minor point - folk walk around looking at their mobiles. Didn't get that back in the day!

[august1]

has anyone ever seen a steward in the pyramid field, thats not behind a barrier?

They definitely need some on the area by the toilets, access point to the markets between acts to help flow.

I think the festival gets away with crowd issues due to being in a field and break out relief points being bushes/trees and not concrete and steel in a urban setting.

I'm not sure getting away with it is good enough tbh

[idontgetoutmuch]

This was my 13th in 20 years, I’ve never previously minded the crowds and felt able to negotiate them. But this year it was the relentlessness  of them, the site felt busier overall.  I know my way around well but for short people who can’t see above the crowd it’s easy to lose bearings in the throng. Park/Arcadia junction was madness at times. Over the years friends have dropped off saying that it’s got too busy, this was the first year that I have had to acknowledge this fact for myself. 
 

Saying all of that I was camped on pennards  and our bit felt quieter and less crowded than previous years.

Queues for food in The Park were  the longest I have ever seen them.

Glastonbury has been such a huge part of my life that I can’t comprehend not going, but the reality is, that for me, the over crowding was too much this year.

[Tranquility of Solitude]

8 hours ago, swordfishtrombone said:

less oxfam water points.

Interesting you say this... I’m unsure if yourstatement is true or not (it may well be) but something I did notice....the Water Aid kiosks have had taps outside them in previous years, so you could fill up your bottles when they were closed. They had been removed this year. Whilst I think there was still plenty of places to fill up, they were often quite a walk away, and had queues at them. Also, overall this year it was much, much cooler then 2017 or 2019, so less demand, yet in those years I found access to water easier.

[CaledonianGonzo]

There were rows of push-button water points at lots of the long drops. As many as 8 or 12 fill points.

I was topping up water all week and didn't visit Water-Aid once. 

[Tranquility of Solitude]

2 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

There were rows of push-button water points at lots of the long drops. As many as 8 or 12 fill points.

I was topping up water all week and didn't visit Water-Aid once. 

Maybe I was at different long drops than you! To be fair, I never had any kind of issue filling up. I was just pointing out that the Water Aid kiosks had the outside taps removed. I should also point out that although I know it’s all the same (potable) water on the site, I have this weird icky feeling about filling up my drinking water at the long drops! I accept that’s on me, and not the festival though!

[Alvoram]

9 hours ago, gooner1990 said:

I was stood at the pyramid in the same spot from AJ Tracey through to Macca and in a similar spot to you.

I was stood in line with the 2nd row of speakers and the back entrance to the cider bus, the gents urinals in the pyramid field were about 20m north west in front of me.

our group had plenty of room to dance about but the problem during Macca was people stood on the edge of the field (going towards back cider bus entrance) was really dense.

took me ages to get out to go to toilet/bar and then when I tried to come back in it was a nightmare saying excuse me people were saying no room etc until one bloke recognised me from coming out 15 mins earlier and got his entire group to move for me….I got my way through and then almost popped out in to the main crowd like a champagne cork.

got quite frustrating for people as the evening went on more and more were wanting to go out to toilet and get to the bar but people on the edge were being quite unhelpful. 

We were stuck in that crust, there really wasn't an easy way in and we don't like to push past people generally so we just stayed there.... not too far from the cider bus urinals, I'd say halfway between them and the tower... There really wasn't room to move or dance and yet people were coming through literally every 10 seconds to go get food, drinks or use the toilet. If you think it was frustrating getting through, you should have felt what it was like standing there and trying to watch the show with nowhere else to move to, whilst people were pushing through, half of them on trips that would not have been necessary with some planning. It was pretty bad. Maybe that's why people were being unhelpful. 

Obviously that's going to happen though, we were near the toilets, the cider bus, access to food and one of the better exits to the field. I understood this, and so was trying to step / lean back to let people go through. Not everyone was though, people were getting fed up of it by 30 minutes in. The group behind me I think got fed up with me stepping back slightly as they moved further forward making it even harder. This was the only time I got slightly annoyed, because after they'd closed that space a large group of around 20 pushed their way through still, and I literally had nowhere to move out of their way to, so had to lean back into the group now closer behind me. None of us said anything, but that group behind never spoke to us for the whole evening, and the vibe wasn't great. So I think I pissed them off by trying to be helpful. 😕

Thankfully, it seemed a lot of folks in the crust had stayed close to the edge to get an early exit, so just over half way in it got a lot easier as people left... I guess we can thank Macca for the boring first half...

Edited June 30, 2022 by Alvoram

[CaledonianGonzo]

You've got to go through the outer wall of people. If you don't you're also just making the problem worse.

As noted already, its not unique to Glastonbury and happens in gig venues up and down the country.

[Alvoram]

1 minute ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

You've got to go through the outer wall of people. If you don't you're also just making the problem worse.

As noted already, its not unique to Glastonbury and happens in gig venues up and down the country.

I go to a fair amount of gigs, and never see the crust that dense... Our usual tactic at gigs is to walk up the side and then cut through, never usually a problem and almost always space inside. But the crusts at glasto were so dense it meant physically pushing people or asking them to move to get through and made you wonder if there'd even be space once you did get through. 

Obviously now, with the hindsight of reading reports on here after, we know that there was space inside, which we'll remember next time, but it certainly didn't look that way at the time, and I'm 6'3"

[CaledonianGonzo]

Yeah for sure. Bigger crowd does result in a bigger outer layer. But I'm not going to stand at the far perimeter of the Pyramid field behind people who've just stopped there for no reason when I know there's oodles of space further forward.

Ask, ask politely, and wiggle through.

[Ildavo]

When we got to Pet Shop Boys, about 2 songs in, it looked like the whole of the Other Stage field was full as crowd was full all the way up to the food stalls on the edge.  I managed to be tall enough to peer over though and it looked like there may be a space behind the sound stage so we walked through the crowd.  Once we got to the wood chippings bit there was one huge massive space with no one in it. I could still see most of the stage and could have run around flayling my arms about without being anywhere near to hitting anyone. 

[philipsteak]

18 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Yeah for sure. Bigger crowd does result in a bigger outer layer. But I'm not going to stand at the far perimeter of the Pyramid field behind people who've just stopped there for no reason when I know there's oodles of space further forward.

Ask, ask politely, and wiggle through.

Yep. I arrived a bit late to Pet Shop Boys and had to get through a fairly densely packed crowd to get to my friends. Asked nicely, made eye contact, smiled, wiggled, got through really quickly and easily and had minimal impact on the people I was getting past. 

[Alvoram]

Just now, CaledonianGonzo said:

Yeah for sure. Bigger crowd does result in a bigger outer layer. But I'm not going to stand at the far perimeter of the Pyramid field behind people who've just stopped there for no reason when I know there's oodles of space further forward.

Ask, ask politely, and wiggle through.

Yeh we know for next time now... 🙂 

It's also worth remembering another key difference. At most stadiums and arenas they have a safety certificate which dictates the capacity, this usually matches the number of seats (but is based on a lot of provisions, like exits etc so not always) so usually the pitch / floor standing area only holds the same amount of people as the seats that they're not using behind and to the side of the stage itself. This means the back half of the standing area is very sparse, and the front is quite roomy compared to glastonbury. Our most frequented venues are Nottingham Arena, Manchester Arena and Wembley Stadium, and we've always been able to freely just roll up whenever we want to and get fairly close to the front. Completely different beast to at Glastonbury. 

I remember going to a sold out Script gig at Nottingham Arena just before the pandemic (Motorpoint now) and they moved between 2 stages front and back, we were able to genuinely get closeish to the front one, and literally walk right up to the barrier on the back one, then back to the front one, all in time for them playing on both stages... You wouldn't be doing that at the Pyramid 🙈😂

Here's a couple of poor quality screen grabs from videos we took at both stages that night... 

 

I guess what I'm trying to say is, we're used to moving through crowds, it's not a problem and we're fine with it... But we're not fine with it if it upsets other people, and it felt impossible to get through at Glasto without inconveniencing other people...

**On a side note, it's strange to think that just 2 weeks later we were locked down!!! This turned out to be our last gig for over a year! 😞 

[giantkatestacks]

Yeah for Macca we turned up as Noel was finishing and debated standing at the back as it looked full. We made a snap decision to try moving forward and we just weaved normally (noone had to move for us) all the way to the side of the left mixing desk.