Crowd control issues

[jimbo_l]

1 hour ago, jimmillen said:

Thanks for the update - yeah that’s pretty much what I’d guessed. 

I totally think the festival should be exploring weird & wonderful concepts like Cineramageddon - it’s part of what makes it so magical! OTOH if it’s not drawing the punters then no shame in changing things up. 

I've been thinking about this. I reckon the idea of C/geddon is actually really cool. At any other fest I'm sure it'd be popular, but look at the competition it's up against! If the trajectory of the other 'off-stage' stuff is 'bigger, better, louder, later', then it might need to raise it's game a bit to keep-up. Perhaps instead of scrapping it, they could give it a bit more budget?

Lots of people saying on here; 'where was the silent disco?' Well C/geddon had one on some evenings (Craig Charles I think) - but it's not that clear from the name of the place is it? Perhaps a bit of a re-brand needed?

[Levitz]

2 hours ago, jimmillen said:

Thanks for the update - yeah that’s pretty much what I’d guessed. 

I totally think the festival should be exploring weird & wonderful concepts like Cineramageddon - it’s part of what makes it so magical! OTOH if it’s not drawing the punters then no shame in changing things up. 

I think it looks great but I just can't see that many people wanting to spend their time watching a 'normal' movie at Glastonbury tbh 

I guess we just thought it was films, didn't realise there was a bar and food etc, so maybe we should have explored it more but prob does need to be a bit more info on what's up there

Edited July 1, 2022 by Levitz

[gooner1990]

11 minutes ago, Levitz said:

I think it looks great but I just can't see that many people wanting to spend their time watching a 'normal' movie at Glastonbury tbh 

I guess we just thought it was films, didn't realise there was a bar and food etc, so maybe we should have explored it more but prob does need to be a bit more info on what's up there

I didn't realise there was a bar and food there either otherwise I would have gone over as I wasn't camped too far away.

[Boomtowner]

51 minutes ago, Matt87 said:

Are we still allowed campfires at your tent though? I presume not, since there's no wood put out for them, and to be honest, there's not enough space a lot of the time. Last one I had was in 2013.

There was definitely wood out this year, saw a large pile at the back of the tipis on Thursday afternoon. Last fire we had at a campsite was probably 2010, last one on the hill was 2017, had one in CV fields this year. Stewards came to check but it was deemed safe.

[ProperTea]

So I've had a few days to think about this and reflect on my experience. This was my 12th consecutive Glastonbury and whilst I can't comment on whether or not there were more people on site than in previous years, four things are undeniable in my mind:

1. It felt SIGNIFICANTLY busier than Glastonburys 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019.
2. There were more queues than I ever experienced at any of the above
3. It was extremely difficult to get through the back of crowds but then quite easy to weave forward once you were in
4. There was a noticeable lack of direction from stewards (being told where to go by people with loud hailers etc.)

I think in the most part this can be explained by behavioural changes.

Certainly the issue of crowding at the back of stages/arenas/areas seems like a relatively new phenomenon - potentially caused by COVID but perhaps more likely to be an increase in the age profile of your average Glastonbury goer, people taking their kids more, and that combined making them not as arsed about being close to the front?

The lack of proper counter programming and relatively poor line up might have been an issue but I think a big element is the homogenisation of music tastes. 5-10 years ago people defined themselves through the genres of music that they listened to and certain genres were considered cool or more desirable to be into, and gate kept by publications like NME, Q, Radio 1, which no longer exist in their old forms. Now it is socially acceptable to be in to a bit of everything including pop music - and that means it isn't looked down on if you enjoy acts like TLC, Sugababes and McFly. In fact, everyone wants to see those acts - especially people in their late 20s and early 30s of which most people there seemed to be. But the festival want the Pyramid to be musically credible so the poppiest/nostalgia acts played other areas of the festival which clearly were unable to cope with demand.

When demand for areas did increase, stewards and security staff seemed visibly nervous and less confident than in previous years and I can see in earlier comments this is an industry wide issue as expertise left during the pandemic. I'm sure they all tried their best and it's not a slight on them personally and hopefully this will naturally just improve as staff get more experience.

In terms of night life - when I started going in the late 00s and told people the late night areas were my favourite thing about the festival, there were a few raised eyebrows. But this isn't the case anymore, even with non Glastonbury goers. Everyone knows the late night areas are the place to go and they are all rammed, all night, all the time, with quiet campsites.

I then wonder if that's why food stalls seemed busier this year? Did more people get up later, fuelling demand at the same time (mid afternoon/early evening) when previously it had been more spread out? Perhaps the fact the festival is so expensive and middle class now also increased demand on food stalls as there were fewer people cooking their own meals?

I hope the festival look in to this seriously for 2023. I understand people's concerns around health and safety and whilst there were points I felt quite unsafe (Arcadia/Park crush after Groove Armada) I never felt that something horrendous was about to happen -- for me it's more around the fact that they should want people to have a good time and there were points during the 5 days that the overcrowding impacted my enjoyment of the festival. 

Just some things that might help in addition to what people have said before...

• It's time to innovate again to smash old habits. Everybody knows what to expect from everything because it's been there for so long. NYC Downlow is 15 years old and it takes 3 hours to get in because everyone wants to be there and so many people have built years long habits going to the same places. Get rid of it next time. Have 2 new queer venues that nobody knows anything about - which one will people go to? I've used NYC as an example but the same can be said for a lot of venues now.
• A proper 'love the farm, leave no trace' style campaign around behaviour in crowds might be helpful. If what we are all saying about crowd crust isn't anecdotal and when they do their post festival analysis it shows that behaviour has changed the way we think it has, they need to start letting people know and helping to change that behaviour to spread the crowds out and avoid a perception of overcrowding.
• Acknowledging that nostalgic pop acts will pull a crowd - if you don't want to have them on the main stages because you want those stages to be musically credible, maybe it's time to either drop them from the bill or create a new area for those types of nostalgic acts.

 

 

Edited July 1, 2022 by ProperTea

[Ohinever]

Latest locally from people working on site is that there were some very good blag tickets this year. 

 

Also know for a fact that traders etc getting more in than allocated, but this happens everywhere year so prob not relevant. 

 

[lucyginger]

I haven't read alllll of the posts here, but I wanted to give my version of events in Pennards on the Friday night. I'll start by saying it has not put me off going again at all!

This was my 11th Glastonbury, we've always camped in Pennards and in the last 6 or so times, in the same place- just over the hedge from Arcadia. It's busy, it's fun, it feels safe even if it is busy. This year, I went home early on Friday to have a lie down as I've got a broken rib and it was giving me jip. Got back to camp to find millions of people swarming through the campsite towards Park/Arcadia! Thankfully my campmates were home, as were some of our neighbours, and we spent the next goodness knows how long hanging on to our tents so they didn't get trampled. I daren't bend down to fix my front guy lines for fear of being walked on myself! It really was the only time I have felt unsafe there. 

Most people were polite and tried not to tread on our houses, but I'm not sure my tent will do another festival as it was trampled around the edges. Not half as bad as some people near us had. A few people were extremely rude though, and shouted at us for trying to hold on to our tents! I ended up ringing the police as we seriously thought we were in danger. 

After a while the crowd dissipated and we were ok, but really, singular most scary moment at a festival ever. 

[gooner1990]

16 minutes ago, lucyginger said:

I haven't read alllll of the posts here, but I wanted to give my version of events in Pennards on the Friday night. I'll start by saying it has not put me off going again at all!

This was my 11th Glastonbury, we've always camped in Pennards and in the last 6 or so times, in the same place- just over the hedge from Arcadia. It's busy, it's fun, it feels safe even if it is busy. This year, I went home early on Friday to have a lie down as I've got a broken rib and it was giving me jip. Got back to camp to find millions of people swarming through the campsite towards Park/Arcadia! Thankfully my campmates were home, as were some of our neighbours, and we spent the next goodness knows how long hanging on to our tents so they didn't get trampled. I daren't bend down to fix my front guy lines for fear of being walked on myself! It really was the only time I have felt unsafe there. 

Most people were polite and tried not to tread on our houses, but I'm not sure my tent will do another festival as it was trampled around the edges. Not half as bad as some people near us had. A few people were extremely rude though, and shouted at us for trying to hold on to our tents! I ended up ringing the police as we seriously thought we were in danger. 

After a while the crowd dissipated and we were ok, but really, singular most scary moment at a festival ever. 

I always camp the otherside of the hedge to you...the part that's behind the park and next to Arcadia....there were a lot of us coming up that path just trying to get back to our tents and my friend told a few people to stop trampling through other peoples camps but got told where to go sadly. 😞

 

[LoraMaze]

7 hours ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

Sent this to the festival along with a link to this thread so they could see some of the thoughts:

 

They gave me this reply. It's your standard non-committal politician's answer:

Apparently, if anyone felt bad or got stuck, it's your own fault that you didn't read the useful tips webpage.

I got the same email. I’m glad there were no crush injuries reported, but I sure have a little bit of PTSD from the ones I was in. Especially the Arcadia/Park corner one.

I’m sure if it had been muddy there could easily have been some tramplings. 

[moogster]

3 hours ago, ProperTea said:

The lack of proper counter programming and relatively poor line up might have been an issue but I think a big element is the homogenisation of music tastes. 5-10 years ago people defined themselves through the genres of music that they listened to and certain genres were considered cool or more desirable to be into, and gate kept by publications like NME, Q, Radio 1, which no longer exist in their old forms. Now it is socially acceptable to be in to a bit of everything including pop music - and that means it isn't looked down on if you enjoy acts like TLC, Sugababes and McFly. In fact, everyone wants to see those acts - especially people in their late 20s and early 30s of which most people there seemed to be. But the festival want the Pyramid to be musically credible so the poppiest/nostalgia acts played other areas of the festival which clearly were unable to cope with demand.

 

This X100.

I've seen mixed crowds for genres/artists you wouldn't have seen 15 years ago and that's great, but it has an impact. I've seen quite a few small excellent bands, that I went to see sometimes just because I was passing by and enjoyed what I heard, with barely what could be called a crowd that if they'd had 10% of the wet leg hype would have been full on party bangers.

[NorthernSoul52]

Well, hopefully less pinch points for those who make it next year. Not really what you want to be remembering from your weekend at the greatest place on earth.

[peezlep]

Hi, I haven’t posted here before and came across a link to this thread as I’ve been sporadically checking Twitter since Saturday morning seeing what others had to say about the Park/Arcadia situation on Friday night the group I was with found ourselves in.

A bit of personal experience/context to the festival. I first went 19 years ago when I was 17 and think I’ve only missed 2 festivals since. Those first couple of years completely blew my mind and inspired my mother to start going herself. The farm became such an important place for our family (like many many of you I’m sure!) that when my mother tragically discovered she really didn’t have very long left in this realm, chose the ever expanding wooded area above the sacred space as the place she wanted her ashes spread. We planted a tree in the same spot and it’s such a special treat to visit it/her with our nearest and dearest each festival. Everyone involved with Worthy Farm were amazing in making this happen.

Over the years as the festival and particularly what’s on offer late at night has expanded you tend to get a pretty good idea where will busy at any one time and where the throngs will be moving. Those throngs are usually going in the same direction and although slow and cramped at times, it’s expected and easily avoided should you choose. This year was something different though. We were on-site up near the ribbon tower having some drinks by late Wednesday morning. There was already loads of people up there, far more than you’d usually see only a few hours after gates had opened. I’ve got a habit of looking at other peoples wristbands and noticed then and throughout the weekend a huge amount of crew wristbands. I’m not sure on the official stats for number of people there who weren’t general admission but am convinced the number is way more then usual and the reason why there were just so many people this year (my own theory anyway).

As many others have said poor scheduling and poor choice of stages for some acts were major reasons why fields had to closed and general crowding, but almost everywhere was rammed at all times apart from the obvious quieter parts.

The festivals statement in reaction to questions about crushes really isn’t satisfactory either. Yes it’s been a while since we’ve all been at a huge event and you expect huge throngs around the Pyramid or SE corner etc. but what I experienced on Friday night was total mismanagement. There was 4 of us who’d just seen Four Tet (unreal) and there was a decent number there but by no means heaving. Knowing how certain areas can get when it is heaving we probably wouldn’t have headed down the hill towards Arcadia but it didn’t seem too hectic. Once near the entrance at the bottom of the Park before we knew it we simply weren’t moving anywhere, nobody was. People trying to move in 5 directions and nobody going anywhere. After 10 mins of this I managed to spot a pocket of space behind a metal fence on the perimeter path running up towards the top of the Park and somehow somehow managed to squeeze us out. We waited there trying to be calm and catch our breath and honestly pretend to ourselves that didn’t just happen, but I know from how tightly my friend was holding my arm trying to get out how scared she was. They are so so lucky there wasn’t a huge panic and really it was the relative calmness and patience of everyone there that stopped that becoming a serious situation. That’s why that official statement irks, there was no organised security or system and the ones I did eventually see looked like rabbits in headlights.

big crowds, bottlenecks have always seemed just about in order and monitored in years gone by but something went really wrong here and by the sounds of it elsewhere. 
Sorry for the long rambling rant but given my own personal affection to the festival and farm I can’t bare the idea that a tragedy happens in the future. It’s like going home each time and it truly is the most special ridiculous fun life-affirming place on earth, but they really really need to address the failings this year.

[flave]

My sixth Glastonbury this year and it felt significantly busier (regardless of actual additional numbers on site) than any previously....and that had a fairly significant impact on my enjoyment of the festival, compounded by a very different vibe to the earlier festivals I went to (generally). In terms of crowd control issues, I was involved in both crushes around the Park / Arcadia on the Friday and Saturday nights...

I wonder if this is it, a natural evolution that will continue, or whether there will be any return to anything more laid back where the festival feels less busy and more friendly.

Realise these points are subjective but that's really all I have..comes down to enjoyment ultimately.

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

3 hours ago, LoraMaze said:

I got the same email. I’m glad there were no crush injuries reported, but I sure have a little bit of PTSD from the ones I was in. Especially the Arcadia/Park corner one.

I’m sure if it had been muddy there could easily have been some tramplings. 

It does seem like a copy and paste email they sent out. Really disappointing. I hope you're in a better head space soon!

I was pretty annoyed at their lack of response, so I did follow up:

And got this reply. I'm still annoyed that they're not putting names to their emails. It's bad enough when you can't find a contact form/contact person at a soulless company like RyanAir, but for Glastonbury to just brush people away with a nameless stroke of the keyboard just really... grates...

What I get from their response is that because no one actually got hurt, there's nothing they can do about any of it retroactively. Which is kind of bullshit. There shouldn't need to be a serious injury to someone for them to be reactive.

It's interesting about the numbers though. There were only an extra 3k punters, yet an extra 7k staff/performers?! How many people did Kendrick have on stage for his opening and closing again? Lol.

But seriously, the numbers in the context they put it doesn't seem to make it sound *that* bad, so it leads me to think it must have been more down to a line-up that didn't spread the crowds out, inexperienced stewards, inexperienced festival-goers, and/or poor scheduling.

The only positive I get from it is that they have no plans to increase it further.

I just wish they would be more approachable when it comes to these kind of complaints. Especially, given it's Glastonbury.

 

Edited July 1, 2022 by MEGATRONICMEATWAGON

[Pinhead]

All very good observations and comments above. My feeling was that the programming misalignment made a serious contribution as has been said - there seems a lack of joined up comms between fields and stages bookings perhaps as a result of having to put it all together at shorter notice earlier in the year (back in Jan there was still a question over what the rules would be relating to large events such as this).

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

7 hours ago, ProperTea said:

So I've had a few days to think about this and reflect on my experience. This was my 12th consecutive Glastonbury and whilst I can't comment on whether or not there were more people on site than in previous years, four things are undeniable in my mind:

1. It felt SIGNIFICANTLY busier than Glastonburys 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019.
2. There were more queues than I ever experienced at any of the above
3. It was extremely difficult to get through the back of crowds but then quite easy to weave forward once you were in
4. There was a noticeable lack of direction from stewards (being told where to go by people with loud hailers etc.)

I think in the most part this can be explained by behavioural changes.

Certainly the issue of crowding at the back of stages/arenas/areas seems like a relatively new phenomenon - potentially caused by COVID but perhaps more likely to be an increase in the age profile of your average Glastonbury goer, people taking their kids more, and that combined making them not as arsed about being close to the front?

The lack of proper counter programming and relatively poor line up might have been an issue but I think a big element is the homogenisation of music tastes. 5-10 years ago people defined themselves through the genres of music that they listened to and certain genres were considered cool or more desirable to be into, and gate kept by publications like NME, Q, Radio 1, which no longer exist in their old forms. Now it is socially acceptable to be in to a bit of everything including pop music - and that means it isn't looked down on if you enjoy acts like TLC, Sugababes and McFly. In fact, everyone wants to see those acts - especially people in their late 20s and early 30s of which most people there seemed to be. But the festival want the Pyramid to be musically credible so the poppiest/nostalgia acts played other areas of the festival which clearly were unable to cope with demand.

When demand for areas did increase, stewards and security staff seemed visibly nervous and less confident than in previous years and I can see in earlier comments this is an industry wide issue as expertise left during the pandemic. I'm sure they all tried their best and it's not a slight on them personally and hopefully this will naturally just improve as staff get more experience.

In terms of night life - when I started going in the late 00s and told people the late night areas were my favourite thing about the festival, there were a few raised eyebrows. But this isn't the case anymore, even with non Glastonbury goers. Everyone knows the late night areas are the place to go and they are all rammed, all night, all the time, with quiet campsites.

I then wonder if that's why food stalls seemed busier this year? Did more people get up later, fuelling demand at the same time (mid afternoon/early evening) when previously it had been more spread out? Perhaps the fact the festival is so expensive and middle class now also increased demand on food stalls as there were fewer people cooking their own meals?

I hope the festival look in to this seriously for 2023. I understand people's concerns around health and safety and whilst there were points I felt quite unsafe (Arcadia/Park crush after Groove Armada) I never felt that something horrendous was about to happen -- for me it's more around the fact that they should want people to have a good time and there were points during the 5 days that the overcrowding impacted my enjoyment of the festival. 

Just some things that might help in addition to what people have said before...

• It's time to innovate again to smash old habits. Everybody knows what to expect from everything because it's been there for so long. NYC Downlow is 15 years old and it takes 3 hours to get in because everyone wants to be there and so many people have built years long habits going to the same places. Get rid of it next time. Have 2 new queer venues that nobody knows anything about - which one will people go to? I've used NYC as an example but the same can be said for a lot of venues now.
• A proper 'love the farm, leave no trace' style campaign around behaviour in crowds might be helpful. If what we are all saying about crowd crust isn't anecdotal and when they do their post festival analysis it shows that behaviour has changed the way we think it has, they need to start letting people know and helping to change that behaviour to spread the crowds out and avoid a perception of overcrowding.
• Acknowledging that nostalgic pop acts will pull a crowd - if you don't want to have them on the main stages because you want those stages to be musically credible, maybe it's time to either drop them from the bill or create a new area for those types of nostalgic acts.

 

 

Love this level of insight!

[March Hare]

When you say “It's interesting about the numbers though. There were only an extra 3k punters, yet an extra 7k staff/performers?! How many people did Kendrick have on stage for his opening and closing again? Lol.” @MEGATRONICMEATWAGON there is something in this. 

Glastonbury Festival stewards lost hundreds when they moved the camp outside of the fence, the replacements may have been younger and more keen to explore the late night entertainment. The extra 7k staff/performers may have brought a similar mentality.  The demographic of the festival may have shifted to a younger working crowd and that could account for it being busier than expected. It would be interesting to see the data but no one has it. 

The above isn’t based on any science, but I think the is more to it than scheduling and the crude number increase.

Edited July 1, 2022 by March Hare
I don’t know why my font is weird

[March Hare]

5 hours ago, lucyginger said:

I haven't read alllll of the posts here, but I wanted to give my version of events in Pennards on the Friday night. I'll start by saying it has not put me off going again at all!

This was my 11th Glastonbury, we've always camped in Pennards and in the last 6 or so times, in the same place- just over the hedge from Arcadia. It's busy, it's fun, it feels safe even if it is busy. This year, I went home early on Friday to have a lie down as I've got a broken rib and it was giving me jip. Got back to camp to find millions of people swarming through the campsite towards Park/Arcadia! Thankfully my campmates were home, as were some of our neighbours, and we spent the next goodness knows how long hanging on to our tents so they didn't get trampled. I daren't bend down to fix my front guy lines for fear of being walked on myself! It really was the only time I have felt unsafe there. 

Most people were polite and tried not to tread on our houses, but I'm not sure my tent will do another festival as it was trampled around the edges. Not half as bad as some people near us had. A few people were extremely rude though, and shouted at us for trying to hold on to our tents! I ended up ringing the police as we seriously thought we were in danger. 

After a while the crowd dissipated and we were ok, but really, singular most scary moment at a festival ever. 

This is really shocking, more and more it’s clear that something went wrong 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

5 hours ago, lucyginger said:

I haven't read alllll of the posts here, but I wanted to give my version of events in Pennards on the Friday night. I'll start by saying it has not put me off going again at all!

This was my 11th Glastonbury, we've always camped in Pennards and in the last 6 or so times, in the same place- just over the hedge from Arcadia. It's busy, it's fun, it feels safe even if it is busy. This year, I went home early on Friday to have a lie down as I've got a broken rib and it was giving me jip. Got back to camp to find millions of people swarming through the campsite towards Park/Arcadia! Thankfully my campmates were home, as were some of our neighbours, and we spent the next goodness knows how long hanging on to our tents so they didn't get trampled. I daren't bend down to fix my front guy lines for fear of being walked on myself! It really was the only time I have felt unsafe there. 

Most people were polite and tried not to tread on our houses, but I'm not sure my tent will do another festival as it was trampled around the edges. Not half as bad as some people near us had. A few people were extremely rude though, and shouted at us for trying to hold on to our tents! I ended up ringing the police as we seriously thought we were in danger. 

After a while the crowd dissipated and we were ok, but really, singular most scary moment at a festival ever. 

Jesus. Never seen anything like that at any festival, let alone Glastonbury.

[LoraMaze]

12 minutes ago, March Hare said:

This is really shocking, more and more it’s clear that something went wrong 

It was quite bad at times on the corner of Oxlyers when a set with a big crowd finished. You expect the occasional person to walk through your camp, but when you get a constant stream of people using gaps as a shortcut, tripping over guy ropes etc then you have a problem, several tents collapsed. They used to fence off the corner at Pennards once everyone was in to prevent this, but again there was very little stewarding to prevent people plonking down chairs in the middle of the walk way, causing people to walk through the tents. 

[bigbilly]

Though the whole of the park area in general was way more busy then before. Used to be busy weds and Thurs then die down but this was pretty much rammed all the time and up the hill towards the glasto sign. I think everyone now gravitated to the sign and the ribbon tower. 

[4AssedMonkey]

10 minutes ago, bigbilly said:

Though the whole of the park area in general was way more busy then before. Used to be busy weds and Thurs then die down but this was pretty much rammed all the time and up the hill towards the glasto sign. I think everyone now gravitated to the sign and the ribbon tower. 

I spotted this.  We went up Thursday about 10:00 just for a chill and to look over the site and I've never seen it so busy.  Then when we walked out about 11:30ish there were literally floods of people coming into the Park through every entrance.  Every time I looked towards the hill it was rammed.  Don't think it's been like that before in my experience.

[bigbilly]

I think the sign and the tower are probably after the pyramid the most shown areas on TV or images used  these days. There used to be hardly anyone up on the hills. 

[Sawdusty surfer]

12 hours ago, Matt87 said:

Are we still allowed campfires at your tent though? I presume not, since there's no wood put out for them, and to be honest, there's not enough space a lot of the time. Last one I had was in 2013.

Yep, unlike most other festivals, fires are allowed. Huge pile of wood at crossroads at entrance to Greenfields at start of festival and lots still there on the Sunday night.

 

Edited July 1, 2022 by Sawdusty surfer

[ProperTea]

5 hours ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

It does seem like a copy and paste email they sent out. Really disappointing. I hope you're in a better head space soon!

I was pretty annoyed at their lack of response, so I did follow up:

And got this reply. I'm still annoyed that they're not putting names to their emails. It's bad enough when you can't find a contact form/contact person at a soulless company like RyanAir, but for Glastonbury to just brush people away with a nameless stroke of the keyboard just really... grates...

What I get from their response is that because no one actually got hurt, there's nothing they can do about any of it retroactively. Which is kind of bullshit. There shouldn't need to be a serious injury to someone for them to be reactive.

It's interesting about the numbers though. There were only an extra 3k punters, yet an extra 7k staff/performers?! How many people did Kendrick have on stage for his opening and closing again? Lol.

But seriously, the numbers in the context they put it doesn't seem to make it sound *that* bad, so it leads me to think it must have been more down to a line-up that didn't spread the crowds out, inexperienced stewards, inexperienced festival-goers, and/or poor scheduling.

The only positive I get from it is that they have no plans to increase it further.

I just wish they would be more approachable when it comes to these kind of complaints. Especially, given it's Glastonbury.

 

I totally understand why you are frustrated with their response as it's quite defensive.

I do also see from the festival's point of view why there might be a nervousness about being anything other than defensive at this stage: something's clearly gone seriously wrong this year, I suspect the council are aware of the reports and will be investigating accordingly and therefore I think Glastonbury will be worried about appearing as if they are admitting things have gone wrong or accepting liability by saying sorry, prior to any investigations being concluded.

I hope when they've had chance to look in to all of this properly, they issue a fuller statement acknowledging people's concerns and how these will be addressed in 23. 

edit: I don't want it to seem like I'm out for blood or anything btw! Overall I had a great festival and still think it's a great bunch running it who are all trying their best & acting in good faith, but can't get everything right all the time but will hopefully learn from previous years to get better. This is just a hiccough along the road I hope!

 

Edited July 1, 2022 by ProperTea