Glastonbury 2022 - overcrowding rumours & thoughts

[WheresMyTent]

I started writing this as if it was going to be a blog, but actually felt maybe it was better discussed here with all you experts. I have seen there have been threads about this already, I've just compiled my thoughts and hope it's ok to post them as a new topic.

I write this having been to Glasto as a 10 time festival Ticket Holder veteran and now also as a 1 year Glasto crew member. So that’s 11 times total I’ve been to Worthy Farm and experienced the behemoth of a festival that it is. If Glasto was a city, I would live there; if Glasto was a belief, I would be a preacher. That's how much I love it. So all the below is coming from a place of love, if also a bit of confusion, and hope that 2023 can be even better.

The 2022 Glastonbury Festival was different for me in many ways - it was my first on site early (I was there for a full 8 days, Sun-Mon!), and my first time camping in crew and being able to experience those crew areas I never had before. It had also been 3 years since we’d all last been on the farm - the longest gap I’ve had in my Glasto history. I WILL be writing a review of the 2022 Glastonbury festival in my usual style, because I did honestly still have a brilliant time, and I have lots of new stories and pics to share. I just needed to get this out quickly beforehand...

Now on to the point of this particular post. This festival stood out for me (and lots of others from my online browsings) for a number of more negative reasons, the biggest and most common of these was the overcrowding that was clear to anyone on site.

I have experienced crazy Glasto crowds before, for example when trying to get from an Other Stage headliner over to the Arcadia spider, or after the Sunday Legends Slot when we all run to the Pyramid toilets/food. There are always huge crowds and specific pinch points, but the difference this year was it felt relentless. 

For around 12-18 hours a day - the main hours everyone was awake (11am-5am), everywhere you went it was shoulder-to-shoulder busy. It wasn't just huge crowds at stages, again that is to be expected... it was massive heaving crowds going in different directions on all the pathways at all times, and 50+ people in queues for individual toilets or food stalls, despite having more traders/toilets than ever before.

So why did it feel like this?

I want to clearly state that ALMOST EVERYTHING I WRITE IN THIS BLOG IS OPINION, RUMOURS, or HEARSAY, apart from the first four points I will make which are facts. I will make this clear as we go along, but for most of the below list of possibilities, I have no evidence or facts to back it up. It was things I heard on site, before, during, and after the festival.

Why did Glastonbury Festival feel so overcrowded? 

What were the factors involved?

1. FACT: On 5th November 2021, Melvin Benn was appointed Festival Director and Event Controller for Glastonbury Festival Events Limited

Melvin Benn is also the Managing Director of Festival Republic, one of the largest festival companies in the world. He was originally appointed as Director of Glastonbury from 2002-2012, to help the festival through some difficult financial years. In 2021 he was offered and accepted the position again, replacing Paul Latham, after the festival reported a £3m loss between 2019 and 2021. - The assumption is he was brought in to help the festival cuts costs because of his management experience of large festival events - however these events are all very corporate and different to Glastonbury. A new person in charge means lots of new logistics/management/companies behind the scenes.

2. FACT: The festival officially announced the capacity had increased. 2% more tickets were sold, and 3% more crew were on site. Meaning the official total licensed numbers on site went from 203,000 to 210,000 

This is the only official numbers increase that was announced by the festival. It doesn't sound like much, but it will have made a difference. The reason given was they were able to secure new campsite fields to accommodate the extra attendees. However, most Glasto veterans will say that it felt like it was much more than 'just' 7,000 more people on site. 

3. FACT: COVID was peaking before, during, and after the festival - meaning high levels of staff turnover and changes

During the festival site build, COVID was still strong, and if someone on site tested positive, they had to leave the site. This meant lots of last minute staffing to replace people - security, build professionals, even volunteers to staff the gates. High staff turnover means more inexperienced people (or even the odd 'bad egg' would have gotten through) brought in to fill numbers last minute. 

4. FACT: Legacy Events staff who had worked in Events all their life with years of experience have all moved on during COVID because of necessity (no work for 2.5 years) so almost all staffing has been filled by 'green'/inexperienced staff

We all know that during the pandemic, everyone in the Events industry was essentially abandoned by the government. They received next to zero help from the government, and were literally the very last industry to start coming back to life. Even Hospitality got help such as Eat Out To Help Out. There was almost no furlough for event staff unless they worked for a few very fortunate companies who were barely able to keep them afloat. Many incredible staff held on as long as possible, but eventually had to reskill and leave the industry, leaving gaping holes behind them. And though we're now on the path back to normal, those roles have been filled by newer staff that don't have the years and years of experience of their predecessors.

So now we move on to theories, rumours and hearsay...

5. THEORY: It has been 3 years since the last Glastonbury. We have forgotten what it was like/we mentally feel different in huge crowds now

None (or very very few) of us can say we have attended events of over 200,000 since at least 2019. This will mentally affect our feelings when we are in a big crowd for the first time. As much as I can say "I know there were more people on site because I've never felt so consistently crowded the whole time" - there is a huge bias that I must appreciate - it has been a long time and memories change/adjust due to experience. Plus we are all so much more spatially aware after 2.5 years of social distancing. 

6. THEORY: Signage / crowd management weren't up to scratch

Probably because of some of the reasons added above (new people in charge, less experienced staff, and less staff in general) - they weren't properly prepared for certain areas/pinch points to help manage crowds. There were of course the usual one way systems etc, but lots of people were wandering confused where the nearest amenities were, or how to get somewhere. And apart from the SE Corner, there was no foot traffic system to ease overcrowding (see Arcadia Fri/Sat/Sun night).

7. RUMOUR: "There are at least 20k plus more people on site this year" - mentioned by multiple crew members

Right so now we get into hearsay. While I was on site and in crew areas, I heard/spoke to a number of people that said that somehow, there were a large number of extra people on site this year, and that they were aware, and that everyone was finding it difficult to manage.

8. RUMOUR: People were being smuggled in in large numbers/extra tickets were sold/counterfeit tickets were created and sold

Again HUGE rumour probably originating from the inexperienced/temporary/last minute staff points above - many rumours about easy bribery of the security/gate staff, as well as ticket/tout sellers themselves. Glastonbury Festival 2022 was the hottest ticket in the entire world, everyone wanted to be there and was willing to do/pay anything. Plus with the cost of living crisis, if someone offered £500 for you to get them into the gates, many more inexperienced staff would be tempted. I heard from one person that they knew of lorry loads of people being smuggled in with money changing hands.

 

 

I'm a bit worried about writing/posting this, but I wanted to get all my thoughts in one place. Some of the points above may have no relevance, some only make sense when paired with others, and as I stated a lot is just rumours or whispers heard around site. But even if all of the above is true, firstly I still had a wonderful time, and secondly all of these can and likely will be rectified before the next festival.

[Pinhead]

It seemed like there were more crew wristbands around this year - seemed like 1 in 5 to my reckoning, however crew concessions is supposed to be tighter now with less jollies for mates etc. so unsure here whether this was a factor. Personally I blame lack of joined up thinking in terms of scheduling.

[Leyrulion]

41 minutes ago, WheresMyTent said:

. THEORY: Signage / crowd management weren't up to scratch

Probably because of some of the reasons added above (new people in charge, less experienced staff, and less staff in general) - they weren't properly prepared for certain areas/pinch points to help manage crowds. There were of course the usual one way systems etc, but lots of people were wandering confused where the nearest amenities were, or how to get somewhere. And apart from the SE Corner, there was no foot traffic system to ease overcrowding (see Arcadia Fri/Sat/Sun night).

There were new pedestrian crossing signals that I hadn't seen before on a few road crossings that seemed to have been binned off by the Saturday. 

New crowd management technique that didn't work, or did they resort to them because of a lack of stewards to staff the crossing?

[Alvoram]

8. Should probably include wall climbers too, with news spreading around Sticklinch, a tiny section of the wall, that at least 30 people had jumped in one night... If this is true, then around the whole wall, across the whole weekend, the number may have been significant. 

[morph100]

Saw TikTok videos of claims of sneaking in on crew tickets, also a few mentions of the Scouse tunnel.
 

i think a combo or more legit people, more illegal people and also popular acts not being up against other popular acts so large percentages wanted to go to the same places.

[morph100]

My ticket was thoroughly checked on Thursday entry due to counterfeits being tried, but the person checking mine had not seen any.

[Larraht]

It was rammo, wasn't it? 

I think it was probably a combination of everything...definitely some poor scheduling decisions made, probably a fair few sneaky entries. 

I wonder if the festival will speak out about the concerns given that it is on everyone's lips? Or perhaps measures will be added for next year. 

I had a brilliant festival and probably would of tolerated double the crowds that developed just to be there but it did feel extremely busy everywhere.

[waynewdk]

Theory 3. That with the festival maybe being a bit rusty, was a well oiled machine before for example, and also this year I knew very little artists so went to the big artists I knew maybe others did too

Edited July 4, 2022 by waynewdk

[gigpusher]

My theory was that the stripped down small stages ie less stages in Silver Hayes, Avalon Cafe needing people who already had tickets to perform was that there would have been less crew but more paying punters who would have been using the facilities like toilets/food stalls and these didn’t seem to have changed in size much so felt busier. 
 

I also think there is a lot to be said for people having FOMO about all big acts and everyone flocking to the same things at the same time probably exacerbated by the fact that we haven’t been able to go to as many gigs recently. I know I quickly changed some of my plans to go to things that wouldn’t be as busy or made the decision to watch the act before a busy one to make sure I got a good spot. 

[Chip Batch]

Didn’t really notice anything different myself, though I take your word for it if there were officially 5% more people on site. Although The Park food stalls seemed busier than before. People get in without tickets every year. 

Edited July 4, 2022 by Chip Batch

[Joshuwarr]

This is a little controversial but I really did not notice a huge difference. There were times where I'd even say some areas were very quiet. Did I just get lucky? I saw a number of large acts and often had to travel before and after acts.

I would say maybe the busiest areas I remember were Arcadia but even there we managed to get in and out ok.

I did hear a lot of rumours of more people being there (ranging from 20-40k!) but I feel that would have been really noticeable.

 

[HyperTechnoHorse]

Don't buy that there were 20k unaccounted for festival-goers. 

Some of the crowd behaviour I saw this year was utterly bizarre. Loads of times I saw massive queues for certain vendors, and then right next door would be barely any queue for another one. And this was for bog-standard food stalls - nothing to write home about.  Saw similar thing with toilets and longdrops, queues at bars etc. 

 

Edited July 4, 2022 by HyperTechnoHorse

[Neil]

1 hour ago, WheresMyTent said:

. He was originally appointed as Director of Glastonbury from 2002-2012, to help the festival through some difficult financial years.

dsifficult ,licencing issues.

[CaledonianGonzo]

4 minutes ago, Joshuwarr said:

This is a little controversial but I really did not notice a huge difference. There were times where I'd even say some areas were very quiet. Did I just get lucky? I saw a number of large acts and often had to travel before and after acts.

The more this keeps coming up, the more all I can account for it is: after 3 years away, people simply forgot what it was like.

[Neil]

1 hour ago, WheresMyTent said:

In 2021 he was offered and accepted the position again, replacing Paul Latham,

paul latham replaced melvin as the festival licencee.

[Joshuwarr]

Just now, CaledonianGonzo said:

The more this keeps coming up, the more all I can account for it is: after 3 years away, people simply forgot what it was like.

I do think this is part of it. There were also some areas with noticeably less entertainment this year at night (think Silver Hayes) which meant certain stages were more crowded, like the Lonely Hearts Club.

Even the Wednesday night at the Stone Circle was the least busy I've seen it for years. Admittedly we're down the hill a bit but its the quickest we've ever managed to get out of the field when the fireworks were over...

[waynewdk]

Surely if people can make £20 fake notes with holograms with little profit, surely they can make fake tickets with holograms with bigger profits, also these tickets were re used from the cancelled festivals , they’ve been sat around a long time to be cloned, we’re as normally they’d have a few days to make and then even sell

[Neil]

4 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

The more this keeps coming up, the more all I can account for it is: after 3 years away, people simply forgot what it was like.

i think the OP took that idea from other 'overcrowding' topics here.

[henry bear]

5 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

The more this keeps coming up, the more all I can account for it is: after 3 years away, people simply forgot what it was like.

Exactly. Anyone who was there in 99/2000 will know what overcrowding really felt like - where it was heaving everywhere you went, as opposed to certain pinch points at certain times, as was the case this year

Edited July 4, 2022 by henry bear

[Larraht]

10 minutes ago, HyperTechnoHorse said:

Don't buy that there were 20k unaccounted for festival-goers. 

Some of the crowd behaviour I saw this year was utterly bizarre. Loads of times I saw massive queues for certain vendors, and then right next door would be barely any queue for another one. And this was for bog-standard food stalls - nothing to write home about.  Saw similar thing with toilets and longdrops, queues at bars etc. 

 

The compost toilet vs long drop thing was just weird. First time in 5 Glastonburys that I've noticed there being a long queue for compost and zero queue for long drops which were next to each other...especially on campsites. What was that about? I didn't think the long drops looked or smelt worse than the composts really? 

[rubenz]

1 minute ago, Larraht said:

The compost toilet vs long drop thing was just weird. First time in 5 Glastonburys that I've noticed there being a long queue for compost and zero queue for long drops which were next to each other...especially on campsites. What was that about? I didn't think the long drops looked or smelt worse than the composts really? 

Certainly a bit of odd toilet queuing behaviour on display. Where I was camped (South Park 2) you'd have about 30 people lining up for 6 toilets but if you went 2 minutes round the corner there were loads of free ones. Same at other stage composters with big queues but no one spotted the other ones just a bit further along. 

I think some people just enjoy a good queue! 

I think the composters were a bit better in terms of space, comfort and cleanliness if you were in there for the long haul but not worth waiting ages for! 

[CaledonianGonzo]

This is behaviour you forego when you're match-fit Glasto wise.

There's always somewhere / something just round the corner with less of a queue.

[prog seller]

It was my first festival and I had a ball. Will I be going back? probably not. 

 

Far too many people IMO, surely if they see this year as the slightest success, they're hardly going to reduce capacity are they? the arenas are too small vs the amount of people on site. 

 

What improvements can be made for this? (sorry purists, im not getting to that stage 1hr before hand) 🤣

[Euphoricape]

I hope the rumour about wall climbers is just a rumour. Puts everyone's safety at risk.

[Larraht]

26 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

This is behaviour you forego when you're match-fit Glasto wise.

There's always somewhere / something just round the corner with less of a queue.

This is perhaps the key - having a bit more knowledge of the festival probably helped. You would never find me queuing for a toilet in the morning - I have a pee bottle in the tent and then walk out of the campsite and into the festival for about 9.30/10 and use the empty toilets there. 

Same for packed out sets - I knew it would be rammed for Sugababes in a tent so arrived 2 songs before the end of Nick Mulvey and was near the front. 

It felt busy but with a bit of planning and organisation, it could be managed.