Glastonbury 2022 - overcrowding rumours & thoughts

[FuzzyDunlop]

Im in the minority... I thought it was as busy as usual. The SE Corner was less so when I went. Arcadia more so (prob evened its'elf out)

[WheresMyTent]

2 minutes ago, Larraht said:

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.

I have lots of Glasto knowledge. I still found that to get a good spot anywhere you had to be there 1 if not 2 hours before. I missed out on a lot because of how slow it was to get anywhere, when I’m normally stomping around able to get between stages if they have a 20/30min gap between set end/beginning. 

I knew where the quieter toilet/food places were. I still had to opt for food I liked but was not the peak thing I wanted because of queues. Even more usual quieter cut throughs were still crazy busy.

[justinbeeba]

Not sure if it's been mentioned but I think having perfect festival weather (bar, arguably, Wednesday) may have had something to do with it too. No reason for people to seek shelter from either the blistering heat or rain meant more people milling about around the clock.

[Badlands]

The food vans are the litmus test for me. Not that it spoilt my festival but there were queues everywhere for everything, even those off the beaten track 

[philipsteak]

1 hour 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.

Got to agree with this. I know it's possible to have a completely different experience from others but I just didn't encounter the issues that so many seem to be taking about. 

[Crazyfool01]

9 minutes ago, Badlands said:

The food vans are the litmus test for me. Not that it spoilt my festival but there were queues everywhere for everything, even those off the beaten track 

Were there fewer of them ? Vendors struggling to get staff and make money will mean fewer of them and therefore worse queues … 

[SighMo]

This was only my 3rd time -17; 19; 22- and I didn’t think it was much different, although didn’t go to SEC. We’ve camped on Big Ground just up from the Lock-up each time and the amount of tents didn’t seem any worse, in fact I seem to think the tents were more crammed in in 2017. Were any of the other camping areas noticeably over populated?

[mufcok]

Friday night was the easiest route I've ever had into the SE corner, right after the headliners as well. Walked from John Peel to the entrance past West Holts - straight in with no queue. Took me by surprise

[mufcok]

1 hour ago, morph100 said:

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.

Can you elaborate on that?..

[LoraMaze]

Out of 5 festivals I’ve attended it certainly felt busier than usual to me. The weather was similar to 2017 (the last time I went), but it was consistently super busy everywhere I went, long queues for everything…apart from the early mornings when everyone was in bed.
 

Just going on the number of crushes I was involved in I’m going to say there were more  people than usual (my theory is it’s the extra tickets and a shit load of people sneaking in…I know of at least 6 people who did), and also that the stewarding was weak. I’ve only ever been in one crush at the festival before this year, and this time I was involved in several. 
 

Hopefully things will improve next year, but I’m going to take the year off to hear what everyone’s saying. If it’s going to be consistently that busy I’ll go to smaller festivals. 

[LoraMaze]

5 minutes ago, SighMo said:

This was only my 3rd time -17; 19; 22- and I didn’t think it was much different, although didn’t go to SEC. We’ve camped on Big Ground just up from the Lock-up each time and the amount of tents didn’t seem any worse, in fact I seem to think the tents were more crammed in in 2017. Were any of the other camping areas noticeably over populated?

I agree, tents were way less jam packed as usual, SE corner was fine when I went on Thursday…just during the day it was heaving from my experience 

[mazola]

11th for me as well, seemed about as busy as it always is. Having said that the big three I wanted to go to that I knew would get packed (Wet Leg, Macca and Diana) I got there for the act before hand, same as I would have done any other year.

Did notice food seemed to busier, was there less food traders this year? I know I've seen mention in a few of the threads a few regular stalls didn't make it this year.

Toilets and water points I thought were ok, at least I never bothered having to queue more than a couple of minutes for a urinal, and if i needed a full sit down I just went when it was convenient, always come across a quiet block within a few minutes of a busy one.

Decided to go to SE corner at the worst time possible, 1.00am Saturday night, and shuffled along at a reasonable pace and ended up at the gas tower by 2.00. Was packed but no worse than any other year.

I'm not telling OP to suck eggs, she's been as many times as I have and probably knows the place better than me. But after 11 I have a good grasp of where and when the choke points are going to be and adjust accordingly.

Bottom line, I didn't think it was any worse than usual. I did notice the little financial cut backs here and there though, and that was more of a worry to me about where the festival could be heading.

[blutarsky]

32 minutes ago, FuzzyDunlop said:

I'm in the minority... I thought it was as busy as usual. The SE Corner was less so when I went. Arcadia more so (prob evened its'elf out)

Agree RE: SEC. Had no issues there at any point. 

Only time I struggled with it being busy was trying to get in front of the sound desk for Macca as he started (SHOCK!), at The Libertines (with most of the trouble being caused by people queuing for food across the trackway) and at William's Green on Thursday (trying to get out as people arrived for Mel C / ME / Bastille). 

Agree with those saying food queues seemed worse. I barely ate as a result -couldn't be fucked spending more than 10 minutes in a queue. 

Edited July 4, 2022 by blutarsky

[One Tonne Baby]

I think there’s definitely a level of recency bias, we are all 3 years older as well and with age comes an affliction to crowds, in general.

we were commenting about how busy it was though, even on the Thursday. The only thing that pissed me off was that after Thursday I gave up getting breakfast because every single place had a queue of at least 15-20 mins. I was up at 7.30am on Friday and had to queue for 15 mins for a coffee ffs. Just waited until about midday.

saying that, I did feel like it wasn’t as rammed at some of the stages. Probably something to do with not being bothered getting to the front and wanting space. Even got to the edge of the Williams Green tent for Elvana on Thursday and I’ve never got beat in previous years on that night.

 

they need to re-evaluate the amount of toilets and their placement, food vendors and scheduling which was a big driver of crushes

[mufcok]

More urinals is a quick win for the men's toilets. Staggering when you get into some of them and they can barely fit 20 people in, extending them would help

[HyperTechnoHorse]

OP can you please add number 9 - everyone is probably an inch wider at the waist post-pandemic 🙂

[FuzzyDunlop]

People mentioning crowds (not on this thread but in other chats I've had) mention TLC & the Sugababes... the Sugababes were on the Avalon & that was bound to be a shambles. That's the reason I didnt go & went to Sam Fender instead.

Supergrass at the same time as TLC was busy, without being rammed at all. My mate at Robert Plant saud the crowd was pretty small... which is unsurprising.

I thought there were a few odd act placements... TLC, Sugababes, Mcfly which created queues. Along with a few acts more popular than expected (Wetleg)

[FuzzyDunlop]

3 minutes ago, mufcok said:

More urinals is a quick win for the men's toilets. Staggering when you get into some of them and they can barely fit 20 people in, extending them would help

The ones at the top of the park behind the stonebridge bar were a joke. At the most you could fit 12 in there.

[mufcok]

2 minutes ago, FuzzyDunlop said:

The ones at the top of the park behind the stonebridge bar were a joke. At the most you could fit 12 in there.

Yep. Same for a lot tbh, one's in the Dance Village across from the bottom of Oxylers were exactly the same

[Gnomicide]

To me it felt a little busier but only a little. The main noticeable time was heading down the railway track or down West Holts in the early hours against the crowds heading for SE corner. 

I thought the food stall and toilet queues were no worse than normal and it seemed like there was more space in our camping field (Paines) than before but that may have been because more of our group got there earlier this year.

Yes, Wet Leg was mad but it was always going to be, they should have been on later or a bigger stage.

Was DiRo busier than previous Legends? No. Was Macca busier than the Stones? No.

All this is just my own experience but I didn't think it was unsafe at any time. I think the busier feeling was down to bigger acts sometimes being up against little opposition, maybe bigger acts taking earlier slots due to everyone wanting to be there after the pandemic. I spent way more time at the Pyramid than any previous visit and I think a lot of others did the same.

tldr: little bit busier but not a problem. 

[Leyrulion]

7 minutes ago, mufcok said:

More urinals is a quick win for the men's toilets. Staggering when you get into some of them and they can barely fit 20 people in, extending them would help

I noticed that they seemed to have removed the urinals from the side that faced the railway track by the back of the other and in some other places.  Which was great for not accidentally flashing people walking down but not so great for queues. 

I actually found the longdrops pretty dn clean this year which was great. And a big fan of the new smaller "mini" long drops that appeared in a few place, groups of 4-6 that were up some steps. (At least I'd not seen them before).

[Splonk]

Tried to drop off a kids buggy at the lock ups nearest the kids camping on the Friday and they had no room.

Apparently this was the first time this had ever happened at the lock ups.

Because kids are free, I wonder if they are accounted for in the official attendance?

 

[Crazyfool01]

3 minutes ago, Splonk said:

Tried to drop off a kids buggy at the lock ups nearest the kids camping on the Friday and they had no room.

Apparently this was the first time this had ever happened at the lock ups.

Because kids are free, I wonder if they are accounted for in the official attendance?

 

Might also be because I heard they had issues getting the internal racking /scaffold for them … I’ll try and remember where I heard this 

[Leyrulion]

15 minutes ago, mazola said:

Decided to go to SE corner at the worst time possible, 1.00am Saturday night, and shuffled along at a reasonable pace and ended up at the gas tower by 2.00. Was packed but no worse than any other year.

 

15 minutes ago, blutarsky said:

Agree RE: SEC. Had no issues there at any point. 

Only time I struggled with it being busy was trying to get in front of the sound desk for Macca as he started (SHOCK!), at The Libertines (with most of the trouble being caused by people queuing for food across the trackway) and at William's Green on Thursday (trying to get out as people arrived for Mel C / ME / Bastille). 

Agree with those saying food queues seemed worse. I barely ate as a result -couldn't be fucked spending more than 10 minutes in a queue. 

 

21 minutes ago, mufcok said:

Friday night was the easiest route I've ever had into the SE corner, right after the headliners as well. Walked from John Peel to the entrance past West Holts - straight in with no queue. Took me by surprise

TBH with the movement of Glasto Latino they've cracked SE corner queues now (in a dry year anyway). 

 Glasto Latino, Cabaret, Sensation seekers and a couple of other little stages effectively stagger the queue all the way back to west holts entrance, you just don't notice it because you and 300 others have been pulled into watching a Brazilian carnival act for 20 minutes.

[Leyrulion]

33 minutes ago, SighMo said:

This was only my 3rd time -17; 19; 22- and I didn’t think it was much different, although didn’t go to SEC. We’ve camped on Big Ground just up from the Lock-up each time and the amount of tents didn’t seem any worse, in fact I seem to think the tents were more crammed in in 2017. Were any of the other camping areas noticeably over populated?

Oxlyers was actually surprising how much space there was when you went further in about 10 metres off the track. We've never actually camped that far in before so I don't know if it's always like that. But you could have definitely put up a big 4 man, or a couple of smaller 2 man on Thursday.