How to get to Pedestrian Gate D?

[Franky]

Hey all, 

Planning to camp near Ped gate D this year and just wondered what route to take from London? 
 

Any road names or postcodes that would get me into the correct car parks, orange or pink by the looks of it. All the hints and tips you have please people. 
 

All help appreciated 🤙 

[Leyrulion]

Tbh you can't go wrong by following the festival website says. You park up in whatever car park is being filled at that time, you don't really get a choice, and follow the big display screens to gate D.

Its easy to think it's overly complex but the festival make it incredibly easy to do.

https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/information/getting-here/by-car/

Edited January 15, 2023 by Leyrulion

[bexj]

Head to the west car parks so come in via Glastonbury, bearing in mind you can't drive through Pilton. After that, follow signs/stewards. Be prepared for a long walk! Or come by bus. 

[mazola]

For the west side coming from London we go 303 then turn off to go past Longleat, takes you across the north of the site

[parsonjack]

Which is easier for you from London, M4 heading West, or M3 heading West?

There are a couple of options depending upon which.... 

[Franky]

Thanks all, it would be M4 for me probably. I could well be starting from Bicester though if I pick up a friend. 
 

looking forward to that long walk lol trolly it is for me now. Too old to carry everything now lol 

[parsonjack]

11 minutes ago, Franky said:

Thanks all, it would be M4 for me probably. I could well be starting from Bicester though if I pick up a friend. 
 

looking forward to that long walk lol trolly it is for me now. Too old to carry everything now lol 

Ok so from M4, noting that for West car parks you'll need to approach from West side of Pilton so it requires a bit of a loop, I would probably do...

M4 > J18 

A46 > Bath

A39 > Wells

A39 > Glastonbury

A361 East > Pilton

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by parsonjack

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, parsonjack said:

Ok so from M4, noting that for West car parks you'll need to approach from West side of Pilton so it requires a bit of a loop, I would probably do...

M4 > J18 

A36 > Bath

A39 > Wells

A39 > Glastonbury

A361 East > Pilton

 

Good to see you back on traffic duties 🙂 

[parsonjack]

2 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

Good to see you back on traffic duties 🙂 

I've been sitting here waiting for this moment since June 😂

[mjfiddy]

20 minutes ago, parsonjack said:

Ok so from M4, noting that for West car parks you'll need to approach from West side of Pilton so it requires a bit of a loop, I would probably do...

M4 > J18 

A46 > Bath

A39 > Wells

A39 > Glastonbury

A361 East > Pilton

 

Bookmarking for 5 months ❤️

[David_303]

1 hour ago, Franky said:

Thanks all, it would be M4 for me probably. I could well be starting from Bicester though if I pick up a friend. 
 

looking forward to that long walk lol trolly it is for me now. Too old to carry everything now lol 

From Bicester you could either go a34 down to m4 and drive through Bristol to get to the right side. Another option is to take the a40 at Oxford and head down the a361 from Burford to Swindon and then along the M4. 

[Padgey]

2 hours ago, mazola said:

For the west side coming from London we go 303 then turn off to go past Longleat, takes you across the north of the site

Also take this route then go past the Tesco in Shepton Mallet and head down a road called The Somerset Levels, at the bottom of that turn right and drive through Pilton to West Car Park. 

[gigpusher]

These conversations always make me think of Bill Bryson and his observations in Notes From a Small Island about British people and all their talk about directions. 

[Jose Pose]

After last years experience at Gate D I’d say pick another one 

[clasher]

12 minutes ago, gigpusher said:

These conversations always make me think of Bill Bryson and his observations in Notes From a Small Island about British people and all their talk about directions. 

Mikes' How to be an Alien has some really nice passages about English driving and town planning as well.

[MrZigster]

3 hours ago, parsonjack said:

Ok so from M4, noting that for West car parks you'll need to approach from West side of Pilton so it requires a bit of a loop, I would probably do...

M4 > J18 

A46 > Bath

A39 > Wells

A39 > Glastonbury

A361 East > Pilton

 

You are a road orienteering legend. I still owe you a pint for last year.

[FrancisH]

1 hour ago, Jose Pose said:

After last years experience at Gate D I’d say pick another one 

Just being reminded of Gate D brought back traumatic memories of joining the end of it at the BACK of orange car park near the A361 in the blazing heat. It was a few hours before we even caught sight of the zig zag fence queue which felt like a mirage in a desert by that point.

[Crazyfool01]

2 hours ago, Jose Pose said:

After last years experience at Gate D I’d say pick another one 

Thing is they are often very good at rectifying problems and some might change plans based on whatever happened So Gate D might actually be fine on the day .. it’s just total pot luck … some years we’ve hit issues on the roads approaching the festival … others not 

[Jose Pose]

31 minutes ago, FrancisH said:

Just being reminded of Gate D brought back traumatic memories of joining the end of it at the BACK of orange car park near the A361 in the blazing heat. It was a few hours before we even caught sight of the zig zag fence queue which felt like a mirage in a desert by that point.

Yeah it was a absolute hell wasn’t it. I think we spent what must have been hours walking past the actual queue just to join the end of it, which was pretty demoralising.

[Leyrulion]

1 hour ago, Jose Pose said:

Yeah it was a absolute hell wasn’t it. I think we spent what must have been hours walking past the actual queue just to join the end of it, which was pretty demoralising.

 

2 hours ago, FrancisH said:

Just being reminded of Gate D brought back traumatic memories of joining the end of it at the BACK of orange car park near the A361 in the blazing heat. It was a few hours before we even caught sight of the zig zag fence queue which felt like a mirage in a desert by that point.

It took us 2 1/2 hours in the gate D queue. We arrived at about it's maximum length at 7ish. Stood still for 30 mins and then basically nom stop walking. For arriving when we did I thought we didn't to too badly. 

Rather be moving than stuck behind gate A coach people getting priority.

[Jose Pose]

1 hour ago, Leyrulion said:

 

It took us 2 1/2 hours in the gate D queue. We arrived at about it's maximum length at 7ish. Stood still for 30 mins and then basically nom stop walking. For arriving when we did I thought we didn't to too badly. 

Rather be moving than stuck behind gate A coach people getting priority.

I think it was just luck of the draw where we ended up getting parked, we arrived a similar time (meant to be much earlier but my idiot mate wasn’t close to ready when I arrived at his at the agreed time). We spent what seems like forever being directed to the end of the queue, which mostly meant walking along the queue in the wrong direction to get to the end of it. It didn’t help that there were certain points that people were pushing in if the stewards weren’t looking.

There was one but where two parts of the queue met and went in opposite directions, loads of people were cutting in and saving themselves probably 30/45 minutes of extra queue.

Edited January 16, 2023 by Jose Pose

[FrancisH]

16 minutes ago, Jose Pose said:

I think it was just luck of the draw where we ended up getting parked, we arrived a similar time (meant to be much earlier but my idiot mate wasn’t close to ready when I arrived at his at the agreed time). We spent what seems like forever being directed to the end of the queue, which mostly meant walking along the queue in the wrong direction to get to the end of it. It didn’t help that there were certain points that people were pushing in if the stewards weren’t looking.

There was one but where two parts of the queue met and went in opposite directions, loads of people were cutting in and saving themselves probably 30/45 minutes of extra queue.

Somebody on here gave some good advice about how to guarantee Orange (which is much closer to the gate) which worked a treat for us - when we approached from Glastonbury town stewards were stood in the road forcing everyone into Purple car park, we peeled our sticker off before we got to them and just pointed forward toward Pilton with a knowing nod like we knew where we were going, they waved us through before sending everyone else behind us into purple again, we immediately whacked the sticker back up and get directed into Orange.

As it happens that was a massive fucking error because Purple would have been way closer to where the queue actually started 🙂

Moral of the story is listen to the stewards.

[dotdash79]

Purple is on the other side of the site, but we did that trick to get into orange rather than pink.

at that point they had blocked off access to the GATE D Queue at about 6am. We were directed into Gate A and were in the zig zags straight away. We were through the gates at 8:30 am.

[Neil]

Don't turn off the road for a car park until you get to the car park you want to use. 

[Jose Pose]

57 minutes ago, FrancisH said:

Somebody on here gave some good advice about how to guarantee Orange (which is much closer to the gate) which worked a treat for us - when we approached from Glastonbury town stewards were stood in the road forcing everyone into Purple car park, we peeled our sticker off before we got to them and just pointed forward toward Pilton with a knowing nod like we knew where we were going, they waved us through before sending everyone else behind us into purple again, we immediately whacked the sticker back up and get directed into Orange.

As it happens that was a massive fucking error because Purple would have been way closer to where the queue actually started 🙂

Moral of the story is listen to the stewards.

Funnily enough, we somehow ended up on the wrong side of the site (my error thinking I could cut across but a lot of the roads were shut) wanting to get round to orange car parks so we could get to gate D, I had my sticker for in the window and they tried to get me to go into purple. I refused and ended up having a row with the steward who insisted Orange and Pink were both full. I said this was complete rubbish and refused to turn in, eventually he just waved me through and we did end up in Orange rather than Pink as well.

I think the issue was where we ended up in Orange (it was very near the entrance) and the stewards not really knowing what was going on and where the end of the queue actually was.