What is your arrival strategy ?

[coma girl]

7 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

I respect the hustle but anyone arriving by car on the Tuesday evening and getting in the queue must be fucking insane.

Honestly can't even fathom the mentality this takes.

I totally understand why it's not not everyone but I always find the queue a laugh with my group and it's totally worth it to get all of us together in our desired camping spot. As soon as the tent is set up any queue discomfort is totally forgotten. Camping where I want to makes the following 5 days much easier and more pleasant so that's worth it against a few hours of hassle on the Tuesday night/Wednesday morning.

[gooner1990]

9 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

I honestly think a better idea is to befriend someone in the camperfields and pitch your tent up (with their permission) next to their van for the night then just get up early on the Weds morning and pack it away.

If having to pack up a tent in the early hours is an issue you could kip in a pop up tent, get up early and join the queue leaving the pop up where it is. Get on to site pitch your actual tent then go back to pack up the other one. By doing this you could even split your load over 2 trips etc.

Just my 2 pennies worth...

The thing for me is the ante just goes up and up each year.

2004 we arrived on site 6pm Weds and most of Top Webbs Ash was empty, and we pitched there,  2005 - Arrived 2pm Weds and Kidney Mead was deserted, then in 2007 we camped in Big Ground and it was noticeable that by early afternoon on the Weds it was getting more full, we then camped in the same area for 2008-2010 arriving at a similar time and just about getting in.

Then suddenly in 2011 we arrived and it was full by 11am (well too full for all our tents), and we had to camp in South Park 2, then steadily over the last decade its been lets leave at 7am, then it was 6am, then it was 5am, then 4am, then some of our crowd started going down Tuesday evening to queue outside, then some of our mates in campervans started going Tuesday lunchtime, then some of them went Mon evening and stayed locally before driving on site Tues.

Just gets to a point of where does it end and all it is to get a decent pitch....

Some of my friends are still happy to queue overnight, but I won't do it anymore, start the festival off on the wrong foot in terms of sleep deprivation etc.  If they stop going or decide they can't be arsed with it anymore I'll just camp further out!

[BambooShanks]

17 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

I still refuse to do it.

Some friends do it and that gets us a decent pitch, but I've said I'm now happy to camp further out if they don't want to queue overnight anymore!

This will be the first year I've properly done it - previous years we've arrived 5-6am and queued from around then.

My reasoning is I want to pay back all the times that my friends have set up a tent for me, given lifts or generally helped my festival experience, want to grab a spot in Pennard Hill and I want to avoid as much as the horrible, shuffling, stop start bit of the queue as possible.

Given that we usually set off at midnight previous years, we've been awake through the night anyway so the only difference is I'm going to be sat in a queue, rather than a car.  

[Hawros]

On 4/10/2023 at 8:40 PM, Gutterflower said:

My usual tactic the last few times is to catch the 4:30am bus from Victoria and arrive early.

Its worked nicely the last few times, set up nice and early with a decent spot and chill for a few hours before going to explore. 

Weirdly I checked National Express for early morning coaches the other day and there's nothing between like 1am and 6am at all at the moment. Wonder if they add them later depending on demand? never noticed them not being there before.

I think they've sold out - mine's at 6am, and I was looking to check for alternatives to switch to, but they were no longer visible.

[gooner1990]

1 minute ago, BambooShanks said:

This will be the first year I've properly done it - previous years we've arrived 5-6am and queued from around then.

My reasoning is I want to pay back all the times that my friends have set up a tent for me, given lifts or generally helped my festival experience, want to grab a spot in Pennard Hill and I want to avoid as much as the horrible, shuffling, stop start bit of the queue as possible.

Given that we usually set off at midnight previous years, we've been awake through the night anyway so the only difference is I'm going to be sat in a queue, rather than a car.  

Suppose it depends how much having a prime spot means to you. 🙂 

We camp close to Pennards (field behind the Park stage) 

[JoeyT]

6 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

The thing for me is the ante just goes up and up each year.

2004 we arrived on site 6pm Weds and most of Top Webbs Ash was empty, and we pitched there,  2005 - Arrived 2pm Weds and Kidney Mead was deserted, then in 2007 we camped in Big Ground and it was noticeable that by early afternoon on the Weds it was getting more full, we then camped in the same area for 2008-2010 arriving at a similar time and just about getting in.

Then suddenly in 2011 we arrived and it was full by 11am (well too full for all our tents), and we had to camp in South Park 2, then steadily over the last decade its been lets leave at 7am, then it was 6am, then it was 5am, then 4am, then some of our crowd started going down Tuesday evening to queue outside, then some of our mates in campervans started going Tuesday lunchtime, then some of them went Mon evening and stayed locally before driving on site Tues.

Just gets to a point of where does it end and all it is to get a decent pitch....

Some of my friends are still happy to queue overnight, but I won't do it anymore, start the festival off on the wrong foot in terms of sleep deprivation etc.  If they stop going or decide they can't be arsed with it anymore I'll just camp further out!

When we used to camp "inside" we were always in Top Webbs Ash. Right where the red X is below:

 

I think the last year we camped there was 2011. Then everyone got older, got a bit of money and bought vans etc so we've been in the East Campervan Field's ever since.

We were lucky last year through contacts to get the vans setup right in the corner (had the benefit of hedges & could form a proper camp) in E23 the weekend before the festival.

I'd anticipate this being the same this time around albeit minus me!

[gooner1990]

9 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

When we used to camp "inside" we were always in Top Webbs Ash. Right where the red X is below:

 

I think the last year we camped there was 2011. Then everyone got older, got a bit of money and bought vans etc so we've been in the East Campervan Field's ever since.

We were lucky last year through contacts to get the vans setup right in the corner (had the benefit of hedges & could form a proper camp) in E23 the weekend before the festival.

I'd anticipate this being the same this time around albeit minus me!

We camped the otherside of the path to your X and up slightly in 2004 - was a good pitch!

We've now reached the stage where most of our crowd are in various 'glamping' options such as WV, Tipis, Stichlinch etc. There's only 5-6 of us in standard camping (assuming I get lucky in the resale 🙂 ) this year....I'm happy to keep doing it but if push comes to shove and the last few want to do glamping I'll have to go along with it unless I want to camp in standard camping on my own!

[BambooShanks]

Just now, gooner1990 said:

Suppose it depends how much having a prime spot means to you. 🙂 

I'd say it's worth it.  Having a massively reduced walk from the camp to the rest of the festival pays dividends over the course of the weekend. And like I said, I'd be awake anyway if previous years are anything to go by.  

[Bike_Like_A_Mum]

We're staying in a hotel in West Pennard on Monday night this year. Going down early Monday morning so we can spend a day exploring Glastonbury town and walk up to the Tor which we haven't done before. Nice comfy bed and a proper meal in the hotel, shower in the morning. Then will roll my old van on site as early as possible on the Tuesday to get the closest spot for the sake of distance for the kids... pot noodles and a beer for lunch, burgers and hot dogs for tea,  chill out and decorate our camp in bunting and fairy lights. Watch the sun go down then Marshmallows over the fire pit with whatever neighbours are about. Early night (wishful thinking maybe 🤣)

Head over to fetch our wristbands as soon as the queues die down on Wednesday morning and off we go!!

[Crazyfool01]

45 minutes ago, JoeyT said:

When we used to camp "inside" we were always in Top Webbs Ash. Right where the red X is below:

 

I think the last year we camped there was 2011. Then everyone got older, got a bit of money and bought vans etc so we've been in the East Campervan Field's ever since.

We were lucky last year through contacts to get the vans setup right in the corner (had the benefit of hedges & could form a proper camp) in E23 the weekend before the festival.

I'd anticipate this being the same this time around albeit minus me!

Crumbs 2011 you’d have been very near to us … right opposite guardian lounge or was it Smirnoff ice experience whatever that was called 

[Breeze]

1 hour ago, gooner1990 said:

The thing for me is the ante just goes up and up each year.

I have a photo from my tent at the top of Pennard in 2003 and there was wide open spaces around the whole of the field at 3pm. Probably cannot swing a cat there at that time now. TBF I never did understand why people turned up on Thu or Friday even back then. I mean if you *had* to work or something, fair enough, but the biggest and best party on earth is happening, you have a ticket and you don't show up for 24 or 48 hours or whatever. WTF were people thinking?

[BBC7BBCHEAVEN]

3 hours ago, JoeyT said:

I respect the hustle but anyone arriving by car on the Tuesday evening and getting in the queue must be fucking insane.

Honestly can't even fathom the mentality this takes.

We've always done this, actually surprised to see this attitude

Set off from the north east around 11pm Tuesday and join the queue.

Crack a few cans and off we go, party has started. The queue is great craic

I pre-pack my trolley and just have that to pull with nothing on my back, makes it a breeze.

(This is for non-campervan obviously, last year and this year we're on the campervan, but we're nearly forty so the late night queue drinking is becoming tough.)

[gooner1990]

1 hour ago, Breeze said:

I have a photo from my tent at the top of Pennard in 2003 and there was wide open spaces around the whole of the field at 3pm. Probably cannot swing a cat there at that time now. TBF I never did understand why people turned up on Thu or Friday even back then. I mean if you *had* to work or something, fair enough, but the biggest and best party on earth is happening, you have a ticket and you don't show up for 24 or 48 hours or whatever. WTF were people thinking?

I've always arrived on the Wednesday, even from my first one back in 2004......back then though there wasn't much going on until the Thursday evening (which even then was in limited supply), for me it was just an excuse to sit around the campsite, drinking beer, smoking weed and talk shite!

I think what's happened was:

1. In 2009 they started advertising it as a five day event rather than just three.

2. People have now caught onto the fact that there is more going on those first two days than there used to be which in turn causes the campsites to fill up earlier and earlier each year. 

There will be a point (its coming) with me where I just say 'fuck it' and camp much further out than I would ideally like as the energy/organisation to get there early isn't there anymore.

Edited April 13, 2023 by gooner1990
typo

[jamesrfisher]

31 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

I've already arrived on the Wednesday, even from my first one back in 2004......back then though there wasn't much going on until the Thursday evening (which even then was in limited supply), for me it was just an excuse to sit around the campsite, drinking beer, smoking weed and talk shite!

I think what's happened was:

1. In 2009 they started advertising it as a five day event rather than just three.

2. People have now caught onto the fact that there is more going on those first two days than there used to be which in turn causes the campsites to fill up earlier and earlier each year. 

There will be a point (its coming) with me where I just say 'fuck it' and camp much further out than I would ideally like as the energy/organisation to get there early isn't there anymore.

I would add to that 2010. Came on Wednesday 2008 and 2009 and both times no issues getting in, camped out a bit but completely empty even on Thursday morning but loved it.

 

In 2010 there were two things:

1. England football being shown at the Pyramid Stage on Wednesday afternoon

2. Scorching weather.

 

We arrived around 10.00 and had a massive wait to get in. thereafter people realised that arriving Wednesday was a few more days to party.

[gooner1990]

27 minutes ago, jamesrfisher said:

I would add to that 2010. Came on Wednesday 2008 and 2009 and both times no issues getting in, camped out a bit but completely empty even on Thursday morning but loved it.

 

In 2010 there were two things:

1. England football being shown at the Pyramid Stage on Wednesday afternoon

2. Scorching weather.

 

We arrived around 10.00 and had a massive wait to get in. thereafter people realised that arriving Wednesday was a few more days to party.

Yeh you are right, it was very busy that year as everyone wanted to be in and set up before the football started at 3pm.....

We got in alright, but I can recall leaving our camp in Big Ground to go for a walk and noticing how packed it was already before Weds lunchtime!

The game has changed now as its now punted as a 5 day event so of course people are going to want to utilise that to the maximum, sadly a lot of us burn ourselves out by Sunday AM!

[p.pete]

35 minutes ago, jamesrfisher said:

I would add to that 2010. Came on Wednesday 2008 and 2009 and both times no issues getting in, camped out a bit but completely empty even on Thursday morning but loved it.

 

In 2010 there were two things:

1. England football being shown at the Pyramid Stage on Wednesday afternoon

2. Scorching weather.

 

We arrived around 10.00 and had a massive wait to get in. thereafter people realised that arriving Wednesday was a few more days to party.

2009 there was lots of traffic issues Wednesday too - maybe the next year, but after that they almost seemed to encourage people to come earlier.  They started letting cars come in Tuesday evening - so everyone isn't arriving at the same time, rush hour - you were supposed to stay in your car over night, but that quickly relaxed too.

So yeah, every time there's something like football on, or scorching weather - as @gooner1990 said, it ups the ante every year.  Sort of feels like it's getting to the stage where you could get to the back of the queue at 1am or 2am and still have quite a lot of people ahead of you when the gates open - so night of missed sleep and still might be ages stop-start queueing in the morning.

I didn't get a ticket last year and had a look at the webcam for Wednesday evening and the hill above the parked looked absolutely rammed with people - great spot to be in the sunshine, not huge amount of stuff going on etc, but really does look like most people are already there by Wednesday lunchtime.  

Not quite gotten to our arrival strategy yet - small group and we'll be travelling from three different places, first time in a few years for a few, so not sure they appreciate how all this has escalated!  We've done the overnight queue the last two times, but that was 2017 & 2019 now - and I've gotten old since then 😄  I'm always interested in reading these, trying to get a sense of a) at what point Wednesday morning, if you've not arrived already, are you best off holding off til later [my sense is that after 5/6 am you're now miles back in the queue and doing yourself a favour to wait a bit], b) how quickly does it take the initial queue to clear through the gates [I reckon 11am at the very earliest, but if it's a smooth-flowing queue then maybe it's worthwhile?], c) the differences between each of the gates [how much bigger/smaller are west vs east car parks; impact of coaches vs carpark people at A; impact of campervan people queueing at C], and d) if you're arriving later is there any point at all in the east carparks with anything larger than a small tent?  

Been reading this forum for years and still not figured it out 😛 

[StoneCircle]

9 hours ago, BBC7BBCHEAVEN said:

Ah can you still see the site from them?

 

That makes all the difference then, I thought E20 was the only one with a view

E24 would be the best for a view, see map I have attached. 

[p.pete]

33 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Yeh you are right, it was very busy that year as everyone wanted to be in and set up before the football started at 3pm.....

We got in alright, but I can recall leaving our camp in Big Ground to go for a walk and noticing how packed it was already before Weds lunchtime!

The game has changed now as its now punted as a 5 day event so of course people are going to want to utilise that to the maximum, sadly a lot of us burn ourselves out by Sunday AM!

We had friends trying to hold a spot for our tent in Big Ground that year.  I think they arrived after us, parked near gate C and got in way before us.  We were hours trying to get out of our car park, near B - everyone arriving later got parked nearer to the run to the gate and we were looped in a circle for a few hours.  Definitely one of my worst years trying to get into the festival!

[sokkovokna]

First timer. Coming from Belgium by car, I will take the Eurotunnel on Tuesday afternoon. I have booked a hotel in North Brewham because I don't want to queue overnight and start the festival with sleep deprivation. It was the closest affordable room I could find on. About 10-12 miles from the festival site if I am correct. I am not an early riser in my regular schedule. Checkout is at 10 am, so I was planning to have a good nights sleep, have breakfast and leave at 10 am at the hotel. What can I expect at that time? How much time will I be in traffic? How much time will I queue at the gate? I have no fucking clue. The official Glasto website advises the Blue Route for parking "where there is more parking space and less of a queue to get in and out of the site". Is that a good option? It would seem logical to me to park on the East side because I am coming from Folkestone and have to get back to Folkestone on Monday for the Eurotunnel. But maybe I wrong because I have no experience at all at Glasto.

Edited April 14, 2023 by sokkovokna

[4AssedMonkey]

22 hours ago, BBC7BBCHEAVEN said:

We've always done this, actually surprised to see this attitude

Set off from the north east around 11pm Tuesday and join the queue.

Crack a few cans and off we go, party has started. The queue is great craic

I pre-pack my trolley and just have that to pull with nothing on my back, makes it a breeze.

(This is for non-campervan obviously, last year and this year we're on the campervan, but we're nearly forty so the late night queue drinking is becoming tough.)

Same.  Our group come from Sc**thorpe/Newcastle/Sheffield and we're in West Yorks, near Huddersfield.  We meet up en route driving down Tuesday and get inthe queue in the early hours.  Can only think of 2 years which wasn't a fucking right laugh and that was when it was pissing down.

[sokkovokna]

On 4/14/2023 at 3:00 AM, sokkovokna said:

First timer. Coming from Belgium by car, I will take the Eurotunnel on Tuesday afternoon. I have booked a hotel in North Brewham because I don't want to queue overnight and start the festival with sleep deprivation. It was the closest affordable room I could find on. About 10-12 miles from the festival site if I am correct. I am not an early riser in my regular schedule. Checkout is at 10 am, so I was planning to have a good nights sleep, have breakfast and leave at 10 am at the hotel. What can I expect at that time? How much time will I be in traffic? How much time will I queue at the gate? I have no fucking clue. The official Glasto website advises the Blue Route for parking "where there is more parking space and less of a queue to get in and out of the site". Is that a good option? It would seem logical to me to park on the East side because I am coming from Folkestone and have to get back to Folkestone on Monday for the Eurotunnel. But maybe I wrong because I have no experience at all at Glasto.

If anyone has some advice for me, would be much appreciated. I can still cancel my hotel without charge and change my arrival strategy.

[rwoo]

12 minutes ago, sokkovokna said:

If anyone has some advice for me, would be much appreciated. I can still cancel my hotel without charge and change my arrival strategy.

Traffic and queues are varied but normally inevitable unless you leave really early. I’d leave an hour earlier if I were but it’s up to you. You might be okay if you leave at 10 but traffic and queues generally build as the morning goes on.
 

Where you park will impact where you can stay as it will be a long walk to the campsites on the opposite side of the site. So guess it depends if you’re not fussed about where you stay. This site has a guide to each different area for camping. https://www.glastoearth.com/?m=1

Whatever approach you take I’m sure you’ll be fine. Have an awesome time, see you on the farm 

 

[p.pete]

9 minutes ago, sokkovokna said:

If anyone has some advice for me, would be much appreciated. I can still cancel my hotel without charge and change my arrival strategy.

Don't worry too much about East/West in terms of getting back to Folkestone - worry about getting out of the carparks on time on Monday if you have a specific time that you need to be there at though!

You don't need to be there 20 hours before the gates open, there is plenty of space left to camp, even on Thursday, Friday etc - but mainly on the West side of the festival (further from stuff but still great)

I've had a quick look at North Brewham (had never heard of it before 🙂) - definitely easier for you to get to the East car parks from there - but if you are not getting there until after 10/11am have a thought about where you actually want to camp.  If it's just you, with a small tent, then good chance that you can find somewhere to squeeze it into maybe Big Ground or Pennards (good description of all the campsites here) - but you may have to keep walking further West (especially if tent is bigger / you don't get in before midday).  At that point you'll have had a good walk to get to the gate (PGB or PGC on this map), done some queueing and then you're starting to walk further and further away from your car (not a problem until you're leaving, but you'll want to do as little as possible then!)  So depending on those things (where you actually want to camp, when you think you'll get to the car park, if the weather is nice (people arrive earlier)) that might effect whether you want to aim for the east or west car parks.

Don't worry too much about the traffic - they go to great lengths to get cars off the roads asap and then have you queueing on the fields instead.

If I'd not been before, and didn't want to arrive really tired, I'd be inclined to arrive later and aim for the West car parks, accepting that your tent might end up being a walk from the middle of the festival (you won't be alone wherever it is). 

[dondo]

17 minutes ago, sokkovokna said:

If anyone has some advice for me, would be much appreciated. I can still cancel my hotel without charge and change my arrival strategy.

Looking at where North Brewham is then yes you'd naturally arrive on the East Side of the site and those car parks.  Arriving at that time I could be wrong (as I'm on site earlier as a volunteer so haven't driven in on a Wednesday for years) but you may well be on a further out car park so a bit more of a trek to the Gate.  I would also think there would still be a fairly lengthy queue to get in too around 10am.  As you've said you don't want to start the festival sleep deprived I'd suggest sticking with your hotel booking and if you're happy with a smaller choice of camping spots head on site a little bit later?

[Justcalledtosay]

36 minutes ago, sokkovokna said:

If anyone has some advice for me, would be much appreciated. I can still cancel my hotel without charge and change my arrival strategy.

Personally i think you've nailed it. Stick to your plan 👍