Best Ped Gate For Car Arrivals

[Superscally]

I hope I've made a poll...

Basically debating a change of campsite and want to provide strength to my argument to my group! Criteria for best includes walk from the car park and length of queue if arriving late Tues, early Weds. A, B, C or D

Just to point out - this isn't "which one you use", more like if you have experience of multiple gates and have genuine info favouring one over another...

Edited June 5, 2023 by Superscally

[Superscally]

Any other reasons (proximity to your preferred area to camp is not relevant here) feel free to post.

[CaledonianGonzo]

A is the coach station. Is there even car parking there?

[Superscally]

8 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

A is the coach station. Is there even car parking there?

Removed! Cheers CalGon!

Edited June 5, 2023 by Superscally

[Avalon_Fields]

I used to say C (Because the car parks were further away from the gate than the other ones) but last year the queue was massive, bigger than ever, so I don’t know anymore. 

[p.pete]

9 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

A is the coach station. Is there even car parking there?

Always found myself going towards A when parked across the road (Pink?) - not lined up with parking directly beside it, but neither is C if you're in a car, you've a trek through other stuff to get there.

[p.pete]

1 minute ago, Avalon_Fields said:

I used to say C (Because the car parks were further away from the gate than the other ones) but last year the queue was massive, bigger than ever, so I don’t know anymore. 

What time did you get there last year?  Seems like lots of people mentioning trying to arrive earlier than 9pm Tuesday with campervan friends, so I guess it's starting to get backed up earlier...

[HotChipWillBreakYourLegs]

Can't really comment as I've mostly done C.  It's usually pretty smooth, but always feels long when you're walking to and from it, and queuing.

Did B one year when the car broke down and we had to go via shuttle at Bath and West.

Did D one year, 2016, when due to the mud we were re-directed to the west.

Never done A, but planning to this year as we want to camp in Wicket.

Bit nervous about A as there were some horror stories about the queue from last year and it will also be busy with the coach arrivals.

[stuie]

The thing is, the vast majority of people will all go through the same gate year after year. 

There wont' be many people that have been through all the gates as a punter.

[Superscally]

2 minutes ago, stuie said:

The thing is, the vast majority of people will all go through the same gate year after year. 

There wont' be many people that have been through all the gates as a punter.

Yeah, thats the beef.

[HotChipWillBreakYourLegs]

Got parked in East 8 or 9 at about 6am last year.  Back of the queue was about halfway up East 17 when we joined it.

[p.pete]

1 minute ago, stuie said:

The thing is, the vast majority of people will all go through the same gate year after year. 

There wont' be many people that have been through all the gates as a punter.

Fair point - I've generally done B & C due to parking on East most often, my experience of A was arriving by train, arriving very late another year, and also 2016, none of which bear any relation to what it might normally be like (esp. late Tues / early Wed by car).  Even where people have done multiple gates they're hitting them with different circumstances each time.

[BBC7BBCHEAVEN]

4 minutes ago, HotChipWillBreakYourLegs said:

Did D one year, 2016, when due to the mud we were re-directed to the west.

 

This is the only year I've ever done D and it was by far the worst entry ever. Felt like it took all morning to get in.

C has historically always been the easiest for me, but we mostly end up in B due to poor planning

 

Did campervan last year and the queue at C did seem really big with overnight people

[HotChipWillBreakYourLegs]

1 minute ago, BBC7BBCHEAVEN said:

This is the only year I've ever done D and it was by far the worst entry ever. Felt like it took all morning to get in.

That's because it did!

[p.pete]

3 minutes ago, HotChipWillBreakYourLegs said:

Got parked in East 8 or 9 at about 6am last year.  Back of the queue was about halfway up East 17 when we joined it.

Bloody hell - is that because they had forced the queue to form from E18 and then let it through nearer to gates opening, or do you reckon one big long queue all the way to the gate?  

[Nduja]

It's a function of
i) where you park;
ii) where you intend to camp; 
iii) when you arrive; and
iv) the prevailing conditions

Overall had better experiences at D than B, but did B 2016 and 2017 where it was a mudbath and then unbelievable heat respectively.
 

Edited June 5, 2023 by Nduja

[Crazyfool01]

last year may well have given different results to a normal year because of strikes .... its almost impossible to compare year on year tbh 

[p.pete]

'05 - B ~11am - parked really close, walked straight in
'09 - A by bus ~8am - shortish queue
'10 - B ~7:30am - parked really close, sh*t-show, took hours
'11 - C ~7:30am - long-steady march to the gate and quickly through it
'13 - A by car ~5pm Thursday - long-long walk, straight through gate
'14 - B pre 8am, can't remember much - probably parked close to gate, probably took a couple of hours to queue in
'15 - B same as 2014, probably
'16 - A by car ~8am - car slow to get in (nothing compared to East), long-long walk, quick through gate
'17 - C ~1am - long-long walk to gate, not too far back in the queue
'19 - C ~1am - long-long walk to gate, not too far back in the queue

So no D for me, walked through that way to help get stuff from a car.

B has been great for car being close to where we end up camping - but if you ended up way back in the queue (regardless of gate) and thought you wouldn't get your preferred pitch I'd probably prefer to be on the A/D side with more camping options.  Tuesday evening I'd go B/C

 

[BambooShanks]

I've done Gates D, A and B as a car arrival and would choose D every time. 

I can't remember if B was any quicker than the times I've gone to D but if you're camping on the west side of the site, it's a bit of a trek.

Gate A is to be avoided at all costs if arriving by car.  The coach queue joins it just before the wristbanding tent and that queue gets priority so expect to spend hours barely moving on wednesday morning.

If you're arriving tuesday night / wednesday morning, I wouldn't think it'd matter too much as I'd imagine you'll be quite close to the front of the queue so it really comes down to which gate is closest to your intended camp location

 

[The Red Telephone]

Definitely had the best experience at D. C for the first time last year - brilliant getting in but, you know, Hill of Death and everything going back.

I’m sure we were redirected from trying to get in at D in 2019 to A? Was horrendous coming in from there!

[jow95]

49 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

A is the coach station. Is there even car parking there?

A & D are both accessible from the car parks on the West side of the site. Early Wednesday morning last year they shut D and directed people to A. You just sometimes get your queue halted while they let in coach people at A.

[andymk]

32 minutes ago, p.pete said:

Bloody hell - is that because they had forced the queue to form from E18 and then let it through nearer to gates opening, or do you reckon one big long queue all the way to the gate?  

One big queue all the way to the gate. I was in the camper fields last year (E17) and when I got up at around 6:45 the queue was back out into the car parks. It did move pretty quickly once they actually opened the gates though.

The problem with Gate C and queueing overnight is due to the hill, the zig zag pens are a lot smaller than the other gates, with the queue then looping around the hill.

Once it gets to the top of hill, it soon backs up to the Pylle road through the remains of E21, E20 and E19, then starts to queue through E18 and E17. By that stage it is a single line and not really close together so soon stretches back into the car parks. 

When I got up a bit later, around 09:30, the queue in E17 and E18 had gone completely, though there were still people trudging in. We finally joined the queue around 11:30 and at that time it took us about an hour to get in. We joined the queue about half way into E19.

[HotChipWillBreakYourLegs]

42 minutes ago, p.pete said:

Bloody hell - is that because they had forced the queue to form from E18 and then let it through nearer to gates opening, or do you reckon one big long queue all the way to the gate?  

Not sure why it was so long.  Maybe they were keeping the queue back from Pylle Road?

Moved quite fast when it did start though.

[Avalon_Fields]

1 hour ago, p.pete said:

What time did you get there last year?  Seems like lots of people mentioning trying to arrive earlier than 9pm Tuesday with campervan friends, so I guess it's starting to get backed up earlier...

I was staying in the CV Fields. Early morning before 7am Wednesday I walked up the queue, it was from hill of death - E21 - E20 - E19 - E18 and into E17. I’d guess it’s an overnighter if you want to get through the gates early morning. 

[p.pete]

2 minutes ago, Avalon_Fields said:

I was staying in the CV Fields. Early morning before 7am Wednesday I walked up the queue, it was from hill of death - E21 - E20 - E19 - E18 and into E17. I’d guess it’s an overnighter if you want to get through the gates early morning. 

Just spotting that car parks were actually open earlier last year too?  Presumably that was due to train strikes - wasn't there sadly - and then everyone just did what they could to arrive.  Nice weather, the option to arrive a bit earlier, trains not being an option - guess last year 'shouldn't' be an indicator for future years (though there's always been a trend of maintaining earlier arrival in subsequent (sunny/dry) years, regardless what caused it the previous year.  e.g. football, or something daft like that).

So last year A might have flowed better than normal for people arriving from cars, if they were prioritising coach arrivals but not coach + bus arrivals.