Overcrowding / Capacity (2022 vs 2023)

[Gashead86]

Fatboy Slim at Park may well be the most ridiculous scheduling ever at Glasto. It just made absolutely no sense whatsoever.

[foolsgold1981]

It was definitely better organised than 2022 but there are still major issues with the camping spaces - we were Hitchin Hill and it was absolutely brutal getting a three-man tent there at 11am Wednesday. I must be honest and say that I went under a bit Wednesday night when I saw that absolute monster of a crowd at the Park hill - went to bed feeling anxious and worried about the weekend to come. Never had that sinking feeling on a Wednesday before...

But it turned out OK and generally it was much better. Less crushes, less pushing, less people being arsey (though I personally didn't think it was too bad last year). Didn't feel scared at all, even at Elton where generally I was with a lovely crowd to right side of the Pyramid and anyone trying to push through was firmly but politely told there was a very physical and real reason we weren't going any further forward!

[Leyrulion]

4 hours ago, Crazyfool01 said:

Only a couple of issues with how busy it was but both were being managed … Fatboy going out the Park was quite tight around the tree at the bottom . We gave it 20 mins but still got stuck for 30ish exiting . Also showhawk duo on the bandstand . That also seems to have been managed as they had shut off entry . We managed to get though as we had a couple of people with us with accessibility needs . But definately should have arrived earlier … we’d got the wrong bandstand and were waiting at croissant Neuf 

I think they really need to stop access from the park into arcadia after the headliner. Send everyone round the long way through GoS. 

Or have more directional signs sending everyone out of park through GoS to reduce the crush. 

 

 

[Isaact]

15 minutes ago, Nerraw2525 said:

Yeah Fatboy coming out of the Park was a bit sketchy. Didn't see any attempt at crowd control to manage the exit from Park and people heading to Arcadia with crowds going against each other. Got the sense that there's a bit of reactive rather than proactive approach to managing crowds over the week.

Only other issue was Thursday and the decision to keep the stages closed but put decent acts in tiny tents. Makes no sense whatsoever. Stonebridge had a great line up but sure no-one could get in.

Thursday at Glasto used to be great, a real highlight but with the crowds now arriving, the vibe is way off. 

 

Agreed, the only dangerous part was post Fatboy, the Arcadia corner.

They should just shut that entrance to Arcadia from Park, as I knew how bad it was the year before and so lead my friends straight up the field to the back of Other and then across into Arcadia - where we had zero issues.

My other friends who weren't with us weren't as lucky and got caught in a crowd crush and one had a panic attack.

What's frustrating is it could be solved so easily by making that corner one way between 10pm and 1am, and it was a choke point specifically called out by the council as dangerous in 2022.

[Quark]

The only pinch point for me was Ben Howard.  Talking to our group and none of us had seen the Other opener get a crowd that big before; don't know what the driver was but it was definitely an anomaly.

Otherwise, felt much better than last year.  Didn't spend a lot of time in SE corner so can't speak to that, but everything else seemed ok.  The usual occasional log jam where you get main thoroughfares crossing each other (back of the Other and Railway Line) but nothing worse than that.  And they seemed to have a more reactive approach to traffic, putting in short-term one way systems when needed to avoid things going nuts. 

[Helsbels]

I only experienced big crowds coming out of the Stone Circle after the fireworks on Wednesday and in Silver Hayes on Thursday. I gave up trying to get to Job Jobse/Palms Trax for that reason. I was knackered Saturday night so went back to the tent halfway through Leftfield to avoid the inevitable Fatboy Slim crush. Overall it felt loads better than last year

[Crazyfool01]

32 minutes ago, Isaact said:

Agreed, the only dangerous part was post Fatboy, the Arcadia corner.

They should just shut that entrance to Arcadia from Park, as I knew how bad it was the year before and so lead my friends straight up the field to the back of Other and then across into Arcadia - where we had zero issues.

My other friends who weren't with us weren't as lucky and got caught in a crowd crush and one had a panic attack.

What's frustrating is it could be solved so easily by making that corner one way between 10pm and 1am, and it was a choke point specifically called out by the council as dangerous in 2022.

If that was by the tree I walked past it . A fair few stewards in attendance at that point . Hope she was ok 

[Joshuwarr]

Was very well organised this year. Even during the busier nights in the SE Corner I felt the system worked well. They held you up when it was appropriate and traffic moved fine as a result. No complaints from me!

[mufcok]

Bits felt uncomfortable, but in the main I thought it was better. They definitely listened after last year and had a lot more pedestrian routes. Only times I really felt close to uncomfortable were in Shangri-La (that's never gonna change) and getting into Elton.

It seemed worse this year for people getting in ticketless - heard so many stories of people literally running at the dates, with most being successful. I personally saw a steward chasing after someone from Gate C through the circus field. Also heard so many stories of people in vans etc. etc. Staff scams with EPO wristbands to get people in.

I can only imagine how many get in without tickets, silly numbers.

[Alex DeLarge]

Only time it felt overcrowded was Skindred, compared to dozens of times last year.

Had to move to the back for Elton and security were moving people along and crowd control seemed a lot better.

[Longdrop Bum Grapes]

Saw this on linked in - looks they’ve got in some professional crows expertise in

[JayBoogie]

Only one bad experience - Temple on Saturday night, about an hour before the Fred/Blessed Madonna set was supposed to start

Most people were approaching along the front of Temple, so the entrance is on your left, but the start of the queue was actually over to the right. There was a bit of a bottleneck forming but nothing terrible. Then, one of the stewards on the left starting telling the crowd on that side to "PUSH RIGHT, PUSH RIGHT", which they did. Total idiot

It became a crush straight away. It was horrible, people were panicking, there was nowhere to move. I was already quite far forward at that point and managed to join the queue itself anyway - but the other stewards were starting to panic then, and a couple of minutes later they shut the whole thing down. I saw afterwards they'd put messages up on the screens saying Fred was cancelled

[stuartbert two hats]

On 6/22/2023 at 11:19 AM, trust1878 said:

Looking forward to the inevitable 'too crowded/last Glastonbury for me' posts on this thread..😆

 

Anyone moaning should have been at Glastonbury 99 or especially 2000, those were busy....

I was, and they were nowhere near as packed, just less well managed.

[Neil]

as i ran over fewer people on my scooter i reckon there were fewer people this year.

[CaledonianGonzo]

7 hours ago, Longdrop Bum Grapes said:

Saw this on linked in - looks they’ve got in some professional crows expertise in

Interesting. You could see it in operation already during Cat Stevens.

[Neil]

1 hour ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Interesting. You could see it in operation already during Cat Stevens.

"biggest crowd"???????????

[CaledonianGonzo]

He jam packed the field - albeit lots more people sitting down / lazing back than during e.g. Kylie or Diana.

But I went to the facilities during If You Want To Sing out and when I tried to get back in they was a line of security directing people up to the top of the field. Luckily they let me through.

[moogster]

It felt fine for us but then, when I saw how busy Truth was end of Thursday afternoon, I decided not to even try the earache gigs later on. So probably more of a "anticipating overcrowding" experience for us. We witnessed the migration from Fred Again to AM and that was quite something though, I even made a movie of it. It didn't feel dangerous though and I had some fun crossing that (thinking of that frog crossing a busy road game).

And once again, the famous crust at most gigs, pass the crust (side of tents, people who don't want to be far from the bar, want a quick exit) = have plenty of space. 

I was quite shocked to see how even the far away campgrounds were quite full on Thursday (Bailey's etc). Not super nice for those arriving that day so may push people even more to arrive early and not really nice either for Thursday coach folks, especially as Pylon has gone. I am very curious on what the campground map will look like next year. 

[Alvoram]

33 minutes ago, moogster said:

It felt fine for us but then, when I saw how busy Truth was end of Thursday afternoon, I decided not to even try the earache gigs later on. So probably more of a "anticipating overcrowding" experience for us. We witnessed the migration from Fred Again to AM and that was quite something though, I even made a movie of it. It didn't feel dangerous though and I had some fun crossing that (thinking of that frog crossing a busy road game).

And once again, the famous crust at most gigs, pass the crust (side of tents, people who don't want to be far from the bar, want a quick exit) = have plenty of space. 

I was quite shocked to see how even the far away campgrounds were quite full on Thursday (Bailey's etc). Not super nice for those arriving that day so may push people even more to arrive early and not really nice either for Thursday coach folks, especially as Pylon has gone. I am very curious on what the campground map will look like next year. 

I was really nervous about this, but it all went really really well, everybody had just seen a great set, plenty of time to get there, and people were generally being patient and moving as one rather than trying to 'get ahead.' It felt very safe being in the crowd and just moving slowly with them. 

Of course Arctics was dead, 3/4's of the way back up the pyramid field and we had enough space around us to pitch 4 chairs per person, park a transit van and still breakdance if we wanted. So that probably helped keep things moving as people could enter the field without problems, preventing any knock on effects further back in the crowd that was moving between stages. 

Edited June 30, 2023 by Alvoram

[moogster]

Just now, Alvoram said:

I was really nervous about this, but it all went really really well, everybody had just seen a great set, plenty of time to get there, and people were generally being patient and moving as one rather than trying to 'get ahead.' It felt very safe being in the crowd moving just moving slowly with them. 
 

It had a " busy Asian street" feel. I felt like crossing a busy road in Vietnam. It looks very scary but if you just go with the flow smoothly, it all works out by magic  🙂

[FuzzyDunlop]

4 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

I was really nervous about this, but it all went really really well, everybody had just seen a great set, plenty of time to get there, and people were generally being patient and moving as one rather than trying to 'get ahead.' It felt very safe being in the crowd moving just moving slowly with them. 

Of course Arctics was dead, 3/4's of the way back up the pyramid field and we had enough space around us to pitch 4 chairs per person, park a transit van and still breakdance if we wanted. So that probably helped keep things moving as people could enter the field without problems, preventing any knock on effects further back in the crowd that was moving between stages. 

Where was everyone then? I assumed they got a monster crowd.

I was in the Silver Hayes which was quiet. I thought Camelphat would be mega busy & it wasnt full at all.

I'd come from Young Fathers which wasnt full. I know losds were at fred, but where did they go?!

Edited June 30, 2023 by FuzzyDunlop

[Alvoram]

Just now, FuzzyDunlop said:

Where was everyone then? I assumed they got a monster crowd.

I was in the Silver Hayes which was quiet. I thought Camelphat would be mega busy & it wasnt full at all.

Don't know, but it was 'spacious' further up the field, most people were sitting through half the set and had plenty of space around them. It wasn't as 'empty' as my original exaggeration probably made out, but there was plenty of room to move between each and every person / group, if that makes sense. 

I'd say busier than Kendrick last year, but quieter than even foos earlier in the day. 

Maybe we just chose a good (or bad, depending on your view) spot. 

[FuzzyDunlop]

23 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

Don't know, but it was 'spacious' further up the field, most people were sitting through half the set and had plenty of space around them. It wasn't as 'empty' as my original exaggeration probably made out, but there was plenty of room to move between each and every person / group, if that makes sense. 

I'd say busier than Kendrick last year, but quieter than even foos earlier in the day. 

Maybe we just chose a good (or bad, depending on your view) spot. 

With Whizzkid getting small crowd, I can only assume that Kelis, The Park & the SE were packed.

The Silver Hayes was quiet on Friday. I walked through towards the Pyramid on Sat after leftfield (so headliner time) & it was much busier.

I expected Camelphat to be rammed, it wasnt at all. There was a load of room (once you got past the people who just stood at the entrance & made it look full)

[CaledonianGonzo]

It was kicking off with the Saw Doctors in the Acoustic Tent.

[Alvoram]

3 minutes ago, FuzzyDunlop said:

With Whizzkid getting small crowd, I can only assume that Kelis, The Park & the SE were packed.

The Silver Hayes was quiet on Friday. I walked through towards the Pyramid on Sat after leftfield (so headliner time) & it was much busier.

I expected Camelphat to be rammed, it wasnt at all. There was a load of room (once you got past the people who just stood at the entrance & made it look full)

The Chems on Arcadia too???

That looked pretty busy