Worthy reView

[tom22]

Thought I'd add some thinkings on WV this year and see how others found it. Think it's the 3rd time I've stayed there, 15,17 and now 23.

It's always a dream for parking, quick access to a solid pre-built tent and nice quick walk into the heart of the festival, with a mega view from the top of the hill too. The new (2022?) hill feels steeper and a bit slippier than the old version but it works. 

But, as with a lot of the festival this year, it felt mega busy. Every day the queues for loos, showers, coffee and food were so  enormous that most people didn't seem to really know what they were even queueing for.  By 8.30am you were looking at 30 mins + wait for all of the above. I had my first ever Glastonbury showers after being awake at 7am a couple of times, they are a top way to start the day if you beat the queues or can be arsed to wait.

Has capacity for WV increased a lot over the years? I can never recall it being an issue to get a coffee in the morning, although I know there were always long shower queues.

The loos and showers are excellent, but there needs to be 2x as much provision somehow.

Could do with at least a couple each of extra food and coffee spots, not least to take the load off the poor couple of vendors who looked absolutely dead by Sunday after 5 big days.

Anyway, just thinking out loud having just got home.

Would definitely do WV again, but seems to be some easy ways to make it even better. 

[Mark H]

Good review thanks. Seems aligned with my impressions from 2022. I was hoping the new hill was just a once off and the old set up would be back this year but it looks like it’s here to stay now.

I was ok with the shower queues last year. 30 minutes is fine for that luxury I thought.  But I absolutely couldn’t fathom how they could have so few toilets on-site given the price of staying there and the Don’t Pee on the Land message. A 30 minute wait for a wee is crazy and I’m sure there are more toilets per head in a standard campsite within the festival. I really done see how that logic stacks up  🤷‍♂️ 

[One Tonne Baby]

Similar to my 2022 experience. It is a minor thing but it wound me up that I’d be up at 8.30 and still have to queue 10-15 mins for a coffee or something to eat. That was replicated around the site though tbf. 
 

shower queues moved relatively fast and it was refreshing. Toilets were quality but agree there weren’t enough. However, I did find people queuing at the main ones when there were a few blocks 20 yards further on with no one in.

that hill almost killed me, especially when I stupidly had a race with someone up it at 3am (and won) and its genuinely a question mark in my mind about doing it again as it such a pain in the arse. It did help me stay out more though!

[dirtysteve]

My first time at Worthy View this year, and it was money well spent. The car park being so close and having a tent already erected just removed all of the pain of getting into and leaving the festival. An absolute game changer imo, I can't imagine doing normal camping again now...

The winding hill is pretty brutal, first time I went back up it I went at a fair old pace and nearly puked by the time I got to the top. Went more slowly each time after that and it was fine, if still pretty knackering.

Need at least double the amount of toilets to cope better with the morning rush. Shower queues were insane but I dealt with that by simply not having a shower until late afternoon when the place was deserted. Quality and cleanliness of the showers and toilets was fantastic.

Could do with a few more food shops there to give a bit more choice but I doubt it'd be especially economically viable given the nature of the place and it being empty of people most of the time.

Stewards and gate staff were a little less joyous than I'm used to, don't know if that was the case on other gates this year but my general perception from many years of coming through gate B was quite different to the crew working WV.

Slept like a baby each night even though our tent was next to a main path and there'd be flocks of wreck heads marching past all night, they barely disturbed me so I must have been well exhausted.

The trek into the festival each morning was quite nice, beautiful views to enjoy and was surprisingly quick to get across the place. A slow amble back to tent in the evening via the Green fields just tied a nice and relaxing bow onto each day.

Loved it, will deffo camp there again.

[Justcalledtosay]

Our first year too. We came by coach so didn't enjoy all the benefits coming by car has but would echo above. We were up at 7-8 every morning apart from Sunday and were able to walk straight into the showers without a queue. Sunday i was there at 8 and had a 15 minute wait. We did see the monster queues after that time though. Another block of showers and toilets woud've helped a lot. As others have said i won't go back to normal camping after doing Worthy View. The convenience is such a game changer. Next year will be looking at Worthy View by car or Motorhome i think.

On the hill issue i didn't struggle with it but i can totally see how others may have.

[LMK]

Third time staying - 2016 & 2019 previously - and I remember the coffee queues always being crazy. Definitely need another couple of breakfast type stalls. 

Despite the toilet queues being long in the morning, they always seemed to move quickly. I’d say they’d be reluctant to put more in as they’re unused the rest of the day. 

More taps definitely needed, and preferably on hard standing. I think there were less this year?      

I bought a £35 air bed which I had to leave behind because I was flying back, so felt bad about it. Didn’t WV used to run the camping stall where they would hire out the beds, etc. for the weekend (for c.£15) then reuse them?

The hill felt dangerous at times - those rocks should be brushed aside beforehand.

And there’s no view anymore! Did they need to move the whole boundary over? (Obviously there is when you stop on the hill up, but the F&B area used to be a lovely place to sit and look out) 

Edited June 27, 2023 by LMK
Clarity :)

[philipsteak]

11 minutes ago, dirtysteve said:

 

Could do with a few more food shops there to give a bit more choice but I doubt it'd be especially economically viable given the nature of the place and it being empty of people most of the time.

 

Exactly that.

I worked in Sticklinch and the queues for breakfast and coffee were insane, but then from early afternoon on the staff were twiddling their thumbs

[DeanoL]

You guys need to try general camping again some time. A 15 minute wait for loos in the morning is pretty normal.  WV seems no better/worse in that respect.

I'm baffled by the queues for food...just go into to the festival, there's plenty of choice there! (Although again, anywhere doing breakfast/coffee will have a queue in the morning)

[Gashead86]

Our first time at Worthy View as well! 

For what it is worth, here were our main takeaways..

- Convenience! This absolutely has to be the main plus for me. The fact that you can park up a mere 5 min walk from your tent and the fact that you do not need to stress about finding a pitch are complete game changers and I am not sure I can ever imagine going back into the included camping fields again. 
This was my 4th festival and the first with our 3 year old son.The three previous times we have attended we have arrived at the farm at about 3am on Weds, camped in the queue all night and then sprinted in when we could to find a decent spot..This year we abled down casually at about midday Weds and were in our preerected tent 2 hours or so after leaving home. Crazy really! 
The same also goes for coming out, a breeze. 

- The Tent. We had 2 4 man tents next door to each other shared between 6 adults and 3 kids and found them perfectly spacious for our group. However, the pitch on the tents makes headroom basically 0 and that does become a pain. Also, there is almost 0 ventilation and given how hot this year was that made the tents unbearable from the moment the sun came up to when it went back down. But on the whole, perfectly good. 

- Facilities. We had never stayed in WV before, so the fact that we had genuinely luxury toilets and decent showers to hand was a real game changer again for us. Yes the queue for the shower was nuts between 9am and 1pm, but it actually moved really quick and i was never in the queue for much more than 20 mins. 
Re the toilets, we we got in to the habit of popping back to the site at around 5pm and the place was pretty much deserted at that point so you never had to queue for anything. 
Also shoutout to the reception area and staff. really nice atmosphere in there and the staff were very friendly and helpful. Particularly when we realised on Friday that we had lost our car key! They did all they could for us. Not their fault at all, but very frustratingly for us after two days of worry and stress (and a quote of £720 to replace it from the AA!!!)the key was in the little white security cabin by the entrance to WV and they had not thought to hand it in to the reception team... Anyway, it showed up and that was the main thing! 

- Food & Drink. Appreciate the queues were quite big at times, but we thought the food served was actually really good! really nice coffee in the silver caravan thing, lovely breakfast wrap in the tentacle tent and also lovely pizza in the tent near the patch down to the site. In fact, particularly shout out to those guys in the pizza tent. My god they worked their asses off! 
We had a pizza at 5am on Saturday morning and when we were up and about a little later that day at around 11am they were back in their working again! I am not sure they ever really stopped! 

- The path. Ah the path.... Well, it was every bit as steep as I was warned it would be and then some. It really is a task to come back up that hill late at night after a few. As we had our son with us for the first two days I had to do the patch with him on my shoulders as there was no way we could take his trolley up and down that hill and needless to say that was particularly tough. 
Was ok for us, but I did feel for anyone a little older or with disability issues. Would have been impossible I think. 

In summary, we will be back of that I am certain. With kids it makes the whole coming in / out experience so much more pleasant. To then just be able to amble over to your tent in your own time knowing the hard work of finding a plot and erecting is all done for you is just bliss really! The main downside for me is the cost. Let's be honest, it is hideously expensive really! Despite all of the above positives, it is hard to look past that cost. It is eye watering. But, that being said, in our circumstances it is a cost worth paying to be able to attend our favourite place in the world with our son and it not being a stressful experience. 

All in all, loved it! 

[Jon F]

Re: The toilets- I found it much quicker to just go down and use the longfdrops at Summerville on the way in - no queues and clean at that time of day.

I agree with the point about the stones butmpresumably would have been helpful if it rained to stop the path turning into a mudslide.  I do miss the steps and view from pre-2022 though.

 

[clarkete]

1 hour ago, Gashead86 said:

Our first time at Worthy View as well! 

For what it is worth, here were our main takeaways..

- Convenience! This absolutely has to be the main plus for me. The fact that you can park up a mere 5 min walk from your tent and the fact that you do not need to stress about finding a pitch are complete game changers and I am not sure I can ever imagine going back into the included camping fields again. 
This was my 4th festival and the first with our 3 year old son.The three previous times we have attended we have arrived at the farm at about 3am on Weds, camped in the queue all night and then sprinted in when we could to find a decent spot..This year we abled down casually at about midday Weds and were in our preerected tent 2 hours or so after leaving home. Crazy really! 
The same also goes for coming out, a breeze. 

- The Tent. We had 2 4 man tents next door to each other shared between 6 adults and 3 kids and found them perfectly spacious for our group. However, the pitch on the tents makes headroom basically 0 and that does become a pain. Also, there is almost 0 ventilation and given how hot this year was that made the tents unbearable from the moment the sun came up to when it went back down. But on the whole, perfectly good. 

- Facilities. We had never stayed in WV before, so the fact that we had genuinely luxury toilets and decent showers to hand was a real game changer again for us. Yes the queue for the shower was nuts between 9am and 1pm, but it actually moved really quick and i was never in the queue for much more than 20 mins. 
Re the toilets, we we got in to the habit of popping back to the site at around 5pm and the place was pretty much deserted at that point so you never had to queue for anything. 
Also shoutout to the reception area and staff. really nice atmosphere in there and the staff were very friendly and helpful. Particularly when we realised on Friday that we had lost our car key! They did all they could for us. Not their fault at all, but very frustratingly for us after two days of worry and stress (and a quote of £720 to replace it from the AA!!!)the key was in the little white security cabin by the entrance to WV and they had not thought to hand it in to the reception team... Anyway, it showed up and that was the main thing! 

- Food & Drink. Appreciate the queues were quite big at times, but we thought the food served was actually really good! really nice coffee in the silver caravan thing, lovely breakfast wrap in the tentacle tent and also lovely pizza in the tent near the patch down to the site. In fact, particularly shout out to those guys in the pizza tent. My god they worked their asses off! 
We had a pizza at 5am on Saturday morning and when we were up and about a little later that day at around 11am they were back in their working again! I am not sure they ever really stopped! 

- The path. Ah the path.... Well, it was every bit as steep as I was warned it would be and then some. It really is a task to come back up that hill late at night after a few. As we had our son with us for the first two days I had to do the patch with him on my shoulders as there was no way we could take his trolley up and down that hill and needless to say that was particularly tough. 
Was ok for us, but I did feel for anyone a little older or with disability issues. Would have been impossible I think. 

In summary, we will be back of that I am certain. With kids it makes the whole coming in / out experience so much more pleasant. To then just be able to amble over to your tent in your own time knowing the hard work of finding a plot and erecting is all done for you is just bliss really! The main downside for me is the cost. Let's be honest, it is hideously expensive really! Despite all of the above positives, it is hard to look past that cost. It is eye watering. But, that being said, in our circumstances it is a cost worth paying to be able to attend our favourite place in the world with our son and it not being a stressful experience. 

All in all, loved it! 

Well that's  a lovely positive post 😊

Regarding the cost - tbh  for what they supply and the facilities you get I think it compares pretty well with other commercial alternatives - renting a caravan or camper, tangerine fields or the (far more expensive) other third parties. 

You just need to think of it as your accommodation for a weeks holiday.  We stayed in Sticklinch last year and that had lovely clean flushing loos - a first for me in 4 decades of visiting the festival. 

[clarkete]

If you haven't seen, there was a link posted for feedback

 

[foolsgold1981]

This was my experience in 2017, almost a carbon copy.

Great parking, nice site, lovely podpad. But I was really after a nice shower and place to chill. Used shower once - was easier and quicker to get a Lost Horizon pass.

I did enjoy it but I wouldn't do it again given the extra cost

[ghostdancer1]

Last stayed in 2017, but as others have said, there were definitely 15min queues for coffee (at least) at peak times around 10am-11:30am.

40min queues for showers on average, not really an issue if having a coffee/can while queuing though.

We took our stove, so just boiled our own water for coffees, and took food/milk in coolboxes for breakfast sambos for the first 3/4 days. Boiled water on the last couple of days for porridge with honey and chopped up fruit. That is one of the big advantages of having the carpark there next to the campsite IMO, having the stove and coolbox and food for making things to save £40+ per person on breakfast coffees/food for the festival.

 

[Dave_c]

On 6/27/2023 at 1:25 PM, Jon F said:

Re: The toilets- I found it much quicker to just go down and use the longfdrops at Summerville on the way in - no queues and clean at that time of day.

 

This is exactly what I do, and then take a wonder down the hill for breakfast then come back up again to get ready/pack bag for the day etc.