Glastonbury Festival Scrutiny Report 2023

[Skip997]

13 hours ago, Memory Man said:

i would ban chairs entirely outside of campsites but im probably a bit harsh. 

I’m with you on this. No one I know who regularly attends has ever or would ever take a chair outside the campsite, and we’re mostly old gits.

[oakdown]

On 12/21/2023 at 9:35 AM, Crazyfool01 said:

Never really noticed the toilet numbers increase … some areas of the site are still lacking … the park is poor in my opinion for loos … but I guess at least the portaloos and turd mountains are a thing of the past 

Down stage left of Other last year was a bit of a loo nightmare. The compost loos seemed to consistently have massive queues and on the Friday there were indeed quite a few turd mountains in them. Led a ton of folk to just go behind to piss, whilst security looked on and did nothing.

Really annoyed me and killed the vibe a bit honestly.

[clarkete]

21 minutes ago, Skip997 said:

I’m with you on this. No one I know who regularly attends has ever or would ever take a chair outside the campsite, and we’re mostly old gits.

Hey you're the number one advocate of not being near the pyramid anyway aren't you? 

I'm sure I'll be pitchforked for it, but I've been for 38 years on the trot, have a tiny chair and these days do take it from cv east on site.  It takes up barely more space than I do standing, I'm always at the back/away from any paths or thoroughfares  and when it's clear there's insufficient space I put it away.  

We all have things others do which we find inconvenient, but just try to not get in each other's way so we can all have a great time. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

Daily Mail are reporting its a "battle" between Shania Twain and Chaka Khan.

And given that Chaka Khan could show up in any old slot...

[CaledonianGonzo]

Sorry - wrong thread

[Avalon_Fields]

...Thought for a moment the two of them were having a battle for the inadequate sanitation facilities!

[MEGABOWL]

10 minutes ago, Avalon_Fields said:

...Thought for a moment the two of them were having a battle for the inadequate sanitation facilities!

Or a chair. Either they both want it or one wants to sit and the other is getting annoyed. Can’t decide which would be which.

[clarkete]

3 hours ago, Avalon_Fields said:

...Thought for a moment the two of them were having a battle for the inadequate sanitation facilities!

That's definitely not a fight I want to see the outcome of.

[CaledonianGonzo]

So you've had a Bad sh*t?

That don't impress me much..

And so on and so forth.

[dirtysteve]

5 hours ago, Skip997 said:

I’m with you on this. No one I know who regularly attends has ever or would ever take a chair outside the campsite, and we’re mostly old gits.

Is far too much like hard work, lugging chairs and stuff around. I do always have a blanket* in my bag though when out and about, is good for sitting on when it's damp or wrapping up in when it gets cold.

*In 2013 or 14, I was mooching through near the Jazz Stage, or whatever it's called these days, and it started raining a bit and loads of punters in the field scarpered. One couple of young birds who legged it abandoned their blanket, one of those fold-up types with a waterproof/plastic underside. It had a lovely shark print all over it, so I scooped it up and used it to keep the rain off. Rain soon stopped and I kept the blanket, have used it at every festival since.

 

[Skip997]

4 hours ago, dirtysteve said:

Is far too much like hard work 

 

Yea agree, lugging bags, chairs etc round. Not only is it hard work, but a high chance of leaving them somewhere

Cargo pants with large pockets, wallet, phone, baccy, drugs and off you go

[fred quimby]

1 hour ago, Skip997 said:

 

Cargo pants with large pockets, wallet, phone, baccy, drugs and off you go

And nothing on top, you're mad skip 😉

I carry a bag at night, for a thick fleece if it gets nippy. Used to have a nice fluffy purple one, with a jumper inside made for a good pillow to rest my head while taking it all in, or just watching the skies

Edited December 22, 2023 by fred quimby

[dotdash79]

Think I’ve seen the solution to the chair issue before 

[Neil]

On 12/22/2023 at 11:55 AM, oakdown said:

 Led a ton of folk to just go behind to piss, whilst security looked on and did nothing.

Really annoyed me and killed the vibe a bit honestly.

you looked on and did nothing - in fact encouraged the pissing.

[DeanoL]

On 12/22/2023 at 11:53 AM, Skip997 said:

I’m with you on this. No one I know who regularly attends has ever or would ever take a chair outside the campsite, and we’re mostly old gits.

Fit and able old gits. With access to crew bars with less crowded seating.

[stuie]

54 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Fit and able old gits. With access to crew bars with less crowded seating.

…dabbing mdma 😂

 

Edited December 28, 2023 by stuie

[stuie]

On 12/24/2023 at 11:17 AM, Neil said:

you looked on and did nothing - in fact encouraged the pissing.

What would you do? I’m against pissing on the land but I wouldn’t start an argument with 50 blokes pissing.  That’s not our responsibility. 

[Neil]

1 hour ago, stuie said:

What would you do? I’m against pissing on the land but I wouldn’t start an argument with 50 blokes pissing.  That’s not our responsibility. 

what would i do? what i have done on several occasions, let them know they're out of order.

if no one tries to change things for the better there isn't a better world to be had.

[stuie]

31 minutes ago, Neil said:

what would i do? what i have done on several occasions, let them know they're out of order.

if no one tries to change things for the better there isn't a better world to be had.

I’ve told the odd person pissing in a bush but wouldn’t do it for big group of blokes myself, pick your battles and all that. 

[Popsider75]

1 hour ago, stuie said:

I’ve told the odd person pissing in a bush but wouldn’t do it for big group of blokes myself, pick your battles and all that. 

Yeah was punched one year by coked up knobheads for objecting at their behaviour running over peoples bags and stuff under their feet at Jazz World as was. Be a brave sole who would challenge a large group to be fair. 

[gfa]

On 12/21/2023 at 10:24 PM, Memory Man said:

late night side of the festival more popular than its ever been. Noise reduction pre 3am is surely a non starter. As someone else said its 4 days a year and locals have excellent access to tickets or know when to go on holiday if they really dont want anything to do with it

You don't need to reduce noise if you relocate the sources further from Pilton

I don't think anyone (well, here at least) is actually suggesting turning off arcadia earlier etc

[DeanoL]

23 minutes ago, gfa said:

You don't need to reduce noise if you relocate the sources further from Pilton

I don't think anyone (well, here at least) is actually suggesting turning off arcadia earlier etc

Was there mass dissatisfaction with volume levels in 2013? We camped in Rivermead from the first time you could (which I think was 2013) until last year before it was closed off this year. We'd always have at least a couple of early nights (not being into EDM) and it's been noticeable how that area went from dead quiet to being able to hear bass pretty loudly up to 3am.

While obviously as a punter I don't have a problem with that, it definitely happened, noise levels definitely went up over the past decade. 

[oakdown]

On 12/24/2023 at 11:17 AM, Neil said:

you looked on and did nothing - in fact encouraged the pissing.

Don't know what gave you that idea? I did actually say something to a few of them, but funnily enough being some random 5'2" off-duty Oxfam steward doesn't lend a lot of authority and they couldn't have given less of a sh*t 🤷🏻‍♀️

[km9]

2 hours ago, oakdown said:

Don't know what gave you that idea? I did actually say something to a few of them, but funnily enough being some random 5'2" off-duty Oxfam steward doesn't lend a lot of authority and they couldn't have given less of a sh*t 🤷🏻‍♀️

I wondered this myself. What made him think you encouraged it? I don't think you said anything of the sort did you?

[Alvoram]

7 hours ago, oakdown said:

Don't know what gave you that idea? I did actually say something to a few of them, but funnily enough being some random 5'2" off-duty Oxfam steward doesn't lend a lot of authority and they couldn't have given less of a sh*t 🤷🏻‍♀️

Braver than me, I'm with @stuie on this. You "gotta know when to hold'em, know when to fold'em, know when to walk away and know when to run."

Not about to ruin my festival and ruin it for others by confronting a big group of tanked up blokes for just pissing behind the toilets, especially if they had made the effort to get to the toilets in the first place, only to find them unusable and with unrealistic queues. 

The toilet situation was quite bad last year at times compared to 2022, female in our group had an 'accident' trying to get to a toilet Sunday evening (thankfully we were in fancy dress, so she had spare shorts in her bag...) We always take one of those urinal bottles for emergencies in the middle of the night at our tent. I might carry one around the main festival with me this year. 

To be honest, the whole 'don't pee on the land thing' works both ways. Whilst I'd never piss on the land, if you want everybody to follow that rule, then the toilet situation has to improve, particularly in places like the (above the) Park or SE corner.  

Another thing that makes a mockery of the whole thing is the men's urinals, most of that urine ends up on the floor for us to wade through anyway... plastic tubing around the edge of some tarped fencing is not very effective, especially once it gets blocked up. How about some of these all over the place... 



And their female counterpart (yes I know there is a small area of something similar to these, but there needs to be more, much more, and more spread out across site.) 

 

I came across these urinals at several festivals over the last couple of years, and they work really really well, and would be fairly easy to scale up.

Edited January 8, 2024 by Alvoram