Site quieter?

[amb]

Anyone know what happened at Prospa Sunday night? They posted something saying apologies for the mid-show stoppage, crowds got too heavy?

[The Nal]

I love the new BBC introducing area. Nice food stalls, stage in a good place and all the Williams Green stuff there now. Nice place to chill with a pint and a bit of food. Defo eased traffic over that side of the site. 

 

Same for the new Woodies area.

[nikkic]

25 minutes ago, amb said:

Anyone know what happened at Prospa Sunday night? They posted something saying apologies for the mid-show stoppage, crowds got too heavy?

Was this at Greenpeace? 

[Spindles]

25 minutes ago, clarkete said:

 

2022 was worse than this year from what I saw personally, but I do choose routes to avoid the worst if possible. 

 

That's what it's all about.  You can walk further, but faster if you pick your route.  We were out of the Coldplay crowd at the end and hit cabaret field in under 10 minutes with some strategic routefinding.

2 minutes ago, The Nal said:

I love the new BBC introducing area. Nice food stalls, stage in a good place and all the Williams Green stuff there now. Nice place to chill with a pint and a bit of food. Defo eased traffic over that side of the site. 

 

Same for the new Woodies area.

BBC introducing was the best thing about 2022 for me, much more crowded this year, even though they'd rejigged things to provide more open walking space.  Still a great little corner of the festival.  New Woodsies area was the best new thing this year, finally getting some character and not just a tent, a bar and some bins in a field.

[Talcroft]

10 minutes ago, Spindles said:

 

That's what it's all about.  You can walk further, but faster if you pick your route.  We were out of the Coldplay crowd at the end and hit cabaret field in under 10 minutes with some strategic routefinding.

BBC introducing was the best thing about 2022 for me, much more crowded this year, even though they'd rejigged things to provide more open walking space.  Still a great little corner of the festival.  New Woodsies area was the best new thing this year, finally getting some character and not just a tent, a bar and some bins in a field.

 

This is absolutely 100% key. Strategic field spots and strategic route planning. I do think newbies and youngsters are always those most likely to end up in the busiest areas because they don't have the prior knowledge to go 'out and round'. No way I was gonna be dead centre for Shania when I knew I also wanted to see Avril... Nor did I let any of our group stop for a wee or a drink en route. 

[tigger123]

4 hours ago, kemosabe said:

Honestly the overcrowding is a massive issue imo. The festival has to learn from it's repeated f**k ups since COVID. 

 

I love the place, and have been enough times I know how to avoid crowds. I know to miss Thursday acts, secret sets unless I'm there already, and there's certain acts on smaller stages I'll go no where near (the worst thing is these are pretty glaring) 

 

But in the last few festivals I've met so many people who went to their first Glasto and won't be coming back due to the crowds. Three in our group this year absolutely hated it. 

 

The pervasive attitude of people on here that blames punters for wanting to see the bigger acts, rather then the festival itself for f**king up bookings is completely wrong. It is nobody's fault that they want to see Avril, Charlie XCX, Bicep etc. it's a music festival and we're all paying a lot to be there. 

 

I think they really should consider reducing attendees by 10% imo. Put up the prices if you have to. 

Exactly this, it's not even about certain acts either. We walked to SE Corner about 1am on Friday night, got there and there was a sign saying SE Corner full (imagine due to Bicep), so we left and walked 20/30 mins back to San Remo to see Daphni. He finished at 3am so we then went back to the SE Corner, and again there was a sign saying SE Corner full. We waited for 15 minutes and then got let in and everything was absolutely packed, so it wasn't even about seeing a particular act, it was more a case of being happy to see anything down there but couldn't! Platform 23 (hardly one of the main venues in SE Corner) was still absolutely heaving even at 5am. In all the years I've been going I have never seen it like that and it shows to me that the site capacity does now not fit the number of tickets sold, especially now that the focus of the attendees now seems to have shifted a lot towards the more dancey, late night stuff. It's quite simple, they need to reduce the number of tickets sold back to the pre-Covid levels, the years since Covid the huge crowd numbers have impacted on the whole experience.

[Crazyfool01]

2 hours ago, M42 said:

Avril has been playing as either a sub or third down at most festivals though so it’s not like they are over inflating her slot.

Does Glastonbury not have more of a thing for legacy acts ? Its demographic is definately on an older end of the scale ? 

[Jacko45]

How many times did stages get closed over the weekend

 

5/6 times?

 

Not really good enough is it. 

[Chip Batch]

I didn't feel it was too busy this year, but I didn't go to the Shania or Avril stuff - those with me said that changeover was a nightmare with the same crowd moving from pyramid to other. Also didn't go to the SE corner at all as the music there isn't my thing - as impressive as the venues are.

 

The worst I had was getting out of Lynks at Greenpeace. Was all fine at the stage but getting out of that was difficult and idiots still trying to push in but not moving when there was clearly no room. Why would you even bother?

 

Most stuff I saw there was plenty of room at the stage. Inside the barrier for LCD was packed as you'd expect and a big crowd at Bloc Party. I was able to get fairly close or right near the front for everything else accross most stages. 

 

Toilet and food queues didn't feel as bad as 2022 either.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 12:25 PM by Chip Batch

[Crazyfool01]

5 minutes ago, Jacko45 said:

How many times did stages get closed over the weekend

 

5/6 times?

 

Not really good enough is it. 

Not ideal but 1000 times better than any incident happening 

[DeanoL]

3 hours ago, Mark E. Spliff said:

I work with one large group on site, and have friends who work on another large crew - there was strong agreement amongst both that this year seemed much busier generally until later on Sunday.

Busier than last year?

[WS_Jack_III]

8 minutes ago, Jacko45 said:

How many times did stages get closed over the weekend

 

5/6 times?

 

Not really good enough is it. 

Woodsies and other did. What were the other ones? Did Lulu?

[glastorome]

4 hours ago, The Nal said:

 

You must have been at a different festival. 

 

Friday we saw Voice of Baceprot, Squeeze, Asha Puthli, Squid, Paul Heaton, D:Ream, some of LCD, Heilung, few tunes from Billy Bragg, all of Idles, last 40 mins of Fontaines, Sleaze in the Bimble Inn.

 

Friday was one of the all time great days at the fest. Just stay clear of the nonsense overcrowding acts. It robs you of half your day.

 

I think if I end up going back this will be my tactic, stay away from the acts that will have a huge crowd pull so I can still float around the festival like I used to. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

1 minute ago, WS_Jack_III said:

Woodsies and other did. What were the other ones? Did Lulu?

Don't think so. Not that busy outside the tent when we left 3/4 way through.

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Don't think so. Not that busy outside the tent when we left 3/4 way through.

Think I saw an icon shut direction sign also 

[LinvoyPrimus]

1 hour ago, The Nal said:

I love the new BBC introducing area. Nice food stalls, stage in a good place and all the Williams Green stuff there now. Nice place to chill with a pint and a bit of food. Defo eased traffic over that side of the site. 

 

Same for the new Woodies area.

Fully agree – tonnes of out-of-the-way seating as well. Also, loads of the food around there was banging. Big fan.

[Chip Batch]

5 hours ago, The Nal said:

 

You must have been at a different festival. 

 

Friday we saw Voice of Baceprot, Squeeze, Asha Puthli, Squid, Paul Heaton, D:Ream, some of LCD, Heilung, few tunes from Billy Bragg, all of Idles, last 40 mins of Fontaines, Sleaze in the Bimble Inn.

 

Friday was one of the all time great days at the fest. Just stay clear of the nonsense overcrowding acts. It robs you of half your day.

Out of upvotes, but this. 

 

Lynks, Lambrini Girls, Squid, Noname, This is the Kit, PJ Harvey, LCD and Idles all on Friday by avoiding all the fairly obvious potential overcrowding acts. I was able to get close for all of those too and some with plenty of room.

Though this happened to coincide with what I wanted to see anyway so that made it easier. I did similiar the other days too.

 

 

[Talcroft]

30 minutes ago, Jacko45 said:

How many times did stages get closed over the weekend

 

5/6 times?

 

Not really good enough is it. 

 

Security cannot win. Last two years accusations of dangerous overcrowding. This year they were super proactive and shut stages early to avoid this and they're being criticised for it. I'm not really sure what they're supposed to do except just book an entirely obscure lineup start to finish. 

 

I do think they need more signs like the SE Corner direction signs all over site so you're not setting off from Woodsies only to find SE Corner closed and can make other plans. People are more likely to be belligerent and push/refuse to leave if they've already put the effort in to get there. Could've been loads more app updates too - including suggestions of where else to go. (Amelie Lens was the obvious one here with a tiny crowd and yet Silver Hayes and SEC both shut.)

[LinvoyPrimus]

Broadly speaking, it didn't feel as bad as in previous years aside from your Avrils and Shania's etc.

 

Saturday night, however, didn't appear to make any sense to me. Levels... rammed. Arcadia... rammed. SE Corner... rammed. Glade... rammed.

 

So if they were all drawing big crowds, how the f**k was it taking me a million years to get into stuff like Scissors and other bars up in The Park?

 

I was glamping this year, and came in through Gate A on a daily basis. We saw multiple 'runners' and people using fake / resold tickets. Security / volunteer staff seemed very hot on people getting in this year, but I have no prior reference point.

Edited Tuesday at 01:08 PM by LinvoyPrimus

[Crazyfool01]

4 minutes ago, Talcroft said:

 

Security cannot win. Last two years accusations of dangerous overcrowding. This year they were super proactive and shut stages early to avoid this and they're being criticised for it. I'm not really sure what they're supposed to do except just book an entirely obscure lineup start to finish. 

 

I do think they need more signs like the SE Corner direction signs all over site so you're not setting off from Woodsies only to find SE Corner closed and can make other plans. People are more likely to be belligerent and push/refuse to leave if they've already put the effort in to get there. Could've been loads more app updates too - including suggestions of where else to go. (Amelie Lens was the obvious one here with a tiny crowd and yet Silver Hayes and SEC both shut.)

Yeah maybe the app could show things closed and flash up something on phones if you’ve listed it … not sure if this could work technically or not ? Glad you made the Efest meet and met @bennyhana22

[DeanoL]

6 minutes ago, Talcroft said:

 

Security cannot win. Last two years accusations of dangerous overcrowding. This year they were super proactive and shut stages early to avoid this and they're being criticised for it. I'm not really sure what they're supposed to do except just book an entirely obscure lineup start to finish. 

I think it's two different criticisms. One is that fields should proactively be closed when overcrowded which they are doing. The other is that this should be a measure that's in place but not required as the booking policy and scheduling should prevent such crowding in the first place.

[CaledonianGonzo]

There were definitely push warnings from the App about busy areas two years ago.

 

One of the engineers posts on here. Should be easy to message him re. it.

[Talcroft]

3 minutes ago, Crazyfool01 said:

Yeah maybe the app could show things closed and flash up something on phones if you’ve listed it … not sure if this could work technically or not ? Glad you made the Efest meet and met @bennyhana22

 

No reactions left but thank you for being so friendly and looking after me. Also got to meet a couple of others from the E&D thread so all in all a successful time. 

[whatmidlifecrisis?]

Last time we were there was 2019 (been going since 2008). General organisation get's better every year and it was a improvement in many areas. It needed to be - crowds were noticeably up. West Holts is now a much better option for headliners for me (Justice were epic this year) but ease of getting in and out, food, drink and toilets close beats Pyramid hands down imo. Woodsies is a fantastic space now. Only moan - please switch the bar music off if the new screen is on when a band is playing (happens in Park as well of course). In short, many things are better (it was already marvelous of course) but please reduce numbers...

[Devo96]

From what I saw:

 

sugababes closed WH

Kasabian closed Woodsies 

Bicep closed SH and Icon

Charli closed SH

Avril locked off Other 

Friday night shut down Temple and Shangri-La was full by 3am 

it’s difficult to say find alternatives when the alternatives are shut down, and you can’t get into Stonebridge!