Site quieter?

[DeanoL]

23 minutes ago, irnkrtn said:

I'm not sure its that easy to avoid - the only field on site with the capacity to hold the entire festival is the Pyramid. Unless you ban stages from hosting people who might fill the field, I can't see how you'd avoid reaching capacity sometimes? If you were to do that, you'd significantly limit who could be booked where. Hindsight is 20/20 but I bet if you sat down with a list of potential field filling acts from this year, you'd cut a huge amount out. 

 

But you could probably fit them all on the Pyramid. So then the question is, should you? 

[dougal1]

2 hours ago, Talcroft said:

 

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. 

This was my 8th festival so I'm totally across strategic routes and still found it ridiculously overcrowded everywhere compared to previous years. Walking home down the railroad at any time of the night/early morning was shoulder to shoulder crawling which I've never seen before

[MEGABOWL]

It’s easy to say reduce the number of tickets to pre-Covid levels.

 

But that’s 5% less people getting in of which you might be one. Plus it’s 5% more

on the ticket price, which is probably some people priced out.

[mufcok]

23 minutes ago, irnkrtn said:

Which route were you trying to take? This is a purely out of interest. I know the Railway was closed heading from the Glade down towards the SE corner. Which other bits did they close off to get it clear?

 

Past Leftfield - blocked off. Then tried the next way down from that (forget what's on that walkway) - same again. Eventually managed it walking even further down

[CaledonianGonzo]

Wasn't the last increase in the license to sell more tickets a few years before Covid?

[Talcroft]

3 minutes ago, dougal1 said:

This was my 8th festival so I'm totally across strategic routes and still found it ridiculously overcrowded everywhere compared to previous years. Walking home down the railroad at any time of the night/early morning was shoulder to shoulder crawling which I've never seen before

Definitely a social media element to this - I didn't even discover half of Glastonbury on my first time in 2008 coz I didn't know it was there. Now there's 17yos who've done 3 laps by Thursday morning because they're on a tiktok treasure hunt. Don't think there were more people this year than overall, they just know damn well where they want to be now - and the app had a map to show them the way not dissimilar to Google maps. 

[mjfromthelane]

2 hours ago, Talcroft said:

 

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. 

 

I think a big counterpoint to this is (as you point to) the overwhelming majority of attendees aren't vets like many on here and have no idea about strategic field spots or strategic route planning around the festival. I have been to Glasto twice and would still probably need to be on site for a day or two to get my bearings again.

 

For the best festival in the world, I think punters needing to know strategic field spots and alternative routes to avoid pinch points or missing acts is a bad situation to be in.

 

The take earlier in the thread that people should avoid acts they think are going to be busy was an odd one.

 

[GordonMcG]

The Avril stuff was genuinely dangerous. We were somewhere in front of the Solstice Bar (but on the stage side of the path). People were trying to get out and couldn't, saw multiple people have to be caught from falling over to avoid even more people falling with them, and at one point someone came looking and shouting for a medic but there was no path for anyone to get through anywhere.

 

Wasn't at any of the other stage closures but people could have gotten seriously hurt or worse at Avril.

 

There were two solutions that would have solved this one: Avril after Shania on The Pyramid, or Avril after Two Door on The Other.

 

As has been pointed out, the festival has made a bit of a habit of underestimating crowds for nostalgia acts and if they want to continue to book them then they need to really reflect on that before it's too late.

[Dusk1983]

2 hours ago, Devo96 said:

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! 

Exactly! plus countless routes getting shut off or made one way. used to be an exception, now it’s a rule

 

seeing security regularly blocking paths (and I mean during the day) with batons also created a weirdly officious/authoritarian feeling that was totally at odds with the classic Glasto vibe 

[Crazyfool01]

53 minutes ago, Talcroft said:

Definitely a social media element to this - I didn't even discover half of Glastonbury on my first time in 2008 coz I didn't know it was there. Now there's 17yos who've done 3 laps by Thursday morning because they're on a tiktok treasure hunt. Don't think there were more people this year than overall, they just know damn well where they want to be now - and the app had a map to show them the way not dissimilar to Google maps. 

not just 17 year olds judging by the step counters posted in here 

[incident]

1 hour ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Wasn't the last increase in the license to sell more tickets a few years before Covid?

 

If I remember correctly, technically yes, but in practice it didn't happen - they had the right to sell the extra 7,000 in 2019, but didn't use it. The first festival with the extra tickets sold was 2022.

[tickleyt]

2023 was my first year so not as experienced as others, but there were some really bad moments this yr. Got to Joy Orb at Levels 40 minutes early and got caught in a big crush waiting to get in, crowd were awful too with a lot of football esque chanting and getting people riled up by insinuating we'll be let in shortly (think of a football crowd as a keeper takes a GK), leading people to surge forward numerous times. Someone in our group had their first ever panic attack and we gave up after over an hour of queueing and there was SO much free room inside too. 
Similar story for Charli XCX, we got there two hours early and ended up in a queue with so many people pushing in. I politely reminded a big group not to push in please, as we'd already been waiting 45 minutes and it was getting dangerous. I was told to "f**k off and get a life", which is the only time I've experienced such aggression at the festival. Security were absolutely awful, taking no ownership and continuously shouting quotes like "leave your negativity at the door, slow and steady wins the race, it's a marathon not a sprint" which did nothing to help people who were clearly stressed and panicked.

Avril and Shania were busy, but we expected this and had plenty of room by getting to both early and playing it sensible but not everyone will have known what to expect. I don't know how likely it is they'll sell less tickets, but they definitely need to get their sh*t together with the billing/stages. If I correctly guessed the majority of the problematic bookings after attending for two years, there really is no excuse for the organisers. 

[Db79]

Interesting thread. I got caught up in the TLC crush a couple of years ago between Other and West Holts, and since then it's changed how I move across the site. I managed to do Barry Can't Swim to Confidence Man to Sugababes this year by arriving and leaving at sensible times and standing in sensible places. Ended up ditching Avril because although we looped round the railway, the issues were being caused by people watching through the hedge blocking everything up. The view and sound there were both bad, so I think people just need to have more common sense in general. You can watch it on telly, go see something else. 

 

I do think that putting former headliners like the Killers or Kasabian on at Woodsies is clearly a bad idea though, especially now there is more infrastructure there like the Tree Stage.

 

Shout out to the stewards with the batons. On a couple of occasions I saw them dealing with angry shouty people and did it really calmly and really well. It must be a difficult job.  

[CaledonianGonzo]

Were the batons new this year? Can't recall them before, but could easily have missed them.

[kemosabe]

1 hour ago, MEGABOWL said:

It’s easy to say reduce the number of tickets to pre-Covid levels.

 

But that’s 5% less people getting in of which you might be one. Plus it’s 5% more

on the ticket price, which is probably some people priced out.

 

I can only speak for myself and my group on this one. But the discussion we had, there were plenty in my group who would happily take 10% extra cost for a reduction of 10% of people. The fact is that the crowds are the biggest hindrance to fun at the moment and becoming tiring really quickly. It might price some out. But is an extra £30/40 going to stop more people then the crowds all weekend everywhere they go, I doubt it. 

 

As for missing out on tickets, so be it. That's life and we can't have everything. There's already a fair chance you miss out every year, and I'll happily volunteer if needs be. The years I do get tickets will be far better with less crowds. 

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 03:42 PM by kemosabe

[Crazyfool01]

5 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Were the batons new this year? Can't recall them before, but could easily have missed them.

Used big hands previously didn’t they ? 

[Skip997]

Thought it was at first 

 

But NO

[Blisterpack]

People continuing to sit/lie down in ridiculously packed crowds right up until the first song starts is dangerous for everyone. And means people struggle if they think ‘nah, too packed; I’m off.’

[HH46810]

36 minutes ago, kemosabe said:

 

I can only speak for myself and my group on this one. But the discussion we had, there were plenty in my group who would happily take 10% extra cost for a reduction of 10% of people. The fact is that the crowds are the biggest hindrance to fun at the moment and becoming tiring really quickly. It might price some out. But is an extra £30/40 going to stop more people then the crowds all weekend everywhere they go, I doubt it. 

 

As for missing out on tickets, so be it. That's life and we can't have everything. There's already a fair chance you miss out every year, and I'll happily volunteer if needs be. The years I do get tickets will be far better with less crowds. 

 

 

 

Completely agree. Make it more expensive and reduce the numbers. For previous festivals there were 1 or 2 bad crowd moments but this year there genuinely felt like at least 10+.

 

The whole Park area on Saturday night around 3am was completely rammed...every single tent was full. We had tried to go to Rudimental B2B Todd Edwards at Stonebridge and for whatever reason the whole area was packed. Last year, Barry Can't Swim played an almost identical slot at the Stonebridge on the same night. Again, we couldn't get in but the other tents around the Park had so much space. It 10000% was so much busier late night this year.

 

Our group are more than happy to do a bit of planning in the day, accept you won't see everything and make sure you are positioned strategically at certain acts to enable you to get to the next one quicker, but late at night when you just want to have fun the number of other people present does just ruin it.

[HH46810]

2 minutes ago, Blisterpack said:

People continuing to sit/lie down in ridiculously packed crowds right up until the first song starts is dangerous for everyone. And means people struggle if they think ‘nah, too packed; I’m off.’

So many people sat down in Woodsies before Kasabian. We just managed to get into the tent but once we did there was plenty of space inside and it opened up a bit more once they started playing

Edited Tuesday at 04:24 PM by HH46810

[tombertb]

Well I imagine it’ll be quieter next year when the entitled moaners posting on here don’t bother because ‘the festival has gone’ when they close stages for safety reasons.

 

It’s still a huge old site with loads on, explore it and enjoy it!

[CaledonianGonzo]

1 minute ago, HH46810 said:

The whole Park area on Saturday night around 3am was completely rammed...every single tent was full. We had tried to go to Rudimental B2B Todd Edwards at Stonebridge and for whatever reason the whole area was packed. Last year, Barry Can't Swim played an almost identical slot at the Stonebridge on the same night. Again, we couldn't get in but the other tents around the Park had so much space. It 10000% was so much busier late night this year.

 

We were in the Wishing Well when that was on and it was by no means full. Then we bought food from a stall with no queue, sat on an empty picnic table to eat it and then we watched a bit of it from the environs of the Stonebridge tent.  It really wasn't that busy.

[MEGABOWL]

48 minutes ago, kemosabe said:

 

I can only speak for myself and my group on this one. But the discussion we had, there were plenty in my group who would happily take 10% extra cost for a reduction of 10% of people. The fact is that the crowds are the biggest hindrance to fun at the moment and becoming tiring really quickly. It might price some out. But is an extra £30/40 going to stop more people then the crowds all weekend everywhere they go, I doubt it. 

 

As for missing out on tickets, so be it. That's life and we can't have everything. There's already a fair chance you miss out every year, and I'll happily volunteer if needs be. The years I do get tickets will be far better with less crowds. 

 

 

I think there’s a good chance another 10% on top of this years price plus whatever increase they have to put on next years price will be the final straw for some price-wise, yes. Not for the middle classes but anyone less well off.

[MEGABOWL]

49 minutes ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

Were the batons new this year? Can't recall them before, but could easily have missed them.

They had the big foam hands last year

[mjfromthelane]

2 minutes ago, tombertb said:

Well I imagine it’ll be quieter next year when the entitled moaners posting on here don’t bother because ‘the festival has gone’ when they close stages for safety reasons.

 

It’s still a huge old site with loads on, explore it and enjoy it!

 

Shame on all the entitled moaners discussing how the festival experience can be improved...