Opinion: Glastonbury Hosts World-Class Electronic Music. The Problem Is Getting to See It.

[vigo]

https://ra.co/features/4346

 

A really interesting piece by Gabriel Szatan the new editor at Resident Advisor.

Edited July 3 by vigo
grammar

[mouserat]

Makes some really good points but not sure letting electronic music take over even more of the site is the answer. I'd actually argue it's the dearth of suitable alternatives for people staying up after the headliners that's the issue, as you get lots of people going along to the biggest/most recognisable DJ or to tick off visiting a particular location (SE Corner, Silver Hayes, Greenpeace Tree, Arcadia) who could potentially have been tempted elsewhere with better options. 

 

Get some smaller bands playing sets after midnight. Maybe make the pubs/bars feel like more of a late-night destination. Offer something a bit more enticing in the comedy/circus areas that casual punters will recognise when they see it on the lineup.

 

At the same time, put the big electronic names that everyone is cramming into the SE corner to see on earlier (6pm onwards), maybe even on some of the bigger stages. Force people to start earlier and they won't all still be standing by 1am.

[Memory Man]

Superbly written by an excellent journalist

 

however i suspect the sweeping changes called for would fall foul of the current licence and that the terms of the current licence would be hard to negotiate

 

eg earlier and later opening and more stages on the thursday

 

later and louder open air stages after midnight

 

extension of silver hayes past 3am

 

are all going to be a very hard sell

[Ninety9]

Mentioned it in another thread - Thursday either needs to be like Wednesday or open like Friday. Being half-way open is dangerous and leads to a poor experience.

 

Overall, an unpopular choice would be to have SE Corner to also finish at 3 - moving the programme earlier so Bicep would play at 11 for example and "forcing" people to stay in a particular area instead of going from Silver Hayes/Arcadia into SE Corner after 3.

 

 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

Clearly there are numbers on site never seen before.

 

Had no idea Bicep had to stop their music to tell people to take three steps back because people were passing out. Has that ever happened before?!

 

Sad thing is, a lot of people ignore these warning sides and pass it off as the victims fault for choosing to goto a popular artist or reject the idea that near tragedies even occured.

Edited July 3 by MEGATRONICMEATWAGON

[CaledonianGonzo]

Transpires that Bicep were stopped due to a medical emergency in the crowd.  Apparently someone had a seizure in the crowd crust area and the medics had difficulty accessing.

[Johnnyseven]

A lot of people want dance music, reducing the amount of it won't reduce demand but is likely to make the areas where it's on more busy.

[AdrianH]

The SE corner needs a rethink imo - there are some brilliantly designed stages but its being ruined by pure numbers.

 

Either it needs expanding somehow (not sure what space is available) or the stages rejigging to alleviate bottlebecks as its currently a highly unpleasant if not dangerous experience with 1000s of people trying to traverse it.

 

If not, i think a crush incident is inevitable. Imagine the current situation with thick mud. People would stumble and that would be that.

 

They alleviated it at Arcadia this year so the festival clearly do listen to concerns.

[glast0gal]

I thought this was a fantastically well-written article and really enjoyed reading it. I think the festival is good at evolving and responding to demand - as is pointed out in the argument the development of the Woodsies area and the re-shaping of Silver Hayes have been two recent successes. Agree that not all options need to be dance orientated though. Get more acts on in the bars late at night, maybe? I bet a lot of people are ending up at these venues because it’s the only thing still going.

[Spindles]

Looking at how things have evolved it is my expectation that we will continue to see more and more small entertainments removed, along with the diminishing of some of the quieter parts of the festival in order to continue to provide safe foot traffic area for the crowds at their peak.  Undleground's offerings dwindled over the years until it was barely more than crew camping and a place to park heavy plant gear.  There used to be a full row of stalls either side of the path through to green crafts that have gone.

 

I expect the article is correct that at some point that whole field (and green crafts above) will be subsumed into the south east corner and the green fields compressed.  Avalon is also likely to move elsewhere (Williams green seems the most logical spot) to further increase capacity in that area.  It seems to me that the future of glastonbury is ever larger capacity individual venues taking up more ground with fewer smaller attractions and less camping inside the fence for both general admission and worker tickets.

 

 

 

 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

27 minutes ago, AdrianH said:

If not, i think a crush incident is inevitable. Imagine the current situation with thick mud. People would stumble and that would be that.

 

That's the fear. Glastonbury has been blessed with sunshine over the weekend for quite a while now. Add a few dollops of mud everywhere and suddenly you're looking at a completely different scenario. 

Edited July 3 by MEGATRONICMEATWAGON

[bob323]

1 hour ago, Johnnyseven said:

A lot of people want dance music, reducing the amount of it won't reduce demand but is likely to make the areas where it's on more busy.

If that is the case why is there not more dance/ DnB music on during the day on the main stages? - eg to 'compete' against non-dance music.

 

I passed through SEC on two separate days around 2-4am and watched the various crowds, the vast majority (95%+) was just standing there talking or on their phones - not even swaying or moving.

 

for most people It's a tourist place to be visted

Edited July 3 by bob323

[CaledonianGonzo]

7 minutes ago, bob323 said:

I passed through SEC on two separate days around 2-4am and watched the various crowds, the vast majority (95%+) was just standing there talking or on their phones - not even swaying or moving.

 

for most people It's a tourist place to be visted

 

I think this is the issue. Folk not going to dance but to do a circuit checking it out.  Usually you can find a venue with a bit of space as long as you're not *too* arsed but seeing a specific DJ.

 

Arcadia was the same when we went on Sunday night. Felt like we were the only ones having a boogie.

[Bin Fish]

Agreed, a bad muddy one with these crowd levels is a terrifying thought. 

Overall it’s a great article from someone who clearly cares, but I’m not convinced Gabriel’s entirely right with the solutions. Solutions do clearly need to be found though and I suspect the management might take a bit more notice this time. 
 

I’ve certainly never known SH to be closed off while the headliners are in full swing, (booking Charli for that slot was a wild move), and the Bicep situation sounds both scary and likely to happen again. It’s dark, it’s rammed, everyone’s off their faces. At that point the sheer size and diversity of the site will always work against it in emergencies. 

I dunno. I’ve written a bunch more but ultimately couldn’t begin to come up with an answer. Personally as much as I LOVE seeing big name techno in Block 9 for example, I feel the SEC in general has lost something over the years chasing lineups over cool experiences. 
 

It’s simply a victim of its own success. 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

19 minutes ago, Bin Fish said:

for example, I feel the SEC in general has lost something over the years chasing lineups over cool experiences. 
 

It’s simply a victim of its own success. 

 

Yeah, I'd agree with this. It's mad when you think that the site in general, the whole site, holds around 140k regular ticket purchased punters during the day time. Plus all the performers, volunteers, other workers, etc brings it up to 210k. 

 

And then the SEC is like the size of the Other Stage and expecting everyone to squeeze in. Obviously, there's also Arcadia, the Park, Silver Hayes, and not everyone goes to the dance areas anyway, but it's quite something. I'm not surprised that they've been forced to drop the niche bars and focus on the larger venues, but the SEC has certainly lost some of it's sparkle in doing that. For me at least. 

Edited July 3 by MEGATRONICMEATWAGON

[Johnnyseven]

1 hour ago, bob323 said:

If that is the case why is there not more dance/ DnB music on during the day on the main stages? - eg to 'compete' against non-dance music.

 

I agree, they should put more on during the day on the big stages. The popularity and crowd sizes for Fred again and Barry Can't Swim are a good case for that.

 

I disagree with 95% people not dancing, granted I only spend time at Glade, Genosys, Arcadia and IICON but most people in the crowds I was in at those stages that I saw were dancing or at least paying attention to what was going on on the stage.

 

I don't know why they don't use the Avalon stage as a late night venue though, put Guilty Pleasures etc that they used to put in Williams Green in there. It's so close to SEC that tbe extra noise won't be an issue.

Edited July 3 by Johnnyseven

[HappyInAField]

Lurker from reddit here ... we are discussing there. This piece has really hit the nail on the head for me and many of us!

 

I love Glasto. But yes something was off and you have to say it... had first time attending friends were very spooked by the crushing this year and may not go back.

 

Here is my question: does anyone at eFestivals or SecretGlasto know how to get this up the chain of command?

 

I think it needs to be read by the right people... fingers crossed

[LinvoyPrimus]

Really well-written and echoes a lot of stuff my group were talking about across and after the weekend.

 

I think 'THE LICENSE' is going to be a blocker to much of this BUT the writer is absolutely spot-on that something needs to be done now or else we're headed for a potentially dangerous Glastonbury that doesn't work for anyone.

 

It's not all the late-night areas either – the main stage bookings need to be given full consideration here. Some absolutely head-scratching scheduling going on every year now, and most of it is completely avoidable.

Sugababes... always going to be rammo... why not have them open the Pyramid on Friday? Kick the weekend off with a bang in a f**king huge field that'll get a big crowd. Avril... was always going to be chaos. Pyramid should have been the spot – if that means you don't get Janelle Monae at the festival, so be it. Justice... with four other samey headliners, was always going to be rammed.

Fully echo what's been said on here about getting major dance acts on earlier in the day as well.

[ghostdancer1]

16 hours ago, CaledonianGonzo said:

16 hours ago, bob323 said:

I passed through SEC on two separate days around 2-4am and watched the various crowds, the vast majority (95%+) was just standing there talking or on their phones - not even swaying or moving.

 

for most people It's a tourist place to be visted

 

I think this is the issue. Folk not going to dance but to do a circuit checking it out.  Usually you can find a venue with a bit of space as long as you're not *too* arsed but seeing a specific DJ.

 

Arcadia was the same when we went on Sunday night. Felt like we were the only ones having a boogie.

 

Could a partial solution be to have some of the SEC stages open earlier?

IIcon, Genosys, NYC Downlow - generally start at 8pm, Temple at 10pm, various others at 8pm-ish.

 

Could having them running from midday each day, especially Thursday, let some people get the SEC "out of their system" instead of going there after midnight?

 

Do people shuffling through Shangri-la/Unfairground for a gawk really need to do that at 1am on Fri/Sat/Sun?

 

I know it's not going to solve the problems, but it might make them a little less acute....

[gooner1990]

17 hours ago, bob323 said:

I passed through SEC on two separate days around 2-4am and watched the various crowds, the vast majority (95%+) was just standing there talking or on their phones - not even swaying or moving.

 

 

Slightly unrelated, I was stood at the back of Other waiting for a friend before TDCC and the sheer amount of people either walking along looking at their phone, shouting into their phone to their mate where they were, texting/scrolling on their phone to whoever or just walking with it in their hand was incredible.

 

I saw people walk into each other because both parties were on their phones and people weren't looking where they were going or where the crowds were as they were looking at their phones. One girl walked past me into a set of bins because she was texting rather than looking where she was walking.

 

I know its a worldwide problem and not specifically at Glastonbury,(and yes I use mine too) but if people just put them down in their pockets for a few minutes and looked at what they were (trying) to do I think things would improve somewhat with movement across the site.

Edited July 4 by gooner1990

[Supermerv]

It's a great piece with some very interesting points. Of the 3 most recent festivals I went to last year, and although the site was busier than I remember from my previous visits I don't really remember any massive crowd issues. It seems that this year may have been as a result of poor programming and 2022 possibly as a post covid hangover, but as these problems become more pronounced it becomes clearer that something needs to change. 

[Skip997]

17 hours ago, bob323 said:

 

 

for most people It's a tourist place to be visted

This is exactly the problem. But I’ve no idea how to discourage the tourists. Personally I find a vibe I’m enjoying and stay there 

[kerplunk]

 

It is a good article, with lots of very pertinent insightful points well made

 

I didn't visit the late night areas once all weekend due to my shifts so I just had to look at what time Bicep were on at - 1.15.

 

So that's begging for floods of people to descend on the SEC straight after the main stages finished, and similar for Charli too in SH. Why not put the big draws on a bit later?

 

 

Edited July 4 by kerplunk

[lukemack]

Would be good if they could negotiate for the JP/Woodsies to stay open to say 2am would suit decent sized Dance music acts. Putting a Silent Disco in somewhere like Car Henge till 5am could also draw some crowds.

 

There just small quick fix ideas, the festival capacity will likely go back down by 7k with the next review, but that's just a drop in the ocean. Better utilisation of the site and much better thinking in stage and crowd management would work wonders.

[mazola]

I can't really get my head round it to be honest.

 

SE corner is busier than ever, even though we now have a massively revamped silver hayes and arcadia area, along with late night attractions in the park, which you would think would help ease the pressure over there.

 

Something has to be done, but the only thing I can think off is gutting shangri la to a single stage to make room for crowd.

 

its all very well having dozens of options in the SE corner, but Icon shows (or showed until this year) that having a big field with music in is good enough for a lot of people. I know we used to end up there by default sometimes as it was easier than squeezing the rest of the corner.