Bag searches

[thekiwi]

Did anyone else think  bag searches were more Xtreme this year? I've never really seen anyone get searched but i was camping outside gate C and had my body bag searched every single day. They looked in every single pocket and were sniffing my baccy & food wrappers like they were tryna get high off the smell of it lol.

[Nobody Interesting]

We came in Gate C and we were not searched at all.

[Nice hymer]

Yes, PGC, search was bordering on excessive.

Emptied my pockets and rucksac, it was obvious that there was nothing sinister going on.

They almost treated my emergency biscuit and raisin yorkie as a suspicious package, acted like they'd never seen a blister strip of rennie before and asked why I had £200 cash in my wallet. I'm with my wife and kids, I can easily dust £200 in a day.

Asked to remove my phone from its case. They then started pulling the case apart and smelling it but completely missing the credit card compartment, which I proceeded to show them, just to be cooperative and helpful.

It did seem odd, as very few suspicious characters in CV East or passing through PGC in general, I don't recall seeing any contraband being confiscated all weekend - maybe they were down on their expected quota?

[gigpusher]

I noticed lots more searches and was stopped once myself but I have to say my search wasn't exactly extensive. I did see one person having about 5 bags confiscated and she wasn't happy.

[westholtschic]

I volunteer with FMS and have never been bag searched before in the 13 festivals I have been to. 
Searched every day, even with my FMS top and ID on this year. A lot of the nurses , in full gear on way to their shifts were searched as well.

[thekiwi]

6 minutes ago, Nice hymer said:

They almost treated my emergency biscuit and raisin yorkie as a suspicious package, acted like they'd never seen a blister strip of rennie before 

That's hilarious. The guy unwrapped my 2 year old mouldy tinfoil wrapper used for a sandwich he found in a pocket I didn't even know existed. Insisted on smelling it after I warned him what it was.

 

I was crew and was wearing my crew shirt and had crew bands as well.

 

[A Particular Grey Chihuahu]

Went through PGB with bags a few times and no one seemed bothered.

[paulshane]

First time in years I got stopped and searched, coming into Gate C, lunchtime-ish

 

had to empty my pockets, like pull them inside out empty, the guy then went through my wallet, counted my money, checked my rucksack, but didn't totally empty it.

 

I was just smiling and being polite, and he eventually smiled and asked if I had any guns, which I replied 'not today' and he let me on my way

 

Saw other people being searched and it seems wallets were getting the most attention, rather than rucksacks / bigger bags.

[Dave_c]

Yep, worthy view was ridiculous, emptying people's bags on initial and re-entry, took quite a while to get in when I arrived on Wednesday night and I've never queued when arriving at that time.

[Alvoram]

Nope... entered and exited the site at least twice a day via Gate C, each time wearing a backpack and small satchel / 'man bag.' And sometimes carrying a shopping bag of beer too... Not once, across the whole weekend, did I get searched... Not once. 

But I'm a chubby, tall, middle aged bloke wearing plain clothes... And my very thin Derbyshire accent doesn't raise any pulses... So I'm guessing I don't fit any of the 'profiles' that they were on to. 

There was a lot of profiling going on this year, and it's a shame to see. Profiling because of an accent / city of residence, or because of the clothes somebody wears, surely goes against everything Glastonbury stands for. 

[kerplunk]

I was stewarding on PGC on Saturday morning stood right next to the search tables and was quite amazed at the level of searching there, emptying every pocket, running fingers around the edges of shoes etc. Only noticed a handful of 'finds' tho

[kerplunk]

15 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

Nope... entered and exited the site at least twice a day via Gate C, each time wearing a backpack and small satchel / 'man bag.' And sometimes carrying a shopping bag of beer too... Not once, across the whole weekend, did I get searched... Not once. 

But I'm a chubby, tall, middle aged bloke wearing plain clothes... And my very thin Derbyshire accent doesn't raise any pulses... So I'm guessing I don't fit any of the 'profiles' that they were on to. 

There was a lot of profiling going on this year, and it's a shame to see. Profiling because of an accent / city of residence, or because of the clothes somebody wears, surely goes against everything Glastonbury stands for. 

 

On saturday morning when I was there, if you walked through and one of the 6 tables were free, you got searched - including myself when I turned up for my shift there. As it got busier far fewer people entering got searched of course and then there was certainly profiling going on but mostly by age I think

Edited Thursday at 02:57 PM by kerplunk

[stuie]

In and out of Gate B every day, 1 search of my rucksack all week.

Never of my pockets or bumbag. 

[Ayrshire Chris]

Didn’t see the sniffer dogs this year. They’re probably still in rehab after sniffing through last years bags😉😊

[Alvoram]

13 minutes ago, kerplunk said:

 

On saturday morning when I was there, if you walked through and one of the 6 tables were free, you got searched - including myself when I turned up for my shift there. As it got busier far fewer people entering got searched of course and then there was certainly profiling going on but mostly by age I think

Yeh they were searching non stop. There was even extra staff pulling people from the passing crowd sending them to tables that were already occupied to wait to be searched, but they seemed to ignore us older folk. I dunno, maybe I'm just lucky, but it definitely seemed like targets were being picked out based on some sort of criteria.

(On Sunday however, we were late, walked through just before legend slot, all tables empty, and still not searched, but I only had the backpack and satchel then though.) 

It was the same last year, I sailed through every single time, with a backpack and satchel. My 20 year old son would get searched each and every time, and he was only carrying one of those cross body man bag things. It became such a running joke that on Saturday evening we suggested me carrying his bag too. (Ironically, my son has never even smoked a cigarette, and barely ever drinks, never mind anything 'illegal!' Of the two of us, I'm definitely the one to search, but I would never fit any profiles, so... 😉 ) 

[paulshane]

Just now, Alvoram said:

but they seemed to ignore us older folk. I

 

 

maybe I don't look as old as I thought after all 😄

[Johnnyseven]

Everything on PGC was ramped up this year. Spending ages checking photos against faces, asking people to put their arms up to check wristbands, 3 wristband checks before showing ticket/passout and 1 more after for luck, narrowing the fence gap where they do the wristband checks so nobody can rush the gate and doing more bag checks. Got me feeling they are really trying to clamp down of fake tickets/wristbands, people using other peoples' tickets and that they may suspect that PGC is an avenue for contraband entering the site. I don't think anyone should be annoyed at any of these measures though. 

[efcfanwirral]

40 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

There was a lot of profiling going on this year, and it's a shame to see. Profiling because of an accent / city of residence, or because of the clothes somebody wears, surely goes against everything Glastonbury stands for. 

Ahem...can't say I didn't scrutinise some tickets more than others. Also, the ONLY ones where the ID didn't match (or was questionable) were from the same place, then thankfully it wasn't my decision as they get passed onto the supervisor or gate manager. The fact they didn't kick off at me when scrutinising was very telling I thought...

 

Anyway I can say all this stuff because I'm from around here and know for a fact how many "find a way". 

 

On a general thing, I chatted to some of the security at the gate and they had been working at a gig I was at the week before. I'm wondering if they were applying the same standards they do at normal gigs (keep all drugs out etc) to Glastonbury?  

Edited Thursday at 03:22 PM by efcfanwirral

[tickleyt]

yep, never seen so many searches and security was far more heavy-handed/motivated than I've previously seen. Saw a bloke getting all his socks and clothes individually unrolled and checked, but he was in one of the "you will be searched" queues. Security were shouting at each other to "Search more, at least one in five" and doing fairly half-arsed searches, but definitely more significant than I've ever seen before. We were at gate A. Wondering if they outsourced it and some of the staff were keen to prove themselves or steal some stashes for personal use. 

[Alvoram]

2 minutes ago, efcfanwirral said:

Ahem...can't say I didn't scrutinise some tickets more than others. Also, the ONLY ones where the ID didn't match (or was questionable) were from the same place, then thankfully it wasn't my decision as they get passed onto the supervisor or gate manager. The fact they didn't kick off at me when scrutinising was very telling I thought...

 

Anyway I can say all this stuff because I'm from around here and know for a fact how many "find a way". 

 

On a general thing, I chatted to some of the security at the gate and they had been working at a gig I was at the week before. I'm wondering if they were applying the same standards they do at normal gigs (keep all drugs out etc) to Glastonbury?  

I'm not talking about the volunteers on the ticket / re-entry gates, they were checking my ticket HARD!!! Every single time I entered, in depth ticket checks, remove glasses for photo checks, wristband checks (sometimes multiples.) They worked their asses off, at pace, to try and keep the festival safe, whilst keeping queues moving... Nothing but admiration for them. 👏

It's the bag checkers I was talking about, I 'think' they're paid SIA badged security staff, rather than volunteers aren't they? 

[kerplunk]

5 minutes ago, Johnnyseven said:

asking people to put their arms up to check wristbands

 

That was me! 😄

[4AssedMonkey]

PGD - not so much.  Got my coolbag full of tins searched once on the Thursday going in, Mrs 4AM got her small rucksack/handbag thing searched twice I think and that was it.  Even when those manning the search tables were literally doing nothing, just waived us through.

 

Waaaayyyyy more stringent on checking tickets, passes and wristbands though.  More than once I swear they were trying to pull my wristband off my arm!

Edited Thursday at 03:30 PM by 4AssedMonkey

[Superscally]

49 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

Nope... entered and exited the site at least twice a day via Gate C, each time wearing a backpack and small satchel / 'man bag.' And sometimes carrying a shopping bag of beer too... Not once, across the whole weekend, did I get searched... Not once. 

But I'm a chubby, tall, middle aged bloke wearing plain clothes... And my very thin Derbyshire accent doesn't raise any pulses... So I'm guessing I don't fit any of the 'profiles' that they were on to. 

There was a lot of profiling going on this year, and it's a shame to see. Profiling because of an accent / city of residence, or because of the clothes somebody wears, surely goes against everything Glastonbury stands for. 

I'm a 45 year old fella, white with a beard, wearing khaki shorts and a standard tshirt, plus a worker's cap most days. We got mega searched three times at PGC. No profiling going on I'd say

[Paul ™]

More searches due to more contraband being found across all the ped gates, along with vehicle gates.

 

And yes they are clamping down on the gates, hence why they all have a gate manager now going forward.

[Pipine]

We arrived by coach at ped gate A late Wednesday afternoon and breezed right in, didn’t seem to be anyone searching bags at all at that point, maybe it was shift handover time or something.  I thought the searches had stepped up a gear last year, sounds like they’ve upped it again. 
 

 

Edited Thursday at 03:40 PM by Pipine