Bag searches

[Spindles]

Same, gate about 5pm, no one was giving a damn about searches at the time.  Not even a hint of it.  Only went through the gate once, so not a huge sample of experience.  

 

Every year since 2016 I've been searched, couple of times the full empty everything out and inspect deal, mostly the usual light rummage, 2 car searches in that time as well.  One festival (2019) I went through the gate about 8 times over the course of the festival and was searched every single time.

[efcfanwirral]

19 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

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? 

They are indeed! 

[philipsteak]

20 minutes ago, Alvoram said:

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? 

 

They are

[philipsteak]

15 minutes ago, Paul ™ said:

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.

 

Even the tiny ones like Stickleball?

[NotAnInsider]

I think they had a game going on at PGC. My wife got pulled to the table on Sunday and they went through her bag & the kids things, asking why she had Calpol (sachets not glass!) and going through everything for about 10 min until a supervisor told her 'you aren't getting a bingo here, let her go' and apologised.

[paulshane]

One thing I haven't seen in many years though is the police vehicle searches that used to happen a few miles out from site.

 

I used to drive my 1970s VW bus to the festival, and in the late 1990s and early 2000s I'd get stopped every year, usually up by Cannards Grave

 

Get waved in by police, told where to park, then the van would get taken to pieces, they had a VOSA guy there basically doing an MOT - got jacked up to check wheel bearings etc

Customs and Excise checked every barcode on my beer

Police went through bags

 

super intense, but we either didn't have anything dodgy or it was well hidden enough that it wasn't found.

 

I remeber one year a friend in the van had a larger than normal stash, and was shitting it when the police dogs started trotting over, but the people in the van up one in the queue seemed to fail some kind of attitude test, and they started taking everything out for an in depth check and we got waved on our way 🙂

 

Always got the van MOTd the week before too, so it was proper legal, it just looked rough and ready

 

I guess with ANPR stuff this is now done miles away from site, if anywhere

 

[stuie]

38 minutes ago, Johnnyseven said:

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. 

 

Absolutely correct.  Fake wristbands were detected, so the checks were ramped up.  We still had a massive group of runners, of which only 4 got caught and the rest made it.  Plenty of people trying to re-enter using tickets that looked nothing like them too. 

[CaledonianGonzo]

57 minutes ago, Ayrshire Chris said:

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

 

Your Sniffer Dogs Are Shite 

[Ayrshire Chris]

I have no objections to being delayed at gates or thoroughly searched. Fake tickets and wristbands, runners etc are a serious threat to the safety of legitimate ticket holders. 

[Johnnyseven]

38 minutes ago, Superscally said:

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

 

46 year old fella, white with a beard, also wearing khaki shorts and t shirt, plus a cap but didn't get searched once at PGC - not sure what that says.

[Jay Pee]

20 minutes ago, philipsteak said:

 

Even the tiny ones like Stickleball?

My pal was working said gate when some chap walked up with his two kids at about 3 am. The children were about 7 and 9. The chap basically said "I ain't got tickets but wondered if you would just let us in"!

 

Had driven from the Midlands. Cant fault his optimism.

[Johnnyseven]

32 minutes ago, Pipine said:

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. 
 

 

 

Yeah searches at gate A on Weds seemed minimal. Saw one guy asked if he had any glass and his big rucksack squeezed a bit but that was it.

[philipsteak]

14 minutes ago, Jay Pee said:

My pal was working said gate when some chap walked up with his two kids at about 3 am. The children were about 7 and 9. The chap basically said "I ain't got tickets but wondered if you would just let us in"!

 

Had driven from the Midlands. Cant fault his optimism.

 

Had a fair bit of that the two years I worked on that gate. Mostly fairly local but a few had (so they claimed) travelled a long way. None with kids though. 

[The60ftOctopus]

On the Sunday morning they took some of my medication off me, which involved three members of security surrounding me. They apologised because it was “invasive”. It reduced me to tears after a long week and ruined my festival. It wasn’t a great experience. 
 

Ive also found it’s almost impossible to find an email to submit a complaint to. 
 

edit: this was gate c by the way 

Edited July 4 by The60ftOctopus
Missed gate info

[august1]

Security on gate D was convinced I had something dodgy and went through everything with detail.

 

Said to let me him next I get stopped and he'll just let me through? Duno if it was some mad bluff to try catch me next time 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

No one's Quavers got taken off them this year then?

[kerplunk]

3 minutes ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

No one's Quavers got taken off them this year then?

 

That was so funny to read as it unfolded (not for those who lost their mini cheddars tho of course)

[clarkete]

22 minutes ago, The60ftOctopus said:

On the Sunday morning they took some of my medication off me, which involved three members of security surrounding me. They apologised because it was “invasive”. It reduced me to tears after a long week and ruined my festival. It wasn’t a great experience. 
 

Ive also found it’s almost impossible to find an email to submit a complaint to. 
 

edit: this was gate c by the way 

 

Sorry about that, seems very unusual for prescription meds.  Have you tried contacting them via this?

https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/contact-us/

Also stumbled across their policy https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/information/advice/medical-and-first-aid/prescribed-medicines-policy/

Edited July 4 by clarkete

[The60ftOctopus]

4 minutes ago, clarkete said:

 

Sorry about that, seems very unusual for prescription meds.  Have you tried contacting them via this?

https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/contact-us/

Also stumbled across their policy https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/information/advice/medical-and-first-aid/prescribed-medicines-policy/

You can only have up to 500 characters and there isn’t a specific dropdown for complaints.

 

i haven’t actually seen that policy before so perhaps it’s my own fault as they weren’t in the original container but I did have the prescription. But I’ve been coming for 14 years and never had any issues before. It was more the manner in it happened too. 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

7 minutes ago, kerplunk said:

 

That was so funny to read as it unfolded (not for those who lost their mini cheddars tho of course)

 

The security behind closed doors after reading through PGA live thread.

 

[MEGATRONICMEATWAGON]

7 minutes ago, The60ftOctopus said:

You can only have up to 500 characters and there isn’t a specific dropdown for complaints.

 

i haven’t actually seen that policy before so perhaps it’s my own fault as they weren’t in the original container but I did have the prescription. But I’ve been coming for 14 years and never had any issues before. It was more the manner in it happened too. 

 

Sorry to hear about what happened to you. If you want to contact them and write as much as you would like, here's their email - help@glastonburyfestivals.co.uk

Edited July 4 by MEGATRONICMEATWAGON

[Spindles]

The worst of it was, when it was happening it was at the gate where I was heading and you can bet damned sure it was the one year I'd used mini cheddar multipacks to hide stuff.  I was crapping it til I was through, then I was eating mini cheddars all week like they were the spoils of war.

[waltere]

Avalon bars staff camping is just outside Gate C, so was in and out of it at least once every day, wasn't searched once 

[Alvoram]

2 hours ago, MEGATRONICMEATWAGON said:

No one's Quavers got taken off them this year then?

That was the first and very last time I was ever questioned at a Glastonbury gate by security, and it still wasn't even a search, just asked if I had any glass or crisps... Weds 2022, at Sticklinch entrance. 

If I get through next year without being stopped too, I'm going to start offering a mule service!!!!

[Pinhead]

Have never been searched as I look like Doc Emmet Brown and so a safe bet I'm clean. Wasn't always the case . . .