Glastonbury Festival consider opening car parks at 8pm the night before

Glastonbury Festival organisers have said they will consider opening the site car parks earlier next year to avoid the traffic chaos of this year's event, according to an article in the Bridgwater Times.

Last year the good weather meant that festival goers descended on the festival site in Pilton, Somerset early and with the closure of the M5 near the M5/M4 intersection following serious road accidents, thousands of vehicles were diverted off the motorways causing major traffic disruption.

This led to many motorists queueing for up to 20 hours to get to the Festival, as traffic was brought to a complete stand still.

At the Mendip District Council Festival de-brief meeting last week organisers, police and council chiefs admitted they were caught on the hop this year, and pledged they will be taking steps to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Councillor Tom Killen said, "The whole area was effected. what about the welfare and water facilities for travellers stuck in the queues? Gardens and fields and roads were being used as toilets. We had three people in our garden that night at 11pm using it as toilets, and they were most abusive."

Councillor Tom Barnes said quarries suffered severe business disruption around the area as lorries could not get in and out of quarry works to pick up loads.

Local police and environmental chiefs said that the traffic management plan in place was a comprehensive one, however the traffic build up the Wednesday had been unprecedented. There had been issues with both motorways where crashes had occured. They promised that contingencies would be made to ensure such a situation never happened again.

Mendip's environmental health manager Suzanne McCutcheon said, "There were a whole host of issues involved that we were just not prepared for. Meetings have begun with the festival organisers and the police to decide on ways of preventing this happening in the future. Everything is being done to stop this happening again."

Melvin Benn, who helps with the organisation of the event, and runs the parking, said the problem was that people started arriving very early before the gates were open.

He said, "Once you have a queue it is difficult to get rid of it and you are trying to move large amounts of traffic in through limited access points. We were a little late opening the car parks - that was our error.

"But if we had got them open at 6am we would still have had tail backs. the traffic plan has always worked well before but not this year.

"We need to get cars off the road as early as 8pm the night before. Something as simple as that makes a huge difference. So we are now looking at opening the car parks at 8pm the night before and the gates will open at 8am the following day.

"We will provide water and toilets in the car park for people arriving the night before."

Tickets for the Festival go on sale at 9am today for next year's Festival which runs for five full days from Wednesday 23rd until Sunday 27th June 2010 across a 1,000 acres of beautiful countryside at Worthy Farm, Somerset.

All registered festival-goers who want to buy tickets have two options. They can either buy a full weekend ticket at a price of £185 + £5 booking fee (plus £4.95 postage).

Alternatively, tickets can be reserved at a cost of £50 per ticket. The balance can be paid in full anytime before Sunday 28th February 2010.

To buy tickets, click here.

Next year's event will mark the 40th anniversary of the Music and Arts Festival at Worthy Farm, Somerset, where Michael Eavis first opened his gates for business in September 1970.

For more details about registering and ticket information click here.

Expect something like 2,000 performances at 50 or so venues including music, cabaret, theatre, circus, a fantastic Kidz area, poetry, green crafts and information and loads, loads more... much more than just the music, so make sure you check it all out!

Only one act is confirmed so far, but as usual eFestivals will bring you the very best-sourced rumours, allowing festival-goers to see who is playing long before the bands are formally announced - keep your eyes on the Glastonbury 2010 rumours, updated as we receive information.

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