Do the coaches get preferential access?

[DocJon]

Due to a slight (!) mishap by me, my wife is going by car (hopefully car-sharing), and I'm jumping on the coach. Both of us are glasto-virgins, so I was wondering whether anyone knew whether the coaches got better access onto the site --- specifically, if I'm on the coach on Wednesday morning am I likely to get on site faster than wifey, and therefore should I take the tent with me, rather than she take it in the car?!!!!

So fingers crossed I could then do the handy thing and lug everything over to where we hope to camp and open a tinny in time for her arrival!?

[GlastoWatch]

The car parks will be open from 9pm on Tuesday and the gates open 8am Wed. Coaches won't start arriving until 8am at the earliest, so your wife is likely to be there long before you if she sets off early enough.

The queues at the pedestrian gates from the car parks are likely to be very long this year, so if your coach is one of the early arrivers, there is a chance you'll be able to get onsite before her, but it obviously depends on what time your coach arrives and what time your wife starts queueing at the gate.

[akicif]

The queues at the pedestrian gates from the car parks

Does that mean that there are pedestrian gates without associated car-parks (I'll be arriving on foot on the Wednesday morning from a nearby campsite, and would be really happy not to be queuing behind hundreds of folk who've just got out of their cars)?

Thanks

Steve

[GlastoWatch]

The queues at the pedestrian gates from the car parks

Does that mean that there are pedestrian gates without associated car-parks

Yes, the queues from car drivers this year are likely to be a lot longer at gate opening time than in past years.

[Biggie Green]

Due to a slight (!) mishap by me, my wife is going by car (hopefully car-sharing), and I'm jumping on the coach. Both of us are glasto-virgins, so I was wondering whether anyone knew whether the coaches got better access onto the site --- specifically, if I'm on the coach on Wednesday morning am I likely to get on site faster than wifey, and therefore should I take the tent with me, rather than she take it in the car?!!!!

So fingers crossed I could then do the handy thing and lug everything over to where we hope to camp and open a tinny in time for her arrival!?

The coach park is closer to the festival than the car park. You will become a super hero if you have the tent set up and chilling with a (slightly warm) tinny by the time your wife arrives.

Are you going on Big Green Coach? http://www.biggreencoach.co.uk/glastonbury

[DocJon]

I'm going with the coach+ticket deal via Seeticjets, so I don't think it's the big green coach.

Does anyone know how much kit they let you take on when travelling by coach. I'm hoping a rucsac + tent is allowable as surely that's the minimum everyone would be taking... last thing I want to do is be denied at the coach door for having too much stuff!

thanks for everyone for their replies

[GlastoWatch]

Does anyone know how much kit they let you take on when travelling by coach. I'm hoping a rucsac + tent is allowable as surely that's the minimum everyone would be taking... last thing I want to do is be denied at the coach door for having too much stuff!

I took the coach in 2007 due to lack of normal tickets and there was no limit on the amount of luggage you could take.

The driver opened the luggage compartments underneath the coach and let everyone load it themselves.

I would advise making sure your stuff is in the middle though, because one of the flaps on our coach opened while going up a hill and a load of stuff fell out.

Luckily a couple of cars behind spotted it, picked up some stuff and chased the coach to tell us. We then spent an hour waiting for everyone to check their stuff was still onboard and retrieve what was strewn down the hill.

The coach picked us up 90 mins late, spent an hour sorting out the luggage fiasco and then stopped at a service station for an hour when all everyone wanted to do was to get to the festival ASAP.

The return coach was booked for the ridiculous time of 8am which is about the time I usually go to bed at Glasto, so obviously I didn't even try to get on it and took the train back instead.

Needless to say, I have no desire to travel by coach again.