Glasto gripes - while still fresh in your mind

[mr jolly lives next door]

People washing their hair and brushing their teeth at the campsite taps when there's a queue a mile long - during the day when not so busy isn't a problem but in the morning people need water it just really annoys me

[Roo]

Oh now you got me started!

1) People washing their wellies at the taps - regardless of queues or not! Water is a pretty precious resource and wasting it like this not only is pointless it can mean that not enough water for rest of the site! Thankfully this year I think water was available throughout the festival - not so last year!

2) People walking in crowded areas with a lit candle/flare thingy - whilst often a little squiffy and not really paying attention.

3) Litter - often there is no excuse for this, but the casual disregard and not even an attempt to move things towards the bins is selfish and thoughtless

4) Hedger Pi$$ers - u lazy F*****S! What gives you the right to pollute the streams and kill the fish in them, thereby risking the festivals license? People caught doing so should be kicked out and banned from coming again, that would see a lot of this behaviour stop!

5) Chinese Lanterns - Or as I prefer to call them, Fire Bombs! - Sitting around our campfire on Sunday night we watched a couple of dozen of these land in our area of the field still lit! Luckily as it's a crew field and it was sunday, there was plenty of open space and it was easy to get about to intercept the fire bombs with a long stick that threatened to land on tents! Unfortunately one did land on the Property lock-up at Wickett Ground and did set fire to the roof, though luckily due to fast action by neighboring fast food guys was quickly extinguished!
These are prohibited items, and for a very good reason! There must have been hundreds let off over the weekend and the farmers downwind of Worthy Farm will most certainly have been on high alert for them landing in crops and setting them on fire!
Still think they are pretty? Read this - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13934378

6) Laughing Gas - But it just ain;t funny is it? was with a nurse at some point over the weekend talking about this, and laughing at the stupidity of how people were using it and what actual effect they were gaining from puffing away on a balloon. It takes much more exposure to it than you can get in a balloon, and even constantly recycling your breath in a balloon full of gas is more likely to starve you of oxygen than have a proper 'laugh'. But if you stupid enough to think the buzz of dying brain cells is fun, then carry on, but FFS! Clean up your goddamn mess, balloons and cannisters were everywhere!!!
PS - although personal use of it isn't ilegal, supplying to anyone else is, even if you just pass them a balloon full of gas someone else gave you!



Ok, Rant over, wonder how many I've upset with the above?

pps. I reserve the right to come back and add more to this thread

[stardustjunkie]

I agree with all of the above!

About the washing in sinks, we were camping in Pylon Ground which had 1 sink (3 taps) between 2 camping fields I think! The queue was ridiculous enough without the idiots that washed their hair in them! People actually queued to brush their teeth at them?! Wtf? Just fill a bottle/water carrier up and wash etc back at the tent, it means the rest of us get some water supplies without queuing for an hour!

[stardustjunkie]

Another has to be people playing music at their tents all hours of the day. You're at a bloody music festival, go and listen to live music! We go back to our tent for a bit of peace, catch up on sleep etc, not to listen to someone elses crap choice in music through a pair of shit battery powered speakers. Use headphones if you're that desperate! Tents aren't like walls, we hear everything around us!

[Beanie]

The very long and very scary queues to get into Arcadia. Understandably Arcadia becomes very popular when the main stages finish but we went at 2am and the queue was still 2hrs wait. And with the sheer volume of people the queues become very scary and dangerous. This must be addressed for next time.

[Monkeywithminiaturecymbal]

Oh now you got me started!

1) People washing their wellies at the taps - regardless of queues or not! Water is a pretty precious resource and wasting it like this not only is pointless it can mean that not enough water for rest of the site! Thankfully this year I think water was available throughout the festival - not so last year!

I saw one guy queue up to wash his wellies at one of the taps and then immediately step into the muddy puddle created by all the people before him and the water came in over the top of his wellies A few minutes later a steward came to ask people to stop washing their wellies as they were creating a water shortage elsewhere. Before then it never occurred to me that the welly washers were doing anything wrong. I'm sure most of them were ignorant like me rather than inconsiderate and polite notices by the taps would have been a good idea.

2) People walking in crowded areas with a lit candle/flare thingy - whilst often a little squiffy and not really paying attention.

3) Litter - often there is no excuse for this, but the casual disregard and not even an attempt to move things towards the bins is selfish and thoughtless

4) Hedger Pi$$ers - u lazy F*****S! What gives you the right to pollute the streams and kill the fish in them, thereby risking the festivals license? People caught doing so should be kicked out and banned from coming again, that would see a lot of this behaviour stop!

Agreed but again I think it simply doesn't occur to the majority of hedger pissers that their behaviour might cause problems and the festival organisers could do more to get the message through. I saw a fair few pissers by the front of the other stage at which there was no notice. What was more depressing was the sight of people in the park pissing right in front of no pissing because... signs

5) Chinese Lanterns - Or as I prefer to call them, Fire Bombs! - Sitting around our campfire on Sunday night we watched a couple of dozen of these land in our area of the field still lit! Luckily as it's a crew field and it was sunday, there was plenty of open space and it was easy to get about to intercept the fire bombs with a long stick that threatened to land on tents! Unfortunately one did land on the Property lock-up at Wickett Ground and did set fire to the roof, though luckily due to fast action by neighboring fast food guys was quickly extinguished!
These are prohibited items, and for a very good reason! There must have been hundreds let off over the weekend and the farmers downwind of Worthy Farm will most certainly have been on high alert for them landing in crops and setting them on fire!
Still think they are pretty? Read this - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-13934378

6) Laughing Gas - But it just ain;t funny is it? was with a nurse at some point over the weekend talking about this, and laughing at the stupidity of how people were using it and what actual effect they were gaining from puffing away on a balloon. It takes much more exposure to it than you can get in a balloon, and even constantly recycling your breath in a balloon full of gas is more likely to starve you of oxygen than have a proper 'laugh'. But if you stupid enough to think the buzz of dying brain cells is fun, then carry on, but FFS! Clean up your goddamn mess, balloons and cannisters were everywhere!!!
PS - although personal use of it isn't ilegal, supplying to anyone else is, even if you just pass them a balloon full of gas someone else gave you!

7) Selling dodgy drugs - there was a notice at one of the info points I visited advising people to avoid a dangerous batch of impure amphetamines - how could anyone deliberately harm others in this way?

8) People overdoing alcohol and/or illegal drugs - I know it's not really any of my business if other festival goers want to make themselves ill like this but I wish people would look after themselves properly.

9) People barging there way past tents - didn't see it this year but did last year. People wanted to take a shortcut to get to the pyramid stage and they were in a hurry so they just walked through the tents with hardly any care. There were some rather angry campers as you can imagine!

10) Noisy, inconsiderate campers - I know no one goes to Glastonbury expecting silence at night but there ought to be some respect. having a normal volume conversation at midnight is one thing. Loud shouting and laughing at 4.00am as was happening near my tent last year is quite another!

11) The queues to the SE sites. I think someone beat me to this one but definitely worth complaining about. I really hope they sort this out for 2013!

Ok, Rant over, wonder how many I've upset with the above?

pps. I reserve the right to come back and add more to this thread

Me too

[mr jolly lives next door]

Pyramid stage - especially on sundays - you would get far more people in there and have more room to walk around if people would stop setting up beach tents,chairs and bbq's - why people would want to lounge around on towels and chairs in the middle of a crowd that are constantly stepping over you is beyond me anyway

Because of this the pyramid field has turned into one massive jam and is starting to become more like henman hill

[mr jolly lives next door]

...and after 4 days the lead singer introducing the band gets a wee bit tiresome

[whatme]

my main gripe was , we were camped up behind John Peel stage, and it seemed during the day the walk way lights were left ON ALL DAY.

save some power/energy and turn the lights off during the day.

[glastomad]

On the laughing gas gripe may I just say that 'most' of the sellers seemed to be putting the empties into their bags, well they did the few times i brought them also I took some down of my own and took back every single empty one back with me, as did everyone I was with, my bag was quite full of em on the way back

[stardustjunkie]

Get rid of the damn ice cream van in the pyramid field when the headliners are on, blocks our view!

And any chance of making the screens higher?? Whats the point in having screens if they're the same height as the stage almost :/

[KarenEH]

All of the above but my main gripe is the utter diabolical mess left behind at the end! Why bring so much crap and such huge tents if you have no intention of taking it back with you???

The mess some people surround themselves with whilst there- it takes a second to put rubbish in a bin bag! Trying to pick your way around tents, rubbish+ mud was a nightmare!!

Agree with the Pyramid bit too- in the early afternoon when there is space, fair enough. We waited behind 8 people sitting in their chairs and 6 behind us lying on blankets during Pendulum and they only got up just before Beyonce came onstage! Had the nerve to moan as people walked into them or stepped on the blanket!! Selfish lot! (Mind you- we did end up with a great view!)

[belfast_rifle]

all of the above

plus

fecking prices of everything in the place ... £2.50 for a small bottle of coke £5 for a extremely average burger that i would pay £2 for normally ?? yeah i know festival prices etc .... seriously though the vendors cant be paying that much to have a stall that they need to be charging those prices !

agree with the ice cream van at pyramid stage ... how annoying !

i know the toilets are usually pretty bad at festivals but i was camped at diary ground and there wasnt a toilet up there that was fit for use after wednesday and as far as i could see they werent cleaned ... maybe im wrong !

[Mandypants]

The food stalls near the main stages are notoriously expensive and not worth the money. Decent food can be found further out, especially around the Green Fields areas, you can eat really well at Glasto if you just go and look around a bit.

The rubbish is disgusting, as ever, there's no excuse for it. I think a cup recycling scheme should be set up, like at festys like Leeds and Reading, you pay 10p on your pint, but it's refundable when you take the cup back. It helps to reduce the rubbish left lying around by a massive amount, and those who are a bit skint can make a few bob collecting them. Plus it's cute to see kids collecting them for pocket money You can get free bin bags from info points and lock ups so there is no excuse for leaving piles of crap in the campsite, even if you leave a bin bag full of rubbish, it's a damn sight better than leaving all your shit on the ground.

The no pissing thing needs to start being reinforced more, I only saw some green police once over the whole weekend, but tons of people taking a leak wherever they felt like it. Disgusting and lazy.

[Roo]

You can get free bin bags from info points and lock ups so there is no excuse for leaving piles of crap in the campsite, even if you leave a bin bag full of rubbish, it's a damn sight better than leaving all your shit on the ground.

Agreed, tho bin bags aren't available from the Lock-ups - whilst they may have a few, they are for use in putting things in the lock up and not for distribution - camp site stewards are the ones you should see for these

my main gripe was , we were camped up behind John Peel stage, and it seemed during the day the walk way lights were left ON ALL DAY.

save some power/energy and turn the lights off during the day.

Site power is largely provided by Large Diesel Generators, mostly powered by bio-fuel, tho not all unfortunately. As such the 'load' on the generator needs to be kept fairly constant, switching lights off and on can effect the operation of these, causing voltage spikes which could blow bulbs and effect anything else plugged into the circuit. Also, as there are literally hundreds of generators used across site, very few of them solely for lighting, it would take a massive amount of manpower to go around switching them on at dusk and off at dawn.

[Glasto-mum]

All that rubbish just breaks my heart - I've given up going to the Stone Circle (in real life, not here, obvs!) because it's such a mess. My Glastonbury is powered by caffeine and cake - I tried taking my own mug a couple of years ago to reduce, by just 6 a day, the cardboard cup mountain but stall holders couldn't fill it for me.....health and safety.......how sad.

[TMD]

Agree with all/must of the above.

1) People washing their wellies at the taps - regardless of queues or not! Water is a pretty precious resource and wasting it like this not only is pointless it can mean that not enough water for rest of the site! Thankfully this year I think water was available throughout the festival - not so last year!

The queues were bad as you say at many points during the day. Had to resort to buying water in most cases cause I was so damn thirsty. And I got ever more annoyed about the rip off prices for water......

4) Hedger Pi$$ers - u lazy F*****S! What gives you the right to pollute the streams and kill the fish in them, thereby risking the festivals license? People caught doing so should be kicked out and banned from coming again, that would see a lot of this behaviour stop!

The Other Stage is bad for this, teh 'green wall' is a place which is pee'ed on alot. The only way to help stop hedger pissers is to add more loos I guess.

My main grip and I guess it was not thought out was the metal paths were not cleaned of mud. The did not need to be perfectly cleaned, but the mud could have been pushed to the sides to make it easier to walk on. The hay and wood chippings could have also come out sooner, but I guess it was a last minute decission to use.

[TAFKASair]

re: straw and woodchip use
Straw + Mud + Sunshine = solid concrete-like substance, it's used as a building material in large parts of Africa after all. It turns farmland into roadway which might be useful for one weekend, but not for the rest of the year.
Woodchip leaches acids into the soil and waterways - almost as bad for the land as the random urination.
It seems that at some point the 'natural' woodchip ran out and 'municipal waste' waste woodchip came out - crushed MDF, furniture and building waste. I saw glass and metal hardware in a lot of it. Lord knows what that stuff does to the soil and how the heck it's cleaned up.

Remember that not all of the festival site is owned by Worthy Farm. Lots of it is rented from other farmers who will not allow woodchip to be added to their land.

[TAFKASair]

I'm with the rest of you on the horrors of litter, gas canisters and the ridiculous amount of kit left behind - all far worse than last year.
Late on Monday we went wombling and came home with 4 entire tents (pretty high-end ones at that), 3 folding chairs, 2 intact airbeds, various spare pegs poles etc and a wheelbarrow to transport them in, and we weren't even trying that hard! Local scouts and freecycle members have benefited from our salvage efforts.

[jimbo21]

The canisters, saw literally 1000's of them on the ground on Saturday night at the pyramid tree.

The rubbish in general, FFS there are plenty of bins, why just chuck your unwanted chip on the deck. I can honestly say we did not intentionally throw any rubbish on the ground for our entire stay.

Glass, depsite all the notifications and warnings about glass, I still saw wine bottles stuffed in or falling out of bins by ignorant dickheads.

Upper middle class twats with kids with stupid names who thinks its their right to walk right over your blanket in the circus with their feckin muddy wellies. Or jump the queue in the kids field. Who the feck calls their kid JAGGER FFS!

[MrsBee]

I think the hedge p***ing would still go on even if there were more toilets because some people (or should I say guys!!) just can't be bothered to walk to a toilet. Saying that, I seriously didn't think there were enough toilets in enough places for the amount of people there, nor did I see much cleaning going on except in our campervan field where we were lucky to be a few rows back from a large bank of flushable portaloos which were emptied and cleaned every morning. I guess it's a balance between having enough toilets and too many, maybe the walking conditions made people less inclined to trudge through the mud to the loos!!

As for the mess at the end, I didn't see inside the fence on Monday morning but was amazed that a group had obviously completely abandoned a whole trailer tent and it's contents (cooking stoves, seats etc etc) in the campervan field. It was a complete pigsty with mud and mess everywhere and broken chairs etc etc. Was chatting about it with 2 other ladies waiting in the queue to get out and we were convinced it had definitely been abandoned, so very very wasteful and sad.

[Lou's other half]

Lou and I stuck around on Monday until about 5.00. The state of the campsite was utterly disgraceful. We took advantage and did a bit of wombling and our casual wanderings scored us 35 cans of beer, several stools, bags and assorted bits and pieces. We thought about taking a tent, but some we looked in were so utterly revolting we decided against it.

But what is wrong with people that they think nothing of buying everything they need for one weekend and then just leaving it all behind? If you're reading this and thinking, "Well, we bought half a dozen tents, a gazebo, stools, a stove and a CD player and left them behind because we don't need them now," would you kindly come onto this forum and explain to those of us who just don't get it, how it is possible, in a time of recession, at a highly environmentally focused event, that it doesn't occur to you that you are selfish, ignorant and, in my opinion, not worthy of a ticket in future years? Seriously, I have a good job with a reasonable wage, but there's no way I could afford to throw money away like that. At one point I looked to either side of me in Dairy Ground and all I could see was abandoned tents. Hundreds of them. I reckon every ten feet I passed a month's mortgage payment's worth of camping gear...

It does raise a very important question though, if we can't educate people at Glastonbury, what hope do we have in the real world? The world has finite resources. We actually can't carry on wasting them. This isn't hippy dippiness, this is fact. Wake the f*** up.

Rant over (for now)

BTW, I agree with Roo...

[indie-anna]

Hi Glasto Goers,

I have read through your comments and just wondered if you wouldnt mind channelling some of them through a survey I have put together for those who attended this year? The survey is linked to research looking at audience behaviour, and in particular, audiences reactions to 'green' messages and initiatives used by the organisers this year. Please visit my survey http://kwiksurveys.com/online-survey...OHDNM_11970f4f to be in with a chance of winning a £15 i tunes voucher. The research is being conducted in conjunction with De Montfort University so is 100% ethical and legitimate, if you would rather just leave your opinion and not your email address, that is also fine.
Many Thanks Guys, hopefully we can improve things for next year
Anna

[indie-anna]

Lou and I stuck around on Monday until about 5.00. The state of the campsite was utterly disgraceful. We took advantage and did a bit of wombling and our casual wanderings scored us 35 cans of beer, several stools, bags and assorted bits and pieces. We thought about taking a tent, but some we looked in were so utterly revolting we decided against it.

But what is wrong with people that they think nothing of buying everything they need for one weekend and then just leaving it all behind? If you're reading this and thinking, "Well, we bought half a dozen tents, a gazebo, stools, a stove and a CD player and left them behind because we don't need them now," would you kindly come onto this forum and explain to those of us who just don't get it, how it is possible, in a time of recession, at a highly environmentally focused event, that it doesn't occur to you that you are selfish, ignorant and, in my opinion, not worthy of a ticket in future years? Seriously, I have a good job with a reasonable wage, but there's no way I could afford to throw money away like that. At one point I looked to either side of me in Dairy Ground and all I could see was abandoned tents. Hundreds of them. I reckon every ten feet I passed a month's mortgage payment's worth of camping gear...

It does raise a very important question though, if we can't educate people at Glastonbury, what hope do we have in the real world? The world has finite resources. We actually can't carry on wasting them. This isn't hippy dippiness, this is fact. Wake the f*** up.

Rant over (for now)

BTW, I agree with Roo...

A very valid point, I am conducting some research asking exactly these points, please see below.

[tort]

1. Litter but I've done that one to death in the FAQs

2. Security. Especially the meatheads with the megaphone at the top of the Avalon Field at night. My partner (aged 53 and barely 9 stone) was physically pushed to the ground. All she was doing was asking for directions!

3. The Pyramid Stage crowd, especially on Sunday. I only ever go there if there is something on I am really desperate to see. But trying to thread your way through the camping chairs, cool boxes and people who got tetchy if you dared to step on the corner of their vast picnic blankets means it's just not worth the bother nowadays.

4. Idiots who tie their guyropes together to prevent people walking past their tents. It's why I always pack a pair of scissors!

5. The Arcadia Spider show. I know the weather meant that rehearsals were scaled back considerably but it really was a damp squib in comparison to previous years.

[ICGenie]

6) Laughing Gas - But it just ain;t funny is it? was with a nurse at some point over the weekend talking about this, and laughing at the stupidity of how people were using it and what actual effect they were gaining from puffing away on a balloon. It takes much more exposure to it than you can get in a balloon, and even constantly recycling your breath in a balloon full of gas is more likely to starve you of oxygen than have a proper 'laugh'. But if you stupid enough to think the buzz of dying brain cells is fun, then carry on, but FFS! Clean up your goddamn mess, balloons and cannisters were everywhere!!!
PS - although personal use of it isn't ilegal, supplying to anyone else is, even if you just pass them a balloon full of gas someone else gave you!

Bad enough watching adults doing it. I saw a mother trying to persuade her son (at a guess 11 or 12 years old) to do it. Think I'm going to give the Stone Circle a miss next time, it's just full of chavs.

And I agree about the rubbish and waste. Monday is so sad to see so much stuff just left by ignorant and lazy people. A few cups in the main arenas I can understand but the trash in the campsites is despicable.

My only other gripe is that dance music seems to be taking over. We've now got a huge dance area in the NW, an ever-increasing dance area in the SE, dance played at the Glade and increasingly on the main stages. I've no problem with a bit of dance music, the festival just doesn't seem particularly well balanced (I believe Eavis mentioned this in his Q&A).

[Mandypants]

My only other gripe is that dance music seems to be taking over. We've now got a huge dance area in the NW, an ever-increasing dance area in the SE, dance played at the Glade and increasingly on the main stages. I've no problem with a bit of dance music, the festival just doesn't seem particularly well balanced (I believe Eavis mentioned this in his Q&A).

Yeah I noticed that, it kind of put me off Shangri La a little bit, to know that it was just more dance music. It would be fun to have different types of music at the different areas of Shangri La I reckon, it could be anything from cheesy pop to heavy metal, they could set all kinds of moods for each area.

[Nelly]

I pretty much agree with all of the above. I could go on but like Tort said, I think some of us have done the rubbish thing to death. I could go on and on.

Anyway, seems to me that as the generations change at the festival, so do the attitudes, society isn't very pleasant anymore, only a few of us actually give a shit about the environment (most of them seem to be on this website), and the festival message is getting lost in the alcohol and drug fuelled madness that is fast becoming not unlike some other festivals I could mention. Sad but true.

[maclauk]

All of Roo & Torts plus :

1) hospitality.... own walled off campsite on the old cinema field and the one above it.... their own access gate that they get to from their own carpark pushing across the queue of those that paid.... you obviously need some but when the area is backstage its self limiting to those who are more essential.....

2) blokes who piss in the cubicles when there is a urinal nearby... gets the seat wet unnecessarily...

[SarahO]

I agree with earlier point about the height of the screens. If they were just a bit higher, many more of us could see! Also, could the actual stage be a bit higher? Iam sure there must be a reason why not but I did wonder every time I stood behind a giant! Guess I shall just have to stand further back!

[Lou]

Anyway, seems to me that as the generations change at the festival, so do the attitudes, society isn't very pleasant anymore, only a few of us actually give a shit about the environment (most of them seem to be on this website), and the festival message is getting lost in the alcohol and drug fuelled madness that is fast becoming not unlike some other festivals I could mention. Sad but true.

When I first started going to festivals in the mid eighties I only ever went to free festivals, often traveller organised. They were small, but self-sufficient with landowner permission, standpipes, music and sound systems, food etc. They were also very green - the sites were left spotless (often cleaner than before we arrived) and I even remember only being told off for using a brand of toothpaste that was damaging to the earth. No toilets, but we all had spades that we took to the woods as required, and for such small gatherings that was OK. I did once end up at Glastonbury in the traveller field after a Stonehenge festival but don't remember much about it. This was Thatcher's Britain of course so these gatherings were deemed illegal and we were often moved on, but always managed to have some sort of celebrational gathering. (I think that's a real word - it's in the Muppets theme tune!)

Then one year it all changed. There was a very clear hippy/rave crossover. There was a weird mix of the old style festival that I knew and loved with people selling huge bowls of delicious lentil stew cooked over a fire for 50p and then there were people selling cans of cola for a fiver or more - free festival versus commercial, stoned hippies versus ravers on coke or speed or whatever. The atmosphere was very different. When the weekender ravers left, the site was an utter mess.

It was so upsetting to see that I didn't go to another festival until my other half took me to Glastonbury three years ago. I loved it and have been back every year since (a whole 3 times!) - I felt a lot of the same vibe I got from the free festivals of my youth. Yes there was also some of the commercial aspects that I didn't like, and lots of lazy disrespectful people too (Thatcher's children) as has been often mentioned here. But overall the whole ethos of the festival won me over. I hope it never loses that.

[char40too]

Agree with all......................

Lou - your post have made me smile and snivell in my morning coffee got a warm glow in my heart

[wlf]

1) Lack of toilets and water facilities in Rivermead and Pylon ground areas.

These camp sites were not even near full yet there was usually massive queues for toilets and in particular water. Talking at least 20-30 minutes wait to use a tap. 2 taps is not enough for hundreds or thousands of people in nearby campgrounds.

These toilets on Monday morning were so full the waste was at seat level, meaning there were very few that were even usable, making the problem even worse. Seems a lot of people were not 'flushing' them - either don't know how or can't be bothered, which accelerated the problem. Cleaning crew were incognito. Luckily I found some (clean and usable) crew toilets near the John Peel stage by which time security was non existent.

I realise it is a major concern that people don't go to the toilet wherever they please but if they are confronted with a 20 minute+ wait to use a toilet, the reality of the situation is they will go elsewhere.

2) Major congestion at some points ie: Thursday night near toilets by entrance to dance village from other stage area. Hundreds of people trying to go in both directions and no one moving in the dance village direction at all. Totally inadequate crowd control - one security guy with an underpowered megaphone that nobody could hear. Got to the point where it was becoming dangerous. Noticed the same thing the next day walking between Lower Mead and the Pyramid stage.

[MartC78]

Hey Guys and Gals hope you are all well.

First glasto so dont know any better about the change in atmosphere or the amount of chavs knocking about.

Had very few Gripes as i was just happy to be there.

Rubbish - been dont to death nuff said on that one i think.

I noticed a load of 15- 17 year old pissed or one one randomly be arses. not always chav types quite a few of them were quite well to do.

Laughing gas - really what is the big deal with this stuff. surely the effects are minimal. dont know what you pay for the stuff. i would rather stick to my cider thanks.

Biggest gripe i had was on Friday night trying to watch the other stage i notice that if you were a bit to far to the right of the stage you were fighting to hear the bands over the base of the glade stage it was so annoying trying to listen to Mumford and sons over constant thudding.
God i am getting old.

Oh people police taping THIER camping area seriously people are you worried someone may actually say hello to you.

Pukers oh my god only drink or take what you can handle niether i or anybody else want to see the content of your stomach. its just horrible.

Rant over i feel better now to get some supplys for 2013....... a roll of police tape and 10,000 canisters of laughing gas

[mr jolly lives next door]

I know there's not a great deal they can do about muddy conditions but surely they could have done more outside to help you through the mud with your belongings - the hill leading up to gate A was diabolical to say the least

The security refused us to use the hospitality hill which runs parallel with the punters entrance with our trolley - we were in a dire situation as all our stuff tipping off our trolley because of the mud - nobody was using the hill and it wasn't muddy at all - i think common sense with security should be introduced in bad conditions instead of the jobsworth attitude

Could they have put down wood chippings on that hill beforehand? They knew it was going to be muddy so i think they could have done more to help us get in - i got the feeling they just weren't bothered

[savine420]

yh but what can u do, thing is you can bitch and moan all day long, but people dont give a toss any more i say any more im 23, so not as old(i mean wise) as u lot. but i do see what you are all saying. it was a fucking mess there was laughing gas and tents everywhere, its the some1 else will do it attatuide people have nowadays.

[stardustjunkie]

I was in the queue for the Pylon Ground toilets as mentioned above. It must've been around 8am, I queued for a good 25 minutes and as soon as it was my turn I regretted it. You couldn't sit on the seats for shit.

[Roo]

Could they have put down wood chippings on that hill beforehand? They knew it was going to be muddy so i think they could have done more to help us get in - i got the feeling they just weren't bothered

I don't know when you arrived, but the majority of the rain that caused problems fell on the Wednesday Morning (impossible to accuratelly predict rainfall levels & time of rainfall until it has happened), was when that path to the gate would have been rammed with people so would have been impossible to have woodchipped it. Also, as it's possible this bit of land was 'rented' the owner may not have been willing to have his pasture ruined by having wood chip laid on it.

Glasto, being based on a farm, always will suffer when the weather is bad, though I do think it has learned to cope better, and have more contingencies available for adverse weather - but all this does come at a cost, if they have hundreds of tons of woodchip, straw, etc on site in case it rains, and it doesn't that's a lot of money wasted. It's always a fine line between being prepared for the weather and what the weather will actually deliver.

Though having seen the weather when heading for the gate, may a better idea have been to load less on your trolley and do more trips?

Here's a couple of pics of them working to overcome some of the mud problems - it's a massive site, and these and many others would have been working to help clear the trouble spots!

[Mandypants]

There was a massive tractor and trailer near the Stonebridge bar on Thursday (I think) which was trying to dump a load of wood chippings near the bridge down there, he did one pretty amazing tight manoeuvre to turn around when he got stuck! It beggared belief though that people were trying to walk past, both in front and behind it while it moved, putting themselves in some really dangerous positions where they could have got hurt or worse. Same on the railway track when it was slippery and vehicles were driving down, instead of standing at the side and waiting for them to pass, they would carry on. It would have taken a fraction of a second for them to slip by the side of a moving vehicle and end up crushed under a wheel. Absolutely ridiculous, especially when a couple of 4x4s got into hairy situations where they could have rolled down off the track into the campsite. There was one point near Oxlyers camping where one 4x4 was hanging off the side and stewards had to go and make sure there were no people in tents below it! You really can't be too careful.

[whatme]

Biggest gripe i had was on Friday night trying to watch the other stage i notice that if you were a bit to far to the right of the stage you were fighting to hear the bands over the base of the glade stage it was so annoying trying to listen to Mumford and sons over constant thudding.
God i am getting old.

so with you on that one, got rather anoying