Space Hoggers

[amcminn]

Cant believe how ignorant some people can be!!! We travelled for almost 16 hours to get to the festival, then spent nearly 3 hours lugging our stuff into the festival and trying to find a space. We eventually found one, which was big enough for 2 tents (we only had 1), and we were rudely told "Sorry thats reserved for our friends, and we cant camp there!!!" At this stage with a lack of sleep, being extremely exhausted, and the fact that the space was there and was clear, I lost my usually well behaved temper/patience and let rip, explaining that if the space is there its available, and that no one "owns" it! We got some abuse back, I couldnt believe it, clearly these folks were new to festivals and definitely new to Glastonbury!! At this stage after everything I was feeling that maybe it was best we just go somewhere else, realising it would mean another 1-2 hours of searching, but i didnt want to be in a hostile environment as I wanted to be around lots of great minded people who wanted to make new friends and enjoy the festival together. I wised up and we set up our tent with the opening clearly facing the other way! What a great decision, the next morning all of our new neighbours in the other tents where some of the nicest people you could meet, and it showed just how ignorant the others who were rude to us were as they had their own small group and we ended up drinking/partying with about 40 others near and around our tent. Some people are just plain rude, but there are others out there who are just amazing!! What a festival, roll on 2013!! ALAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Nelly]

It really pisses me off when people do that, its very rude and inconsiderate. I've been banging on about how different the festival is now to what it was 30-40 years ago (just from watching TV footage), society is becoming very ugly and I don't like the way things are going. But apparently that's just 'moving with the times'.

Anyway, I digress. Mr Nelly told me he had heard someone complaining of a similar problem as in they couldn't find anywhere to camp but saw there was room under a gazeebo, the campsite steward told them to pitch up their and even helped them take down the gazeebo.

And just for the record, we didn't take ours this year, in fact we had a small gap between our tents this year and had some very nice people pitch in the middle of us giving us approximately one foot of space to get into our tent. And that's just the way it goes.

[akicif]

I think if folk are going to save a space for their mates, the very least they can do is bring their tent along and pitch it for them - if nothing else, it doesn't look quite so bad when someone comes along to check the space that's left...

But fencing / taping off an area half the size of a small pub to put two or three widely-spaced tents in? Right out!

[I'm not sure, but I think the 1999 Fine Guide said something about keeping tents 5' apart as a fire precaution - it wasn't possible then, either]

There's a fine art to pitching a tent near another tent: too far apart, and there's room for another tent in between you both; too close and people walking between the tents (and they will, they will) trip on the pegs or guy ropes and fall on one tent or the other....

[Monkeywithminiaturecymbal]

It seems to me that Glastonbury simply doesn't have enough space for camping and ought to relocate or remove a couple of stages to create more room for tents.

This year I camped in a field specifically reserved for cyclists and there was loads of space, no one tripping over guy ropes at all hours, etc. Also I was able to enter the site almost as soon as I arrived in sharp contrast to the previous two years when the better part of Wednesday was wasted in queues. The heavens decided to open on me somewhere between Shepton and Pilton so I arrived utterly drenched and in my post Glasto-state the 20 hilly miles to home felt like a real slog but for the aforementioned advantages I will definitely cycle again next time!