Who's off to Glasto this week?

[Chris71]

Hopefully arriving at the site early-ish on Wednesday morning to get a decent spot for our rather numerous group. Can't wait.

[hairykrishna]

I'm going. I intend to be there obscenely early on the Wednesday morning. Worth missing sleep to get a decent spot.

[Plotloss]

Did either of you go last year?

Weds isn't early enough any more now he's done this Tuesday night in your cars thing.

We got there Weds 7.30am.

All the red carparks to the right of the main road as you approach were full, so we were the otherside of the road (first time ever and this was BEFORE the gates were open remember). The queue from the main gates was all the way to the Pilton to Shepton Mallet main road and back into the car park on the other side. 4 hours of queueing got us in at midday, Pennards was full, Park Home Ground was practically full. If you want your pick of the pitches, go Tuesday night.

Enjoy it though, bds, because despite the arsing about it is more than worth it and I now really fancy it, only the second one I've missed since '97.

[Chris71]

Yep. We rocked up about midday on Wednesday last year and managed to get space for half a dozen tents at the top of Pennards Hill.

Pretty much everyone I'm going with is from Somerset originally, so we're all heading back home tomorrow night and then rendezvousing early for the drive in to the actual site. Hope to be pitched up not long after 8am.

On a slightly different topic. Anyone know of anything happening on Wednesday or Thursday that's worth a look? I know a couple of the smaller stages will be officially open on Thursday this year and I gather there might be something happening at the bandstand on Wednesday.

[hairykrishna]

Plotloss said:

Did either of you go last year?

Weds isn't early enough any more now he's done this Tuesday night in your cars thing.

We got there Weds 7.30am.

All the red carparks to the right of the main road as you approach were full, so we were the otherside of the road (first time ever and this was BEFORE the gates were open remember). The queue from the main gates was all the way to the Pilton to Shepton Mallet main road and back into the car park on the other side. 4 hours of queueing got us in at midday, Pennards was full, Park Home Ground was practically full. If you want your pick of the pitches, go Tuesday night.

Enjoy it though, bds, because despite the arsing about it is more than worth it and I now really fancy it, only the second one I've missed since '97.

Yep, was there last year, hence my obscenely early comment. I plan on somewhere between 4 and 5 am! Going to be great.

[cdixon]

Yep looking forward to it...

[MartinM]

I drive past the site twice a day. The fence has been up for about 6 weeks and there's been a steady stream of vans/lorries delivering to the site for the last 3 weeks or so. Unbelievably, this morning there was security/volunteers sitting on the junctions of the lanes leading roughly towards the site already! All the road signs/car parks/taxi ranks etc are in place, oh and the site looks very muddy already

Have a good one

[Chris71]

MartinM said:

Oh and the site looks very muddy already

I'll be tkaing my wellies then...

Can you remind me which areas get closed off? We're heading across from Crewkerne so we can usually avoid the main roads until we're pretty close, but did end up doing a few u-turns at blockaded lanes last year.

[MartinM]

Chris71 said:

I'll be tkaing my wellies then...

Can you remind me which areas get closed off? We're heading across from Crewkerne so we can usually avoid the main roads until we're pretty close, but did end up doing a few u-turns at blockaded lanes last year.

I would! I'll try and have a closer look tonight but it looks like just the smaller lanes in Pilton village itself which are normally closed to everyone bar residents. Will you be coming up the A37 or through Street? I'm not sure what the roads are like down the A37 as i go Street-Shepton way.

[51mon]

Yep, heading down from Manchester tommorrow night and (hopefully) getting our heads down in the carpark. As mentioned earlier, it was RIDICULOUSLY busy getting in wed morning last year, think the fact that the weather was roasting and the footy was on during wed afternoon probably made it worse.

Fingers crossed on the weather front now........!

[Chris71]

MartinM said:

I would! I'll try and have a closer look tonight but it looks like just the smaller lanes in Pilton village itself which are normally closed to everyone bar residents. Will you be coming up the A37 or through Street? I'm not sure what the roads are like down the A37 as i go Street-Shepton way.

I think we tend to go cross country and come in from East Pennard sort of direction. Certainly of the two main routes I'd say we were closer to the A37 (coming from south west of the site). I'm not driving this year so I'll probably just be sat in the back under a vast pile of luggage.

[trig9k]

I arrived in the afternoon weds last year and very little traffic and easy found space for tent

But this year I'm not camping with you noisey smelly lot I'm taking the caravan
I cant wait and I dont care if it rains

[Zad]

Piltonheads

See what I did thar...

I was watching the BBC webcams earlier, and the site looks pretty busy compared with Sunday afternoon. Presumably mostly traders tents etc. A friend of mine who is already on site said it did dry out quite nicely on Sunday, but it seems to have rained quite heavily again today

[anonymous-user]

Leaving London at 4pm, staying at Ma Soze's in Yeovil tonight then meeting mates at Morrisons Glastonbury for a last brekkie and st etc at 7:30am, worked well last year

The reason so many people turned up early Wednesday last year was due to the footy, I think it may have set a slight trend but I also think the rain may delay some of the less hardcore

Cannot wait!!

[MartinM]

Chris71 said:

I think we tend to go cross country and come in from East Pennard sort of direction. Certainly of the two main routes I'd say we were closer to the A37 (coming from south west of the site). I'm not driving this year so I'll probably just be sat in the back under a vast pile of luggage.

I'd definitely stick to the main roads. According to the road signs there's a few carparks on the A37 side and a few the other side of Pilton (West Pennard direction) They all seem to be colour-coded. I've not been myself for a few years, does your ticket have instructions on which car park to use?
I remember going in the late 90's, kipping/showering/stting at my folks near Cheddar each night, then sauntering in late morning and parking in one of the car parks off Whitstone Hill (the hill leading down into the village from the Shepton direction) Lovely!

[gruffgriff]

trig9k said:

I arrived in the afternoon weds last year and very little traffic and easy found space for tent

But this year I'm not camping with you noisey smelly lot I'm taking the caravan
I cant wait and I dont care if it rains

Lightweight! There`s nothing more soothing than the sound of rain on canvas - well nylon these days - and the smell of damp socks....wearing the same moist trousers 3 days running.....mud in the sleeping bag.....actually..hmm. Oh well, must make the best of whatever we`re given. I find a hip flask an excellent festival companion. Thoroughly looking forward to it - can`t wait, have to wait! Nearly there!

[sleep envy]

good luck, looks like it'll be a wet one!!

[Chris71]

The roads were fine in the end. But the queue from the car park to the turnstyles was fecking disgraceful... Never seen anything like that in 12 years of festivalling. It took us over four hours from car to campsite, largely because the queue from Gate A halted every time a coach party came in and was given priority at the turnstyles. This happened rather often, as you can imagine.

And then it rained. And then the mud came. And then I got a seriously bad dose of manflu that lasted for the rest of the festival. And you know what? I don't care. It was still awesome.

[cdixon]

Chris71 said:

The roads were fine in the end. But the queue from the car park to the turnstyles was fecking disgraceful... Never seen anything like that in 12 years of festivalling. It took us over four hours from car to campsite, largely because the queue from Gate A halted every time a coach party came in and was given priority at the turnstyles. This happened rather often, as you can imagine.

And then it rained. And then the mud came. And then I got a seriously bad dose of manflu that lasted for the rest of the festival. And you know what? I don't care. It was still awesome.

I also had a great Glasto (My best since 2008), but i do agree with the Gate A queue issues. We got there at about 01:00 Wednesday morning and people were queueing at the gate then... Unlike last year when we sat in the car until about 06:00 then joined the queue near the front we decided to join the queue from about 02:00. It was a cold night sat in the queue waiting to get in, but when the gates opened at about 07:30 we were in within 30 minutes and managed to get our tents up before the heavy rain. The passout scheme was acomplete joke at Gate A, as you had to join the first timers to get back in.....

Did anyone get in to see Radiohead ? I got a great spot near the front and the sound was fantastic. Highlight of the Festival for me.... Also saw some great acts in the Peel tent (Mona, Miles kane)

lastly was it just me, or did anyone else think the sound system at the Pyramid stage was crap this year unless you were near the front. I can remember being stood up the hill, for Muse, Blur, Verve, over previous years and being able to hear all the music. U2 could not be heard (which at first i put down to weather), but Paul Simon and Plan B were just as bad on Sunday. I was up the front for Coldplay and Elbow and it sounded good.

[sleep envy]

cdixon said:

U2 could not be heard

sounds like a result to me