Foldup chairs and tents on field

[kevin]

  Could I make a polite request,,,,for emergency routes to toilets and bar area to be marked out on grass.
over the last few years it has become extremely difficult to get past some of the thousands of chairs.
If yellow spray was used to mark narrow footpaths,and all were asked not to block them ,im sure from a safety view I.e saint johns ambulance etc we all would benefit.

[Nuthouse]

Morning Kevin.....

Emergency route to the bar ! - now there's thinking 

I see what you are getting at but St John's crew might need to go anywhere on the field so an emergency route might be a bit tricky to map out I reckon. I think it's a bit like traffic where no-one can move (really meaning, no-one is prepared to give ay a little to keep things moving) THEN the blue lights and sirens come from behind  Suddenly everyone's priorites change and those precious gaps can be found to let the emergency services through - strange that eh ?

I have no doubt the same would happen at Cropredy in that all of the neighbours would make a space and do 'the necessary'

Emergency route to the bar...... you'll have a few supporters for that one 

[Speleologist (Robin)]

Emergency route to the bar...... you'll have a few supporters for that one 

Great idea, but where from? My plea would be for an emergency route to the bar from just the other side of the sound tower, where we have been installed every year for nearly 20 years now . I'm sure others have other spots all over the field. So long as there's an emergency route to bring the beer in we should be all right, (and that was better this year with the surfaced roadway).

Robin

[kevin]

Perhaps some forward planning,, underground beer pipes to the Mcb area?,,,and then of coarse the outlet pipework system as well ?
I am sure Wadsworths  have a metering device for payment per barrel.
seriously though the staking a claim for a spot on the field really is making it difficult now with the chairs to get to toilets and bar
there is always a natural route behind sound building but this year you just could not get past some newer fans who have not quite reached the mellow friendly state that fairport fans achieve.,,Nirvana?

Barry says:  removed racist generalisation

[Randlepmcmurphy]

If people insist on sitting on chairs just do what i do and walk/stumble/fall/be sick on them. Works a treat.

[Nuthouse]

there is always a natural route behind sound building but this year you just could not get past some newer fans who have not quite reached the mellow friendly state that fairport fans achieve.,,Nirvana?

Now you may have something there...

Route up from behind the sound tower - have taken this route to the Relief Station many a time

As for those that have yet to reach "the mellow friendly state that fairport fans achieve" - well I think that something in the programme and maybe a reminder or two across the weekend to make sure that folks can get hither and thither might not go amiss. (Perhaps adding, that tripping up an eighteen-stoner can lead to crush injuries   )

[abby (tank girl)]

thank god someone else has mentioned it at last. we got told off by some woman in a chair a couple of years ago. we fought our way down to the very front to have a good old jig about, only to be told to move or stand still by said woman, sitting in her chair, in the front row.

chairport prevention

[Steve]

thank god someone else has mentioned it at last. we got told off by some woman in a chair a couple of years ago. we fought our way down to the very front to have a good old jig about, only to be told to move or stand still by said woman, sitting in her chair, in the front row.

chairport prevention

!

[Anji]

chairport prevention

 

[Chris]

All I'll say on this subject is.....

Ban 'em from the sound tower towards the stage. If you want to use them, there's plenty of room from the sound tower backwards - and your view is actually better....

All it would take is a few stewards for a couple of hours a day to monitor the carrying situation while everyone is setting themselves up. Once set up for the day, few would / could be bothered to move again....

[Dad Volt]

Ah, like a hardy perennial the subject of chairs, tent (& by extension gazebos, yurts, igloos and miscellaneous devices for annexing large swathes of Oxfordshire) rears it's head, bit early but hey ho!! In principal I agree with Chris's idea and certainly when we are travelling en famille have always stuck to this rule but how to implement it ? I'm not sure that the tide of chair people wouldn't engulf the front of sound tower space as the day went on leading to Guardian reading types rioting and beating each over the head with exquisite hand made, fair trade Bolivian picnic baskets (Which actually thinking about it would be quite entertaining!)
 Whoops sorry for a flippant moment, it's a problem and I don't know what the solution is BUT it's a damn sight worse at Cambridge FF !

[issy]

  Could I make a polite request,,,,for emergency routes to toilets and bar area to be marked out on grass.
over the last few years it has become extremely difficult to get past some of the thousands of chairs.
If yellow spray was used to mark narrow footpaths,and all were asked not to block them ,im sure from a safety view I.e saint johns ambulance etc we all would benefit.

Well kevin, I think you make a sensible point.  

It is indeed very congested in the lower half of the field and its difficult to make your way across chairs, bodies etc in the daytime, and nigh on impossible at night.    A marked pathway would alleviate 90% of this problem, leaving only the last few yards back to your particular space to be negotiated.   As people set up camp in the daylight, the pathway should be relatively intact for the whole day and evening

Chris do you really think chairs should be completely banned forward of the sound tower??   I'm not sure there would be enough people standing to justify removing all chairs from there..  but the principle of more space for standing I can certainly agree with.

issy

[jude]

But even if you don't have chairs or tents or whatevers, people still tend to sit on the ground in front of the sound tower.

Are you planning on asking people to stand all day and all night in that area?

Because a large clump of people all sitting on the ground will take up as much space as chair sitterers.

I think you might be asking for a logistical nightmare plus chair-rage here.............and what poor souls are going to 'police' this trackway

Jude

[Chris]

Chris do you really think chairs should be completely banned forward of the sound tower??   I'm not sure there would be enough people standing to justify removing all chairs from there..  but the principle of more space for standing I can certainly agree with.

'fraid so - there's no other defined marker that can easily be seen - and we all know that as the day goes on, more & more people wish to stand near the front. Ok, people will pack up & move down, but at least it will be collapsed chairs etc that we may stumble over. Leave it as it is & someone will flatten & possibly injure someone else that was sat in said chair / tent. In the dark, they are a total danger - both to those in them & those that fall over them.

But even if you don't have chairs or tents or whatevers, people still tend to sit on the ground in front of the sound tower.

Are you planning on asking people to stand all day and all night in that area?

Let them sit, Jude - if people start falling over them in the dark, at least there's nothing but more flesh to damage anyone....

[jude]

I just worry that if you start making too many rules and regulations and 'don't do this and that' you end up with something that  no longer has the atmosphere and ambience that draws people to the festival in the first place...........

It would be terribly sad for people to start getting litiginous because they'd tripped over something in the dark.

I would have thought most people stay where they end up when it gets dark anyway

Jude 

[Chris]

I just worry that if you start making too many rules and regulations and 'don't do this and that' you end up with something that  no longer has the atmosphere and ambience that draws people to the festival in the first place...........

It would be terribly sad for people to start getting litiginous because they'd tripped over something in the dark.

Oh, agreed with the first para, Jude - but the problem's getting worse - check the number of times it comes up on here & your second para is another good reason to ban 'em, frankly....

[Keith]

Giant umpire chairs with perspex legs, that's what we need.

To be used at the owners extreme risk.

[mikec]

Chris,
Other than the last act on Saturday night, when are people standing as far back as the sound tower?

[Chris]

The Sawdoctors?....
Oyserband came *very* close....

Both the easily defined barrier-line & the prospect of other popular headliners I feel beat the possibility of allowing chairs & tents any closer....what's a couple of yards anyway?...you'll also be able to cross the field in that area too....

[abby (tank girl)]

when the kids were smaller we were guilty of erecting said 'shelter' tents, but at the back by the kids area and primarily so that when it got late and dark the kids could fall asleep and not get trodden on.
i too like the idea of banning chairs and tents in front of the sound tower but agree that it would be difficult to implement.
maybe the answer is to leave things as they are, ask people to think more carefully about where they install themselves and say tough, dont sit in a chair ten foot from the stage and then moan cos someone comes and stands in front of you or falls into you.

its a field in the middle of the countryside, not the royal bloody albert hall!!!