Moans about traffic and camping

[YaBB Master (Colin)]

If you want to say how wonderfully it all worked, you can also post.

However I expect it will mostly be negative, until people actually get on the field and have a beer.

[vince42]

Usually works brilliantly for me

but I usually pootle directly to field 7c /7d at the crack of lunch o clock

Just thought I'd start the thread on a positive note...

[Harping Kevin]

My pre-feed back based on last year - take your own toilet roll, just in case!

[Bridgwit (Bridget)]

Very frustrating diversion on the A361. Not allowed to turn left towards Willismscot and told to "follow the diversion". This resulted in a long drive around and back onto the A361 so we're now we've waited for 15 minutes and been refused entry and been told to carry on driving back towards the motorway. WTF is going on? We're not early. The person directing won't say why.
Not the best start    

[hendo (Dave)]

Very frustrating diversion on the A361. Not allowed to turn left towards Willismscot and told to "follow the diversion". This resulted in a long drive around and back onto the A361 so we're now we've waited for 15 minutes and been refused entry and been told to carry on driving back towards the motorway. WTF is going on? We're not early. The person directing won't say why.
Not the best start    

The person directing won't know why. He'll just be told.
It's early, so could be convoys or just the guys on the gates making decisions to keep traffic moving in village.

[Chris]

The latter.

Early Q filled lane before 0630. Stewards only arrived at gates at that time & opened them immediately. Q on A361 by then, so was being sent on diversion round to field 7 to clear the A361 Q as quickly as possible.

More caravans than usual meant Qs built up back to lane very quickly. They require manouvers before next can camp as they aren't straight on arrival, hence taking longer to be parked. Hence field 2 didn't fill until after 8.

From FCs perspective, very smoothly done, Qs actually managed well. Just that arrivals immediately after 7 probably didn't get the field of choice.

Needs a caravan field, known in advance that isn't 1 or 2. Access not great, very small turning circle from lane to field entrance means slow access for them, and Qs build up if several together. Maybe 5 for them in future?

[Dubai Danny]

Early Q filled lane before 0630. Stewards only arrived at gates at that time & opened them immediately

So despite all the standard warnings about there being no point arriving before the official gate-opening time because the police will move you on etc etc...

Have those warnings ever actually been enforced? The impression I get is that every year, the early queue is dealt with not by moving people on, but by opening the fields.

[Chris]

Not quite so. Stewards aren't on duty before a certain time, thus gates can't be opened stupidly early & those are moved on by security personnel

[Dubai Danny]

Not quite so. Stewards aren't on duty before a certain time, thus gates can't be opened stupidly early & those are moved on by security personnel

So how do you get a road-blocking queue for 6.30? Everybody turns up in quick succession just very shortly before 6.30, so there's no time for security to move them on?

[Chris]

Or *while* security is trying to move them on....

[Wandering Steve]

Talking of security imo it was shambolic this year.
In days of old you could only get on camping fields with a ticket/wristband.
Not this weekend......
You could walk in field 7 at will
No one manning the cattle grid gate,just a chap content to sit in his portakabin instead allowing everyone in!!
While queuing for a coffee I saw three people without wristbands in front of me.
Also no proper stewarding on nicks bridge.
Years ago you'd get checked going over.
Not now
Again a chap making a half arsed attempt whilst sat down across the way near his portakabin.
Again I saw plenty of folks wandering by the tents with no wristbands.

Ironically on field 8 after initially letting all and sundry in on wed/thurs the security finally got a grip and turned plenty of people away without wristbands who were moaning they'd been in earlier that week.
At least it was marshalled.
Thefields down Williamscot road were all marshalled excellently and wristbands.checked at all times.

I found it quite ironic given the rumpus over bag tags that the security was the worst I've seen in nine years.
In all the firm have done a good job but if they can't manage anymore they should hand over to another company who can do what they are paid to.
Either that or get better staff,a boss man going round checking they are actually in the right positions checking wristbands would be a start.....

[Albie]

No negatives here, absolute doddle getting in, easiest ever, well done organisers and whoever.  
Off motorway about 09.15, pulled in to field 4 at 09.25, give or take a couple of minutes. Tents up and everything by about 10.15, nice and relaxed.

[Poor Will (Bill)]

Our choice of choosing Field 8 on Wednesday proved to be the right one.
Nice short grass and plenty of space.
A great vibe in the field with its own bar and barbecue etc.
We were a bit concerned that the vey popular music stage would be rather noisy but this proved not to be so.
Walking time to the arena was 7 minutes, so not too bad . (If this had got muddy I dare say it would have bee somewhat longer, but the weather was kind)
Hope this is an option again next year.

[Mitch]

You could walk in field 7 at will
No one manning the cattle grid gate,just a chap content to sit in his portakabin instead allowing everyone in!!
While queuing for a coffee I saw three people without wristbands in front of me.
Also no proper stewarding on nicks bridge.

To be fair to the security guys, I seemed to be asked to show my wristband every time at the entrance to Field 7, and even occasionally going from 7a/b to 7 c/d - maybe this says something about me!
Agreed no checks at Nick's Bridge though...

[RuthyG]

On that note, when I went to the loo last night in field 6 as I made my my way back in to the arena field, a woman in front of me held both arms in the air and attempted to run past the steward. He stopped her but it was very clear she did not have a wrist band, as me and my partner walked past we heard him say something like 'oh go on then' and let her in, her jubilant cry of 'yes!' Confirmed our suspicions that she did not have a wristband. I have to say I was pretty disappointed at that as a paying customer. Although I have never noticed anything like this before and must say that in all my other experiences the stewards have been excellent.

Aside from 2012 when I asked one young guy for a bin bag and he asked me what for.......

[Andy Tuck]

No problems at all. Rolled up at 15.30 on the Wednesday and straight in to field 6, slight delay whilst they pushed a campervan that was daft enough to stop in the mudiest bit. After parking a bit of moving so the caravan next door could get their awning up, but that paid dividends as they made us coffee every morning.

Security good even on the Wednesday and nice and quite, even though we were 10 yards from Drew's famous bar.

Straight out of the field this morning with no queue.

Apart, from my back, legs and knees all being ruined a good experience.

[mickf]

You could walk in field 7 at will
No one manning the cattle grid gate,just a chap content to sit in his portakabin instead allowing everyone in!!
While queuing for a coffee I saw three people without wristbands in front of me.
Also no proper stewarding on nicks bridge.

To be fair to the security guys, I seemed to be asked to show my wristband every time at the entrance to Field 7, and even occasionally going from 7a/b to 7 c/d - maybe this says something about me!
Agreed no checks at Nick's Bridge though...

I also was asked to show my wristband every time I entered Field 7

[Pippy]

All the stewarding I witnessed was first rate, always smiling, always informative. I'm sure there were issues and problems, but i didn't see any. Was lucky enough to get into field 2, which is a help with a littlun and things were just lovely. Leaving the arena at about 1245 (after a push start by the McB's and others) went over the bridge into a queue, but nothing you wouldn't expect. However all still very well marshalled. I'm not sure if this is true, but the traffic light system leaving fields 7/8 seemed to be operated by a human rather than on auto pilot, this ensured that no unnecessary red traffic lights were given to cars if nothing was approaching from the other side. Well done! Oh, the gig was good too.

[MarkV]

We headed direct for field 7 arriving around 2 minutes to 7 or bang on time depending on whose watch we looked at. Ended up in field 8, which we all thought was great.  There was security walking around the site at 3am as i visited the amenities. Every time we entered the field  we had to show our wrist bands.  On site security were helpfull, sortedout the labels for the bags and stuf.  Can't say i found any faults.  

[Will S]

Arrival was fine - ended up on 7c instead of b, where I like to be, but no problems (though there are more thistles there!).  Stewarding seemed fine to me.  I noticed that they didn't put people right down the bottom of b (near the trains) this year - maybe it was still too wet?

Leaving this morning I thought would be bad as there were lots of cars on the move when I left (just before 12), but we actually got out quickly.  The queue was way back into 7d though which must have been frustrating for them, and they seemed to be trying to clear c and d by stopping people leaving b at that point, which must have been frustrating for people in there!