Glastonbury 2023

Quite possibly the greatest ever performance of a song at Glastonbury?

Folks without tickets? Is that speculation or fact?

I just remembered how in 1997 we drove a regular Transit van into the Campervan field and just parked up, with no need for an extra pass. Or if you did, we didn't have one and no-one stopped us. There was loads of room in that field too, i imagine the Campervan fields are quite crowded these days.

They had to try draw some of the crowd away from Elton but it clearly didn't work. For qotsa fans it looked like a great opportunity to see them up close

Sounds like it was dangerously crowded at times

Yup! If anyone hasn't watched it, treat yourself. He has a great singing voice and the fun/love between stage and audience broke through the screen! I reckon a lot of Smiths fans left Glasto' with a healthy respect for Rick Astley! Who could imagine that decades ago?

Last year three of us walking up to The Park via Pennards for the fireworks had jackets covering our wristbands. We got very abruptly asked by a large group of security where our wristbands were out of the blue. We showed them and they moved on but their manner certainly seemed to suggest they'd have escalated quickly had we not got them. I can only assume they'd had some people get in at that point to be acting that way.

I worked security there before. It's even difficult to just get near the fence and gates. There's checkpoints at all roads leading to the festival.

I think very few people sneak in for free, although I'm sure people directly involved like traders and new age traveller types have their own ways.

Tunneling is difficult cos it's not just the fence you tunnel under but a metal track for SUVs too. Also there's another fence inside the superfence, so you can't camp right beside it like the article states, but I'm not certain that's true everywhere along the fence.

So the tunnel would need to be a few meters long - maybe 4m.

I've heard of people just legging it past security. Also hiding in vans or trucks of performers and traders.

Hiding in luggage also. There's videos of people sneaking in by a river which goes under the fence.

I think a rope ladder attached to grappling hook or a telescopic ladder would be your best bet, then run as fast as you can towards a crowd and change clothes quickly.

It's not impossible to get near the fence but it is difficult.

I think the festival organizers should consider doing it over two weekends cos it's gotten so popular and hard to buy tickets.

Surely the weekend after Thursday the 20th is the 21/22/23. Which is not the last weekend in June.

In 2007 two pals got in by bribing security (who obviously have lots of extra wristbands) with £50 each. It was pre-arranged via a contact and about eight on their group entered in this way. I wasn’t aware it was an option until they told me and tried to persuade me to travel from London on the Thursday where they’d arrange it for me also. I declined. And I’ve no idea if it continues to happen.

You’d have to assume that security are heavily scrutinised also but if they limit such a scam to a few people they trust and the associates of said people they it could be hard to spot. Definitely not widespread but could several hundred or 1k/2k be getting in this way? Possibly, but as before I’ve no idea in 2023.

Lots of veterans have said last year felt crowded. I think there's been a gradual increase in tickets and staff and volunteers.

I think congestion and crowding doesn't work linearly ie a 10% increase doesn't mean it will be 10% more crowded, but could be 30% more crowded. Same as traffic.

Explain this year's festival then. It included Wednesday the 21st which was the solstice.

If Glasto have their weekends from Wed to Sun and the festival is held the weekend after solstice should the dates not have been 28 June to 1st July.

Its fact. I'd love to know how many get in each year but its significant. Loads of dodgy security guards about. Going rate is 450-500 quid. This year they were being brought in in groups of 10 or so.

Last year was crowded for Paul McCartney and Wet Leg but not for anything else I attended or observed over the weekend. Space at Billie Eilish as I passed on the hill heading to the Mary Chain at the JPT. Plenty of room at Kendrick Lamar and all I attended at the Park, JPT, Acoustic, WH, WG, Glade and elsewhere. The SE corner gets very busy from pretty early and especially so after midnight.

The figures for attendees haven’t greatly increased over the past two decades, from 135k public tickets in 2002 to 142k today. Performer, security and staff are 63k. If there are any recent changes to those figures I’m happy to be corrected. The site is also greatly expanded. The issue is I guess that some areas get busy whilst others are underpopulated and the reports of overcrowding are anecdotal rather than factual.

1999 was worrying, an estimate of close to 300k on site (2000 the same but I wasn’t there) and worrying bottlenecks by the small bridge that used to be between the Pyramid and Other stage. Could easily have gone badly wrong, close to a bad crush when an enormous crowd was moving between Gomez and REM on the Sat night. The site is now pretty secure, the layout and security so much better than 23/24 years ago.