Yahoo News 'Glastonbury Festival is wonderful but overcrowding was dangerous'
While not wanting to be a party pooper, I absolutely love Glastonbury and have been going religiously for nearly 10 years, overcrowding at this year’s festival was pretty overwhelming. It is always busy, we understand that, but this year it was unbelievable, it felt dangerous at times.
While it was a fantastic festival with great music and weather this year, overcrowding put people off going to gigs despite having paid a lot of money for their ticket. It was worse than ever this year.
On Friday early evening I set off from my tent to go to Sugababes as planned, they were playing at the West Holts stage. My daughter was in the grounds, we were speaking by phone, but I just could not get to her.
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As I was walking along the paths heading towards the stage it became clear the crowds were getting thicker and thicker, coming from all directions. There are always crowds for big acts at Glastonbury, but this was something else. At one point I hit a bottle neck crowd near the entrance to the West Holts field, it was a real crush and it felt terrifying, with no way to get out of the crowd.
I could not turn backwards as the crowds were coming from all directions, and up ahead there was nowhere to go, so many people stuck unable to move. It really is a frightening experience. I eventually managed to get out of the crowd, with help from some stewards who finally closed the area due to overcrowding.
The stewards had to shout and push at the crowds to stop them, this is not the usual flavour of Glastonbury, it is not the stewards’ fault, they were trying to control the crowds and had to become somewhat aggressive at times.
We have written to Glastonbury Festival to confirm numbers for this year, their official line is big acts on small stages is part of the ‘magic’ of Glastonbury but this felt different, overcrowding this year was worse than ever.
The Avril Lavigne concert was an even bigger crush, with many of my friends and family abandoning the gig due to overcrowding. It was impossible to move around at times. The crowds were so bad people were crying according to one fan who was unable to get into the grounds to see Lavigne.
One young fan said to me: “It was so scary, I couldn’t go forward or backwards, I was completely stuck and people started pushing from behind, it was so bad, people around me were crying to get out,” she said. It really is becoming an issue at Glastonbury and is likely to ruin the experience of many festival goers.
While bigger artists playing at small stages is the ‘magic’ of Glastonbury the overcrowding seems to get worse every year. It is what everyone was talking about at the festival this year, even seasoned music fans and Glastonbury stalwarts had to turn back.
It simply isn’t good enough, people pay a lot of money for tickets, not to mention the grief of trying to secure them. Many of the smaller stages were completely inaccessible, and fans could not get to DJ sets despite queuing for hours. Whole areas were cordoned off.
Electronic duo Bicep halted their set on the IICON stage due to overcrowding, after first pausing the set to ask the crowd to step back. It really is an issue for Glastonbury Festival. They may not realise but it is what everyone young and old talk about on the ground.
In a statement to The Guardian, Glastonbury festival said it had “a robust, dynamic crowd management plan to protect the safety of its crowds, working closely with all of the relevant authorities, with measures put in place both in anticipation of and in response to crowd movements.
“Our plans include close monitoring and the ability to pause and stop artists where appropriate, as was the case for Bicep’s set at IICON, where a swift show-stop was managed effectively.
“Major artists wanting to perform at smaller stages with limited capacities is part of the magic of Glastonbury. This can mean some fans will be disappointed, but our crowd management plan always puts safety first,” an article about overcrowding in The Guardian said on Saturday, June 29.
But is this good enough? Surely the experience of festival goers is what it is all about. There is a duty of care and, while I am sure there are safety crowd control measures in place, it really is a scary experience to be in one of those crowds, I can vouch first hand for that.
And if things got out of hand it would be impossible to police in such a large crowd. Many of the national media have picked up on the crowd issues at the festival.
While we love Glastonbury, and we love having the best music festival right here on our doorstep we do not want a tragedy, it felt really dangerous at times. And we want to make sure the people lucky enough to get tickets can actually get to the gigs they want to see.
We have asked the press office at the festival for official numbers and to respond to questions about crowd numbers. We await their response.
Glastonbury is a wonderful experience, it really is, one of the best experiences in the world, to sit on those hills listening to the best music is an experience quite unique to Somerset. But the festival cannot rely on the goodwill and behaviour of its fans, they really are the best crowd, but the organisers need to make sure they are safe and comfortable in future years.
Perhaps some of the famous ‘magic’ would not be lost if the festival programme was better organised to allow for large crowds, even if it means putting popular artists on bigger stages. I was not working as a journalist at the festival, I was there as a fan and I can assure you it felt at times very uncomfortable and even dangerous. Many people on our field decided to not go to concerts because of the crowds, preferring to stay closer to their tents.
Let’s hope the festival organisers will address this problem in future years, it owes that to its wonderful fans.
