how do Glastonbury locals cope?

[Stroopwaffels]

With 200k people descending on a very rural location? The traffic is bad enough in Glasgow when there's a single big concert on, Ed Sheeran played last week and the 60k people attending caused gridlock all over the place. And that's in a major city with motorways.

How do people go to work, get their kids to school, pop to Tesco?

To add the noise included 24/7 music from speakers/screaming/sirens/events and any notices like opening hours etc were shouted through the communal speakers.

Admittedly this was 10 years ago but 6th forms cleared out as all the students went to ‘pilton pop festival’ or worked there 😄 (except me, my idea of hell!). So that’s fewer people trying to get to school 😄

The tents are all in separate fields and so you know in which field you are pitched. You also know which entrance you take to enter the main "arena" (unless you are camped inside of course). And then you look for "landmarks" ie near the pylon, by the big red tent and a few metres from the toilet tent, by the huge flag someone has put up etc etc. it's really not difficult at all to find your tent.

PS I'll have your tickets 😬😬😬

Seriously though you should check it out for a day. There is so much there (as you say it is absolutely huge!) there really is something for everyone. You don't have to be into standing and listening to music for hours. There is great food, and all sorts of entertainment going on. If you really don't like it you can always just go home 😀

I knew someone who grew up In Pilton and they loved it as got free tickets. As soon as they were old enough, their parents left them to it and went away for a week.

They were very popular at Uni.

I was watching a tv prog about the start of Glastonbury earlier this week - 'real' hippies, stoned out of their heads, scruffy, proabably living off their dole payments - people I admired at the time as I am similar age - but now wonder what the heck the older generation thought of them, the generation that fought in the Second World War. ...... nothing to do with the thread, just my thoughts.

I know people from the (a?) nearby village who get free tickets. They’re totally indifferent but their adult kids and grandkids have a ball.

I used to work in Shepton Mallet across the road from the Tesco and my employer would shut our office and send us to work elsewhere/from home for the week because traffic was a nightmare and it was just generally busy everywhere. My only real complaint is about Tesco and how busy it gets that week, it’s impossible for locals to easily do their usual shopping! That said the traffic locally is well managed and it adds a lot to the local economy, I never found that anyone disliked living or working so close to Pilton - except the year when everyone was delayed getting on site because of the mud and so people were stuck in cars for hours/overnight queuing to get in. That caused some chaos!

Some of the local schools have INSET on the Friday and Monday.

Ooo not scruffy, how awful 🙄

I lived nearby. No trouble at all. It isn't that close to Glastonbury village. Pilton is close. And some people do get free tickets. My workplace told us we could come it at times that suited us or work from home. Traffic is really only on the first and last day.

Lots of locals sit at the top of the tor as if the wind is right you can hear the music.

Our small village started having festivals a few years ago every weekend in the summer. It’s awful.

Last year was so horrendous that they were not allowed a licence this year but have appealed so have a 8 events this year.

They urinate over houses, in gardens, outside our small village shops & block access to the village with cars. They are rude, swear in front of our dcs. Among other things.

It isn’t one overnight festival which I think makes it worse & we can’t sit in our gardens when they are on.

If it was one weekend we could cope with it. But it’s most weekends- who can afford to go away for most weekends?

sorry for the deviation & rant over but that’s from a perspective of someone who does have to cope with festivals on a regular basis. The next one in our village is apparently their biggest & best. Dreading it 😭

Oh & we don’t get free tickets!

IOM TT I guess? Am amazing event on a beautiful island. I've been to the IOM twice, once for TT and once in the winter, 2 completely different experiences but such amazing times.

I've lived next to Reading Festival during the festival and other then the streams of people when you're trying to get anywhere you either join in or leave for the weekend.

We are close enough to hear it but just across the line where you get free tickets which is annoying! Very many locals go, either with free tickets or working there. The schools 'allow' kids to go - they don't get authorised absence but they recognise they are going to go anyway.
The festival is much closer to Shepton Mallett than Glastonbury so the Tesco gets a lot of use. I was behind a woman in Lidl on Monday buying many many bottles of wine so she didn't have to shop again whilst it was on!

It is only one week. I live somewhere with big events, they bring huge amount to the local economy and you just work around the busyness.

So many places have big events - football matches, festivals, concerts.

I think local people cope because it is not that big a deal.

How many Glastonbury/surrounding area residents have lived there since before 1970?
it's not exactly a surprise that the festival happens. People must be prepared when they buy or rent houses in the area.

I live on the Isle of Wight and we’ve just had the Isle of Wight Festival.

It does cause absolute havoc, but problems are really only Thursday and Monday when everyone arrives/leaves.

Those living really close to it get free tickets - they either go, or sell the tickets on. Those on the main road rent out their drives to businesses like burger vans, or set up their own little stalls selling water, etc.

Everyone either goes, or completely stays away from the area for a few days.

The worst thing is the endless bloody moaning about tbh

I used to live 7 miles from Glastonbury so about 14 from Pilton. The schools in the area close on the Friday and Monday of the festival, maybe longer now. I would also take the time off work (to look after my son) and generally keep away from the main commuting routes. We could just about hear it from our house, and we could actually see Glastonbury tor from our bedroom windows. I miss it.

I think it's a bit outdated to think Glastonbury is all stoned hippies.

I work with 2 people who go every year. They're 40 something professionals. It's the biggest festival in the UK.

We live near the Notting Hill Carnival route. We always go away to visit family or book a weekend away.

I lived next to the old TITP site. We got free tickets. You either joined in or went away. We got special passes to ensure we could use our cars to get home and to work etc. Like another poster above, we made sure we had a house full of food so we didn’t really have to worry about that once people started to arrive. We did live extremely close so if you didn’t attend, you really had to go away simply due to the concert noise.

This year I saw one very enterprising local selling access to her shower and providing a breakfast! I thought that was inspired.

I like seeing the happy excited faces of people arriving. But the traffic can be frustrating.

Until last year, DM lived 15 miles from Glastonbury, in the town with the nearest train station (Castle Cary). It was busy for 4-5 days, with lots of comings and goings. I only made the mistake of trying to get there once during Glasto week! But once in the town, it was OK. DM could have applied for free tickets, but never did.

People can lose their tent/field. Happened to a friend of mine (yes really was a friend not me!) in his 20s, he ended up being adopted by a Christian welfare group for a night.

This does not take into account drug consumption.....

One year the traffic was so bad some A level students missed their exams. I think the MP ended up getting involved.

www.itv.com/news/westcountry/update/2016-06-23/students-miss-a-level-exams-in-glastonbury-traffic-chaos/

On the whole locals are very supportive of the festival. Tesco’s in Shepton must do a months worth of takings in one weekend and a lot of local schools/charity’s/organisations from about a 20 mile radius are given money to provide stewards (which also means lots of people get in for free too). Michael Eavis does quite a bit for the community and I would say is a popular local legend. DM was at the very 1st Glastonbury when you paid on the gate and got a free pint of milk! It’s totally weird really how a small city arrives in the midst of the Somerset countryside.