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?

I also live near the site of another large festival (lived here well before it started). Traffic congestion is a nightmare and the noise is awful. We're too far away to hear music properly but it's constant bass noise for 4 days until late at night.
We always go away if we can; on the odd occasion we haven't, it makes for a miserable weekend. You can't sit outside - and can still hear noise inside anyway - and pointless going anywhere as just get stuck in traffic trying to get home.
Best thing about Covid was no festival.
The mess left behind is pretty shocking too.

Genuine question- how is it good for the local economy? Surely everyone just stays inside the compound and buys things from the catering stands that are hired for the event? Glastonbury punters just drive there and drive back. I’d have thought only the huge farm that owns the ground makes any money.

Sorry I’ve just re read your post and it’s not about Glastonbury.

I live in a small village with an event venue in it, it hosts festivals / concerts approx 5-10 times a year, nothing of the size of Glasto but still big events for the area.

I love it. I like to see the business succeed, it pulls in revenue for the local shops / cafes, I like to see a bit of life in an otherwise pretty quiet neck of the woods and it’ll be fab for the kids as they get bigger. We let friends park on our drive if they’re attending. The traffic can be heavy but that’s all on the main roads, the locals know all the back routes so we can bypass it easily. And the traffic is only bad before it starts and when it ends, usually it’s all clear within a few hours.

do you think big events like this shouldn’t happen?

A lot of the caterers live locally/Frome way. With 'country shows' and Festivals they are kept fairly busy in the area.

I'd forgotten just how close Pilton is to Shepton (we were going to be in the area tomorrow - think we'd better head in the opposite direction after dropping DD off).

In years gone by, a lot of festival goers used to get dropped off at Bath station afterwards. It used to be "interesting" navigating the muddy platforms in suit and heels.

do you think big events like this shouldn’t happen?

I think they shouldn’t happen in densely populated residential areas 😫 our local one is so stupidly managed that the campsites are at the far end which isn’t actually next to anything and the arena/stages are at the closest point to all the houses. We didn’t think we’d be able to hear it from here before we moved as we’re half a mile away and our friends who live equidistant in a different direction can’t really hear it. It’s the way they have the speakers angled I think.

It's pretty rural but the roads were jammed here even, 40 mins away (on a non festival day, 5 hours yesterday!)

We live on the site of Glastonbury Festival. The disruption is massive. Security around the house 24/7, multiple security checkpoints to negotiate to get out to work and back, so much noise, people behaving at their very worst - vomiting in the hedge, pooing on the verges etc. Gangs of people trying to break into the show via our garden. More dodgy sorts looking for what they can steal. It can be quite frightening.

Traffic on the main roads is good but in the area where we actually live, it’s horrific. Coach convoys all day down single farm tracks, pickups with site staff, security and trucks with supplies belting down aforementioned single farm tracks. And about two of them seem to be able to reverse. Everyone else appears not to be able to. Security try to prevent deliveries - even Royal Mail struggle to get through

We obviously get free tickets, but they don’t compensate for the disruption and worry of living where we do.

I live a 15 minute walk from the IOW festival and love seeing 90k visitors arriving (the island only has 125k residents so its quite a difference). Free tickets and the residents next door to it have stalls in their front gardens selling stuff from watermelons and headbands to showers and breakfasts.

You embrace it, ignore it or book a holiday for when it's on!

I think they shouldn’t happen in densely populated residential areas

London hosts loads of events!

We visited Glastonbury last August and I loved it, but I did say to dh how do they cope as it was busy enough at that time and that's without an extra 100,000 + people wanting things or trying to get anywhere.
I watched the documentary about it too this week on tv. Michael Eavis is obviously anti drugs and disruption, but trying to police all this isn't easy and there has been trouble there in the past.
It must be a nightmare weekend for the locals even those who may make a profit out of it!
I'm happy to watch it with a cup of tea at home.

We went to Glastonbury for a day out and wondered how people lived the rest of the year. Every single shop we saw was offering hippy outings, trinkets or clothes. Not a food shop in sight.

Glastonbury has a massive Tesco, Aldi and Morrisons, just not on the high street!
We love visiting to see the Glastonbury dragons, climbing the tor, seeing witches and wizards wandering down the street. But I wouldn't want to live there.

Some years ago I lived quite close to Glastonbury. I recall some disruption, but nothing particularly onerous and there were heavily discounted (they might be free in Glastonbury itself I do not know) tickets. A lot of businesses, particularly B+Bs restaurants etc made good money on the back of the festival and, generally speaking the festival goers seemed quite a jolly bunch, though I did feel for them when the weather was bad. One of my neighbours once invited a party in to shower and get warm again.

The supermarkets are away out of the town of Glastonbury! There are a few coffee shops and so on, but I liked how independent it was compared to most towns.
The local shops are interesting to browse , but how some of them make money is a mystery.
I did like the Tor.
It's a lovely part of the UK.
I'm glad it's back on as it's 50th anniversary was scuppered in 2020. It's good to see people having fun, probably not so good if you actually live there.

An ex-colleague of mine lives near Glastonbury and was a field service engineer. He would request to be put on a job for the duration so he would miss all the chaos. He was close enough that the noise of it was an issue and wouldn't get any sleep.

I live very near Glastonbury and work/socialise there. It's great fun. The music scene is superb, there is a constant stream of tourists, events most weekends, it's one of the centres of the alternative world. The festival doesn't touch the town, its 6 miles away. But many many locals set it up and are now onsite. It's so beautiful living round here.

I'd love to live in somerset !
I feel at home there.

Whilst there are still a load of "locals" on this thread can anybody recommend good early morning breakfast spots at weekends?

DD is a swimmer and we often drop her at Millfield to compete for the day if we aren't parent volunteers.

The Albion Inn at Shapwick was good when we were at Ham Wall.

We don't mind a drive, it's just that most things don't get going until after 10/11 on a Sunday.

Market 28 in Somerton or the white Hart also in Somerton.

the bridge bakery in Langport is brilliant but that might be too far?

@Bunce1 it's good to know that the Bridge Bakery opens at 8 on a Sunday. The pub in Somerton looks worth a visit too (Marketplace closed on a Sunday).

Madcats, try the Old Tannery on the edge of Glastonbury (if you're heading from Street to Glastonbury it's on the lefthand side). Serves brunch etc from 9.30 am. Lovely place.

We don't have any Glastonbury road traffic, but we live a mile away from a country hotel used by a lot of those performing over the weekend. The helicopter traffic is awful. Every 10-20 minutes one flies over the house. Hopefully it won't be as bad as the Saturday Jay-Z was headlining. That set a new record of 25 helicopter flights in 30 minutes.