Glastonbury and Bristol

reehsetin

I am very fortunate to have Glastonbury tickets but I've never been before and am pretty clueless about it all.
My plan is for hubby and I to travel up Friday morning (from Hertfordshire) spend Friday there, Friday evening we'd like to travel to Bristol, get a hotel there and spend Saturday shopping etc in Bristol

I know driving there is meant to be a nightmare how's the best way to get the Glastonbury and then from Glastonbury to Bristol?
How would be best to get around Bristol, I've been there once but I had a hire car so no idea what the public transport is like.

Does all of this sound feasible?

arietta

From what i've heard, Glastonbury Festival isn't actually in Glastonbury, but in a field on the outskirts of Glastonbury in a little place called Pilton, which is nearer to Shepton Mallet than Glastonbury, thus public transport isn't the best.

You can get information for travel at :
mendip.gov.uk
or
glastonbury.co.uk/pages/site.php?pgid=324/photos.htm

DCFC79

Is it really a good idea to keep stuff you have bought inside your tent unless you were planning to keep it in the car,

geri1965_2

It will take a long time to get from the site to Bristol and back, several hours probably. It's really not that feasible, once you are at the festival it's best to stay there. As an example, it can take an hour to get from the festival itself to the edge of the site - it really is huge.

You can go to Bristol anytime, Glastonbury is an experience that you should take time to enjoy.

bambinaUK

To be honest (and not intending to be rude), your plan is totally unfeasible.

Staying in a hotel and travelling into the festival would take you hours each day as traffic will be seriously bad and you will struggle to get out of the car parks that everyone will still be trying to get into!
If you end up on the outskirts of the car park each day, then it could easily take you an hour to walk onto the edge of the festival site.
Last year due to an accident, there were queques for 12hrs just to get onsite! Bristol to Worthy Farm, Pilton would take you an hour on a good day, never mind a festival day.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=bristol&daddr=Worthy+Farm&hl=en&geocode=FVElEQMdYnPY_ylh2LOBZoNxSDEf15pLLrLkjg%3BFSOjDAMd64vY_yEuJ6_LGGI3jg&mra=ls&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=9.32341,28.256836&ie=UTF8&z=10

You will be faced every day with finding your way back in the dark to a car in the middle of thousands of cars (160,000 people onsite). Help getting off the site will be minimal, as normally once people are in they don't leave again till the MOnday!

Can I ask why you are wasting the cost of your ticket by spending a day shopping in Bristol on the Saturday?

You seriously will not have a good festival if you do not camp. If you don't fancy buying and setting up your own camping gear, then there are expensive alternatives such as:



http://www.tangerinefields.co.uk/index.php?option=com_tfbookings&Itemid=2&func=details&did=64

Or see if you can buy a campervan ticket off Ebay and hire yourself a campervan.

geri1965_2

Re-reading your post, it appears that you only intend to be at the festival on Friday - is that correct? Why would you spend that much on a ticket and only go for the Friday? Unless you are intending to head back there on the Sunday it is a complete waste of money.

And as I said (and the poster above) not really feasible in any event.

Obviously you haven't been before and it's hard to explain, but it's not like the festival is in a field next to the car park where you can just come and go as you please - it's like a small city in itself.

reehsetin

I won the tickets and they're in my name only so it has to be hubby and I that use them, the only acts we really like are on the Friday so don't see the point of staying for the rest of the days and don't really want to camp out, I don't mind a 2 hour travel there and back, just not a 6 hour travel. Thinking this all means we'd have to travel up to Bristol the night before and then travel from there in the morning rather than home?

Does anyone have any experiences of getting coaches from there? I saw this on the website There is a regular, half-hourly, bus service connecting Glastonbury to Bristol, Wells and Yeovil (service 376) so couldn't we do that? would we have to travel through the carpark etc to get to the coaches?

geri1965_2

The 376 will take you to the town of Glastonbury, not the festival itself which is a few miles from there. Your best bet is to stay in Bristol the night before and get the special festival bus down the next day. It goes from the Harbourside, and there are hotels in the area so it would be fairly easy. It drops off at the festival site, near to the car park (I think - it's been a long time since I went).

Bear in mind that the bands will finish fairly late on Friday so you might want to check that the festival bus can get you back to Bristol then - I can't imagine that many people will be wanting to leave the festival at that time, so they may not be running.

johnnyroper

to do the sort of thing you want to do then i would make use of the public transport.
on friday get the train to castle cary station they run transport from there to the site at worthy farm,i would say you will be unable to get out of glasto on friday night due to the time the acts leave stage etc.buy yourself a cheap tent and stay on site friday night and get the transport back to train station.
now i would drive to a place called westbury in wiltshire and leave car there while i went to festival and on return get train back to westbury pick up car and drive to bristol.not sure on parking cost but i dont think it will be that much and is certainly easier than battling the traffic,i know people whe spent 4.5 hours geting from bristol to shepton mallet on the wednesday before glasto started last year and it only gets worse the closer you get to opening

bambinaUK

reehsetin wrote: »

I won the tickets and they're in my name only so it has to be hubby

Does anyone have any experiences of getting coaches from there? I saw this on the website There is a regular, half-hourly, bus service connecting Glastonbury to Bristol, Wells and Yeovil (service 376) so couldn't we do that? would we have to travel through the carpark etc to get to the coaches?

Ah, this makes it all a bit clearer. I was thinking you were a bit nuts for having spent nearly £200 on a ticket only to not use it properly! You could have sold the tickets at face value on Ebay with some form of ID and put the cash towards a luxury weekend somewhere, plenty of people still desperate for tickets.

There are regular buses, but again you might hit huge queques, so don't aim for catching the last bus. The bus drop off/pick up point is on the edge of the site. Check out where the letter A is on this map.
http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/data/image/Fineguide-10-map-may-update.jpg
Also factor in that it can take 1-2hrs to walk across the festival site when it is packed. If it rains you will need to leave a change of clothes/footwear in your car.

reehsetin

Thank you everyone for the help, all the links I've checked there's nothing traveling away from Glastonbury on the Friday so I think we'd get there ok we just couldn't leave again, our only option is to drive it seems and pray we're ok getting in and out!
I might have to take a tent just in case we get stuck and keep a keen eye on the weather and traffic!
The tangerine fields looks like a good alternative if we were staying throughout !