Whilst Glastonbury Festival 2022 has been highly praised for its history-making 50th anniversary event at Worthy Farm, festival-goers have, this week, shared their concern for the mass attendance and crowd control issues at this year's festival. 'Dangerous crushes' were reported across the mammoth festival site throughout the celebrations, and some attendees said they left the farm feeling 'traumatised'.
This year marked the first Glastonbury Festival since 2019. After a three year absence due to the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 200,000 people descended on Worthy Farm. And while this year's attendance was high, it was not more than the record 300,000 people at the 1994 edition of the festival.
And whilst most revellers have returned from the festival sharing their highlights from the five-day event, some attendees have shared their concerns after experiencing 'crushing' once the live music began from Thursday evening (June 23). Veteran festival-goers spoke of how they had never witnessed such scenes before, and took to social media to speculate on just how many people were actually allowed onsite in 2022.
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Certain festival hotspots such as the William's Green and Arcadia stages were at the centre of the reported crowd control issues. And highly anticipated yet not headlining acts such as the return of the Sugababes and TLC left festival-goers fearing for their safety.
The public took to Twitter and the eFestivals forum to share their concern after the weekend was out. One user on the forum stated, "There are lots of reports about bad crushes at William's Green, The Park for Wet Leg, West Holts for TLC and Avalon for Sugababes.
"I spent over 30 mins at a standstill in one of the most terrifying and dangerous crushes I've witnessed at the junction between the Park and Arcadia. No security or signage to be seen, nobody knew what was going on, no movement in any direction - even though there are five potential exit routes."
Celebrity and actor, Tony Gardner, also tweeted, "Lots of talk from people [...] about bad crushes at Glastonbury this year. It definitely felt overcrowded to me and I have concerns the crushes would have been even more dangerous in mud. I trust they will look into this."
As Spice Girls member, Mel C, took to the stage to kick off the live music on Thursday evening (23 June) the area surrounding the William's Green stage became incredibly busy. Routes to William's Green were shut off, with screens asking festival-goers to 'seek alternative routes'.
eFestivals user, Dennis, recalled that moment. "William's Green on Thursday was a sign of things to come," he said.
"You know it's bad when they are blocking off the Pyramid before the Cider Bus to stop people gaining access. It was an absolute shambles of the movement of large crowds this year."
Dennis claimed stages such as Arcadia became 'bottlenecked', with the area now 'smaller' in 2022. "You used to have an entry and access point below the bar on the left hand side. It's all fenced off now, so your way in and out is limited."
Twitter user, Sian Beavers, said she faced a similar experience at Arcadia on the Friday evening (24 June). She said, "I got pinned against some railings outside Arcadia [on] Friday night. It was amazing no one was hurt with all the crushes."
And Twitter user and mother, @Saclk1, tweeted, "My daughter was caught in the crush and left traumatised. She left the site at 4pm as there were too many people. The stewards were useless. This could have been very serious."
A spokesperson for Glastonbury Festival said: "After a gap of three years since the last Glastonbury - and with the lockdowns and COVID measures that came with that time - it's likely that some festival-goers found themselves in the biggest crowds they'd been in since 2019. Some may have found that experience overwhelming in itself.
"This is something we did anticipate / address in advance. Festival-goers' safety and enjoyment is of fundamental importance to Glastonbury, and our experienced teams work extremely hard to keep crowds moving freely and safely.
"There was a small increase on our 2019 capacity for this year's Festival (as approved by Mendip District Council), with the number of tickets sold rising by two per cent from 135,000 to 138,000. The total overall capacity (including staff and performers - many of whom wouldn't have been on site for the full festival) increased by three per cent from 203,000 to 210,000.
"As always with crowds of Glastonbury's size - alongside artists that large numbers were keen to see - there were moments when there were very busy pedestrian routes and venues. Our comprehensive crowd management plan was put into action to deal with those.
"On a handful of occasions (and as in previous years) that did involve having to temporarily close off areas of the site, to ensure the crowd's safety. These measures worked as intended, and there were no crowd crush injuries reported at our on-site medical centre."
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