‘I’ve been to Glastonbury 16 times – there’s one big rookie mistake people always make’

A Glastonbury expert who’s been to the largest festival in the world 16 times has revealed the biggest rookie mistake that people always make.

Dan Thomas has been making the pilgrimage to the farm-cum-festival since 2002 and has gone every year the festival has been held since then – a very impressive feat considering the online queue can be too much for even the most quintessential Brits to comprehend.

But, just because you’ve beat the line to become one of the lucky 210,000 people with a golden ticket into Worthy Farm – the queuing doesn’t stop there.

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Glasto expert Dan, who shares tips under DanThomasUK, has made a few observations about how first timers – and even fellow veterans – make boo-boos that can leave a dampener on the five-day festival come rain or shine.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Star, Dan explained: “People’s rookie mistake tends to be either moving within the festival and during those peak moments, which are at the end of a headline or perhaps just at the start of a headliner.

“Or, even in terms of their logistics getting to and from the site. If you try and get here or get away when loads of other cars are doing the same thing, you’ll be in a traffic jam and it’s the same when you’re on foot.

“So trying to plan ahead of things and get ahead of the peak, or even behind the peak, I think is better than being in the peak because ultimately I don’t like queuing.

“I don’t really want to queue when I get here and I think we go through far too much work buying the ticket in the first place.”

Glastonbury Festival boasts more than 100 stages and 3,000 acts over the length of the event – it’s literally impossible to be able to cram absolutely everything in.

The organisers just about cram the 210,000 attendees into the 900 acres spanning the Somerset farm. Apparently, it can take at least 40 minutes to get from one end to the other.

Although Dan believes that the site “logistically isn’t made for 200,000 people to be doing the same thing at the same time”, it’s possible to still navigate – but tactically.

He’s urged to choose who you watch and when carefully.

The expert continued: “Ultimately, Glastonbury has developed organically on a farm that was made for probably the farmer to be walking around and not 200,000 people.

“Because of that, during peak hours – I wouldn’t use the word crushes – but certainly what feels like overcrowding can happen.

“Quite often people that are new to the festival will say ‘I got to the headliner and then we want to go to one of the late night areas and there were too many people so it was too slow’.

“I think people have been known to either start moving to those areas before the headliner’s last song is being played for example, or perhaps to even go up there later.”

However, that’s not the only rookie mistake that people tend to make. Of course, people want to make the most of their £350 ticket – and all the added extras people pay for.

Getting stuck in the queues will certainly make that bank transfer feel more bleak, but so will unpreparedness, says Dan.

The weather for Glastonbury is looking bright this year, but Dan is all too used to getting stuck in the mud rather than the queues.

He shared: “Glastonbury’s weather in the last few years for me has been somewhat anomalous.

“So my first probably 10 odd years I’ve come into the festival punctuated with floods, biblical rain, kayaks being ridden down the campsite and toilets bobbing up and down in three feet of water and all of that sort of thing.

“So I got used very quickly when I started coming in 2004 – and particularly 2005 and 2007 – just having these constant rains and floods.

“I got very used to that very quickly. But, what I also saw in that was people coming to the festival and saying ‘I won’t bring wellies because the forecast says ‘XYZ’ and then if it changes I’ll buy them’.

“Then when it did change, too many people tried to buy too few pairs of wellies and then you had three feet of mud – it was just horrible.

“So people’s unpreparedness [is the rookie mistake] in other years.”

Let’s hope people are bringing their wellies this weekend as the forecast is currently predicting showers over Saturday and Sunday…

You can find Dan on TikTok, here

Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk