Glastonbury 2023: Pilton council recommends festival improve safety measures
Somerset’s Glastonbury Festival has been advised to improve its crowd control measures for the 2023 edition, as well as look into noise monitoring, following complaints from festival-goers and locals. The news comes after concerns were raised about overcrowding at 2022’s edition, with some festival-goers commenting that the crowds were “unsafe”, as reported by ITV.
It was also reported that some residents of the local village, Pilton, complained about the noise at a scrutiny meeting by Mendip District Council on November 22nd. Resident Nick Hall said: “Loud amplified music continued until 1am on Friday morning. Over the weekend period, there were multiple complaints about noise going on until 4am.”
“On Wednesday evening going into Thursday at 3am, I was so frustrated that I rang the village helpline,” added Caroline Griffiths, who also lives in Pilton. “The same thing happened on Thursday night – I rang and there was no-one there at all. On Saturday night there was very loud bass music. My experience was not a good one – I had a sleepless period and it did affect my work.”
The council is responsible for granting Glastonbury Festival its licence, and in a new report, it noted that while 2022’s was “well planned and managed”, “improvements are necessary” for next year.
The local authority made a string of recommendations for 2023, with much significance placed on assessing whether Glastonbury’s safety can be improved through crowds being better distributed across the site.
“There appeared to be an issue with security not being able to prevent people from entering areas which had become crowded,” the report explains. “This may be due to lack of experience of working at large scale events.”
It also urged Glastonbury bosses to “revise the risk assessment to consider the potential pull of the artist, the size of the stage/arena and the demographic of the attendees”.
“There were a number of artists that appeared to be more popular than was expected, drawing large numbers to venues which were not the principal stages,” it said.
In conclusion, the council says more work is also needed to “address excessive loudness and low-frequency noise” through monitoring and time restrictions. The organisers of Glastonbury are set to respond to the report in writing within the next couple of months.
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