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Melvin Benn

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

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by Andrew Future
Michael Eavis may own all the mud, but without Mean Fiddler and its head honcho (or should that be head poncho?), Melvin Benn, there would be no festival. With a lot of weight always given to past events, it’s always interesting to compare how things change in the space of a year.

“It’s no different, just a little wetter. In fact, it’s better,” commented Melvin Benn, MF's Festival Director. “People came earlier, the fact that it was going to be wet didn’t put people off. Structurally, infrastructurally and enjoyment wise, it’s very similar.”

But what of the mud?

“Everyone was preparing for a mudbath, the weather forecasts are pretty good these days.”

Of course, aside from the weather the big issue this year at Glasto was the ticketing. With only four touts onsite, few can deny it’s been successful in that respect.

Benn continued: “To be fair, the ticket ID-ing has been a phenomenal success. I was hoping to ID around 50 per cent of people at least, I think I’m probably closer to 75 if not 80 per cent.”

It’s a figure quite different to the unofficial surveys we carried out, which showed fewer than 30 per cent actually had their IDs checked. Melvin added: “Everybody was receptive to it, everybody knew that they had to show it. It significantly helped with the touts and didn’t cause any significant problems with the queuing.

“Less than 500 people were turned away for not having the right ID and we were pretty straight forward about and it’s worked.”

So with Glastonbury’s future looking quite clean, the licence situation is also looking good. Benn concluded: “In the main, the authorities are very pleased – the crime’s down, the integrity of the iste’s good the organisation’s good. It’s looking very good.”

DiSCuss: What was your experience of ticket checking? Did you buy a ticket off of EBAY?


Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

Less than 500 people turned away through ID? That's still a lot of people. Anyone got any stories? We were certainly checked when we went in.

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

I got there early Thursday afternoon and where I was they were checking everyones ID as far as I could see. The queues to get in weren't bad either, it must have only taken 10 minutes once up to the gates.

I thought it all ran very smoothly and was a success on this aspect, great festival too.

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

I got there Thursday lunchtime and they were checking everyone's ID, but it was so much easier to get in this year - ten minutes compared to about three-quarters of an hour at the drop-off point last year.

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

i got there wednesday late afternoon, they ckecked our ID, no queues either

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

hmm i was"checked" meaning i just flashed a card one of the workers direction and she waved me through, she blatantly didnt even read it.

Re: Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

The guy spent so long checking my driving licence I was paranoid he was memorising my address and someone was going to rob my house that weekend. :-D

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

The man in the picture doesn't look happy. He looks like he's gone through some sort of traumatising experience or something. What's wrong with him?

Re: Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

I think it's the Mean Fiddler organiser bloke...although that doesn't explain what's wrong with him.

Re: Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

actually, i think it does.

Re: Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

He was in 'Nam. He puts his special combat training to good use in event organisation, placing gun turrets on each side of the Pyramid stage in case hostile elements try to engage the performers.

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

The man in the picture is actually two people merged together. One of which is your great aunties husband and the other is the evil Blowfelt from James Bond

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

ilove his white pussy. :)

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

There were three of us and we all had our ID checked, as id deveryone else as far as I could see. Can't see how it stopped touts really, though - there were still plenty of tickets for sale on ebay and as they were acceptin just about anything with an address on it as ID (and the tickets only had the address of the buyer on regardless of whose name was on them) it would have been easy enough to get hold of someone's old gas bill or something.

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

Prior to Glasto I saw at least 10 tickets for sale on the gum tree web site. For the "bargain" price of two hundred quid you got the ticket and the greedy B**tard's bank statement! What kind of idiot gives away those details in this day & age? Someone who deserves to be robbed!!!

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

being as i've been going to glasto for many years i have become a bit of a master at fence jumping. Sticking to my pikey routes i went down on monday without a ticket. Hicthhiked with a hippy from stonehenge and both us and the van got in without tickets.

I also managed to smuggle a friend in late thursday night through a transport gate.

where theres a will theres a way..

Re: Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

but how did you, the hippy and the van get in free?
im sure there's a joke in there somewhere....

Re: Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

my dad gave me and a friend a lift down to the festival really early (about 6am)on the thursday morning, and cos it was so early he was allowed to take us much closer than the drop off point on the "blue" side of the site (i.e. south, i think. or west. not the red side, anyway). after he dropped us off, he got a bit mixed up (he is pretty old)and eventually a steward person stopped him and said "what are you looking for, mate?". he replied "bristol". turns out he'd managed to get backstage, without any sort of pass/ticket/scam whatsoever. in a car. security clearly wasn't 100% effective in the early hours :)

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

Didn't check my ID. Thank fuck...cos I didn't have any. Haww heeee haaaa!!

Glast05 - licence looking mud-free!

They checked my ID and my friends. We got there at mid day on Thursday and there were no queues at all... we cunningly drove round to the top car park though to avoid the lower car park queue.
On the way back was another story though - it took us over an hour to get out of the car park... but that's good, as my sisters boyfriend was there for (wait for it!...) seven hours! I feel for you if you were stuck that long too!