Glastonbury festival-goers preparing to make their pilgrimage home have been issued a major warning by local police.
Around 200,000 people will be leaving Worthy Farm, Somerset on Monday morning after enjoying a robust weekend of music from artists such as Coldplay, Dua Lipa, SZA and Shania Twain who headlined the Pyramid Stage.
Many will be heading home via car, train and air today with the massive clean-up operation already underway.
Glastonbury organisers had advised that the best time for festival-goers to start leaving would be between the hours of midnight and 7am on Monday, with heavy traffic queues expected between 8am and 5pm.
Avon and Somerset’s Glastonbury Police also issued an important warning to revellers, with a tweet on its official X account stating: ‘Morning everyone! As you make your way home from #Glastonbury2024 follow @TravelSomerset, @HighwaysSWEST and @WorthyFM for traffic formation.
‘Please ensure you are fit to drive before getting behind the wheel and take regular breaks to ensure you remain alert.’
Other advice from organisers include campers taking all their belongings home and make sure they’re stocked up with food and supplies for their journey. Echoing the police message, they added ‘do NOT drive under the influence’ and reminded them that ‘none of the staff can go home until you have, so please be calm and respectful and understanding.’
Some had already made the trek home overnight, with festival-goer LouisaD__ tweeting: ‘The best thing I’ve ever done in life was booking a taxi for 3am from glasto home. back in my own bed by 6.45am.’
@johnashton_ was also among those leaving early and tweeted at around 1am: ‘Incredible couple of days at @glastonbury heading home to avoid all the traffic madness with @JonnyMeah starting the journey home!’
So far, a pair of high-heeled crocodile skin shoes were among the ‘strangest’ items left behind after the long weekend.
Andy Rock, 55, from west Somerset, is a team leader for litter pickers on the Pyramid Stage and told PA: ‘There’s about 300 staff down here this morning, and they all got up early in the morning to pick the litter to clear up from last night.
‘They’ve been doing that for the last four days and every morning it’s a bit messy in the morning, but this place is absolutely spotless by about 10-11o’clock.’
He said ‘nothing particularly unsavoury’ had been found, but added: ‘I think somebody did leave behind some high-heeled crocodile skin shoes yesterday, but that was the strangest thing we found yesterday.
‘I’m not sure why anybody brought those to Glastonbury, but mainly it’s the stuff you see around us. It’s cans, bottles, paper cups, and virtually everything we pick up gets recycled.’
Teams separate the litter into recycling, non-recycling and composting, he said, adding that it is a ‘very, very slick process’.
It comes after Glasto bosses shared incredible statistics after last year’s festival where an overwhelming amount of tents were taken home.
Glastonbury clean-up by numbers
- Around 2,000 tonnes of waste will have been left produced by this year’s Glastonbury-goers, who totalled 200,000
- Approximately 739,200 cigarette butts are expected to have been littered – enough to fill seven two-person tents according to Keep Britain Tidy
- 300 litter pickers will scour Worthy Farm collecting everyone’s rubbish
- In 2023, 98% of all tents were taken home – but that means around 4,000 will have been abandoned
- There are 15,000 bins that will have been hand-separated and processed at the on-site recycling facility
‘If you are coming to [Glastonbury Festival 2024], please remember to only bring sturdy camping equipment that you can take home again and reuse,’ they said in a statement.
‘In 2023, 98% of all tents were taken home. Let’s see if we can beat that this year!’
Glastonbury 2024 wasn’t without its controversy this year after viewers were left raging about many of the top performances being plagued by ‘excruciating’ sound issues. Dua Lipa, SZA and Shania were among the acts who suffered the most with viewers branding their sets inaudible at times.
The festival is also facing criticism for its stage choices with fans complaining that Avril Lavigne and Sugababes had been given smaller slots rather than the coveted Pyramid Stage.
Tens of thousands of fans flocked to their performances on the Other and West Holts stages respectively but overcrowding meant many were blocked from gaining access.
You can catch up on Glastonbury coverage on BBC iPlayer.
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