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Getting drugs into festivals (avoiding security, sniffer dogs etc)

Did you look older than "Challenge 25"? Can be a good thing - or a sad day when they go "Nah, you're alright, you're clearly over the age limit for getting an adult band...." :-(
 
TheInsider said:
They will search everything, including any plastic bottles. If you have opened them, they will be taken off you. If they look like they contain the liquid which is not specified on the label, they will take them. They will NOT taste, but they will probably sniff. Anything in glass - forget it. They will search everything, including all bags. If you have been in the vicinity of illegal smelly stuff (or even non smelly) they will pull you from the line on a dog indication anyway - and search you twice as hard! The dogs are good and will pick up almost everything - they also tend to put their nose right where it is, so if it's down your pants or up your arse, stand by for a secondary search from the boys and girls in blue. If you have hidden your stash in something to mask the smell - forget it. Unless you have been lab-clean in your handling, you will have cross contaminated whatever you are using. Is it really worth stuffing up a weekend for a twenty quid baggie? Class Bs will probably see you confiscated (personal use) and allowed entry. Class A - probably not. Under 18...see below. Class Cs too these days - anything more than what you need to actually have will cause problems and anything that is not with a printed label in your name will cause snags. Saying that, I've seen a guy rock up with his methadone for the weekend and passed to the medical people with no issues, but he did declare it. Hiding areas - seen lots, but none of them seem to stand a good search team - but not all search teams are good!

As for ID - you can get PASS cards to prove age, etc - google them. They are accepted as ID. Driving licence, passport, PASS or military ID cards. Not College ID, not birth certificates, not a letter from your Mum. And no, you can't vouch for each other. ALSO - if you are under 18 you are a child, and if found in possession of anything you will be treated legally as such (ie there will be a need to make a phone call to mummy or daddy to come and get you as your responsible legal adult). Embarrassing more than anything else.
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You are a copper and I claim my £5
 
sim667 - nope. However, you can donate the fiver to the Police Benevolent Fund next time you are coming out of the station. I just have experience on both sides of the queuing rope ;-)
 
Okay got my site map (although its a couple of years old it should be be fairly accurate).

Hmm apparently there are two crew areas. One close to the production camping and one not so close. I'm guessing that the one i want will be full by the Thursday midday and i'll have a bit of a longer walk to the secondary crew camp.
 
anyone short of crew for this, give me a pm, can do bar, catering (have certificates) stewarding too etc.....

I have some if anyone is thinking of selling ticket but funds are limited.
 
moody said:
anyone short of crew for this, give me a pm, can do bar, catering (have certificates) stewarding too etc.....

I have some if anyone is thinking of selling ticket but funds are limited.
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someone on a local forum offering crew passes at £200 a go, can point you in their direction if you like?
 
ha!

I'll be honest and say my budget for the whole thing is about 250. that includes spendin g cash so 200 for a ticket is a bit beyond my budget

PS, I don't drink so I don't really need that much spending cash
 
My mates food van is there, Guerilla Kitchen, do try it, he does vietnamese bao buns with fillings like belly pork, radish and mint or beef with bourbon soaked jalapenos............
 
TheInsider said:
They will search everything, including any plastic bottles. If you have opened them, they will be taken off you. If they look like they contain the liquid which is not specified on the label, they will take them. They will NOT taste, but they will probably sniff. Anything in glass - forget it. They will search everything, including all bags. If you have been in the vicinity of illegal smelly stuff (or even non smelly) they will pull you from the line on a dog indication anyway - and search you twice as hard! The dogs are good and will pick up almost everything - they also tend to put their nose right where it is, so if it's down your pants or up your arse, stand by for a secondary search from the boys and girls in blue. If you have hidden your stash in something to mask the smell - forget it. Unless you have been lab-clean in your handling, you will have cross contaminated whatever you are using. Is it really worth stuffing up a weekend for a twenty quid baggie? Class Bs will probably see you confiscated (personal use) and allowed entry. Class A - probably not. Under 18...see below. Class Cs too these days - anything more than what you need to actually have will cause problems and anything that is not with a printed label in your name will cause snags. Saying that, I've seen a guy rock up with his methadone for the weekend and passed to the medical people with no issues, but he did declare it. Hiding areas - seen lots, but none of them seem to stand a good search team - but not all search teams are good!

As for ID - you can get PASS cards to prove age, etc - google them. They are accepted as ID. Driving licence, passport, PASS or military ID cards. Not College ID, not birth certificates, not a letter from your Mum. And no, you can't vouch for each other. ALSO - if you are under 18 you are a child, and if found in possession of anything you will be treated legally as such (ie there will be a need to make a phone call to mummy or daddy to come and get you as your responsible legal adult). Embarrassing more than anything else.
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Ermm it's really not that bad bacon, I've been three times and you walk past one dog that's been working all day, as long as you don't shit yourself when you see it and you aren't carrying loads of smelly weed, you'll be fine.

However they will search all your bag for excess booze, and will make a fair effort to find your gear. Hide it properly and again, you'll be fine. Kinda hard to hide lots of drink though.

Even if you are caught they will caution you and let you in. I had a mate caught with a fair stash of various classes, and this is.what happened to them.

Just stroll on through with a smile on your face and a spring in your step and hopefully you should have no issues
 
Gromit said:
Okay got my site map (although its a couple of years old it should be be fairly accurate).

Hmm apparently there are two crew areas. One close to the production camping and one not so close. I'm guessing that the one i want will be full by the Thursday midday and i'll have a bit of a longer walk to the secondary crew camp.
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Yeah there's one over by the main stage, this is normally where all the security guards camp. There was one year I had to help set up their bit and they were camped with loads of wasp nests :D
 
sim667 said:
Yeah there's one over by the main stage, this is normally where all the security guards camp. There was one year I had to help set up their bit and they were camped with loads of wasp nests :D
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I'm always in two minds about camping with security. Sometimes they can be downright unsociable. They are all like 'what you doing here? this is security, you ain't security etc.'.

Sometimes they can be cool. Like at the Isle of Wight we were chatting with one of the supervisors quite a bit.

At Creamfields we were next to two security guys who decided they couldn't be arsed with their shifts and just sat around the campsite drinking rum, smoking weed and talking shit with us. Then getting paranoid whenerver they saw any other security about. They were cool but we were also a little concerned about how dodgy they were behaving. Could they be friends one minute then robbing us the next? They had both done some time we were told.

You'd think camping with security would be safer but then i heard stories from some Oxfam vollunteers who told me at Bestival there were a load of security who crashed one of their campsite parties and were spotted trying to steal people's mobiles and then pretending they were doing something else.
 
One thing that's always worth reminding people of is if it's private security with a dog you are still well within your rights to refuse a search and go back to your car or whatever... Obviously if the police are around then there may be problems attempting this but at the end of the day you do have the right to refuse to be searched by the door staff and just leave.

Or at least that's always been th case, let me know if things have changed...
 
Gromit said:
I'm always in two minds about camping with security. Sometimes they can be downright unsociable. They are all like 'what you doing here? this is security, you ain't security etc.'.

Sometimes they can be cool. Like at the Isle of Wight we were chatting with one of the supervisors quite a bit.

At Creamfields we were next to two security guys who decided they couldn't be arsed with their shifts and just sat around the campsite drinking rum, smoking weed and talking shit with us. Then getting paranoid whenerver they saw any other security about. They were cool but we were also a little concerned about how dodgy they were behaving. Could they be friends one minute then robbing us the next? They had both done some time we were told.

You'd think camping with security would be safer but then i heard stories from some Oxfam vollunteers who told me at Bestival there were a load of security who crashed one of their campsite parties and were spotted trying to steal people's mobiles and then pretending they were doing something else.
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Never camp with security. For one nice one there's ten utter arseholes who got their SIA license after failing police entrance tests.
 
pesh said:
One thing that's always worth reminding people of is if it's private security with a dog you are still well within your rights to refuse a search and go back to your car or whatever... Obviously if the police are around then there may be problems attempting this but at the end of the day you do have the right to refuse to be searched by the door staff and just leave.

Or at least that's always been th case, let me know if things have changed...
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Absolutely. There is no legal right to an enforced search by the security staff - and actually they have no legal right to seize what you have unless they want to go the whole "arrest" route, which they won't unless it's mega! They can just refuse entry, you can go back to the car. The police will NOT be interested if you take this route unless you look like Howard Marks or they know your face. Just say you have stuff on you and you are taking it back to the car because you forgot it was there. Security should just let you walk away and only the superkeen will flag you to the police.

The dogs are rotated every 20 minutes, so you won't tend to get "tired" ones - if they are there longer than that, their noses go "off" and they can't reidentify. A bit of personal, nobody cares about. Once you are in, you will notice the lack of determination to run around the camping areas chasing a whiff of weed. Main focus is pills and powders and this from a safety and licensing perspective.

As I said, I'm not police, never was, never will be (unless they change their recruiting policies and turn a huge blind eye to my mispent youth). I do, however, do a lot of work with security and welfare teams - and that's the concern. Youngsters being sold "coke" when it's Ket. Cocktail drug taking from novices that end up in High Dependency Units or worse. Those that use and have experience are not the issue - it's the under 18s and the once a year people who end up trashing themselves or taking stuff they don't understand. Always said I'd rather have an event of 10,000 stoners than 10,000 drunks.

There are ways of getting stuff in, but don't expect to get past the dogs as a matter of course - they are really quite good and pick up all sorts. Putting it in mason jars - doesn't work. Buying the "smellysafe" pouches - doesn't work. Covering it in pepper - doesn't work. Every year there are "new" ideas - but they aren't new. One of the main targets is NOS this year (plus the worry about bad stuff that kills people every year, clearly - hanging yourself in a portaloo on a legal high is not the way you want to be remembered).

NOS is worrying not because it's dangerous, but because it's legal and untouchable - unless you are selling to under 18s who you know will abuse it. It's also being sold as part of gang-related issues, but the guys are generally really quite nice and treat it like a business model. I know some that made over £8k at Glasto for very little risk. IF security pick you up - just be nice. They are more inclined to be nice to you if you are nice back - if you are a dick, you will get that back in spades and they have the "power" to mess your weekend up. Decent security give you the options of handing over and walking away - the bad security (less, now the Olympics badges have expired) will try to tie you up in bluff and legal bollocks. Feel free to video, but it generally just antagonises them - and they often have bodycams anyway which protect everyone.

I saw some horror posts before about security carrying out personal intimate searches - that's a complete no. If you find yourself with security in your pants, report it. Unless you want them there of course. Clothing only, no skin and certainly no intimate areas.

Camping with security - possibly the most unsafe place to be judging by the testosterone fuelled punch ups that take place! Camp where possible near the bottom of an observation tower - and supply them with food and water. They WILL be your friends - and they will not be bothered if you are producing strange smells or making weird "pssss" sounds overnight. Honestly. Different companies have different approaches too. Those with badges - SIA. Those without - Stewards and unqualified. Generally NMW, tired and fed up at being put on a location where they can't see anything when they were told they would be on the stage with the bands... most are good guys. Read the back of the hi viz too. Response are the "lumps" - they are the ones who will come after you at high speed and full of adrenaline, generally because you have been reported to them so that have no option but to take action (it's all logged and recorded). Comply and don't resist because they can be very keen...

Ultimately - it's a festival. It's not about nicking people (nobody wants to be writing statements and going to court). It's about looking after people that need looking after. Seen too many "friends" run away from a casualty. If they have taken something, tell security and medics - they are not interested in nicking you, they are interested in keeping people alive. Work with them. I have had many conversations in a green cloud with people over the last 30 years who think I am going to anally probe them because they smell of weed. Seriously, have fun but look after each other and don't die or end up with mass organ failure. Keep the idiots out and everyone else gets to have a lot more fun.

And no, I don't do choreographed dancing to Lionel sodding Richie. I like my festivals small and chilled...
 
One thing about Sgp security guards is that a lot of them are very keen because they seem to to recruit a-level leavers on the promise of putting them through the their SIA.
 
I think I've told this story before, but SGP is the very poster boy for aggressive, thieving security. They bare-facedly robbed a group of tent stoners under threatening bs of calling police.

That, and queues.
 
TheInsider said:
NOS is worrying not because it's dangerous, but because it's legal and untouchable - unless you are selling to under 18s who you know will abuse it. It's also being sold as part of gang-related issues, but the guys are generally really quite nice and treat it like a business model. I know some that made over £8k at Glasto for very little risk.
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TheInsider : Selling nitrous? How many people selling? Unless my maths is seriously out, to make that much they can surely have had little time to do anything else there at all?? :confused:

There was far less of it around at Glastonbury this year than in previous ones -- from what I saw/heard anyway. So I take it you mean some previous year.
 
we can only go down today because my gf had to work. is it worth going in the rain or just wait until tomorrow morning and get there in the dry?
 
William of Walworth said:
TheInsider : Selling nitrous? How many people selling? Unless my maths is seriously out, to make that much they can surely have had little time to do anything else there at all?? :confused:

There was far less of it around at Glastonbury this year than in previous ones -- from what I saw/heard anyway. So I take it you mean some previous year.
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It's a job. They go with the sole intent of selling on. Buy a pack of canisters. Sell them at £5 a balloon to the captive market. One canister does three balloons. Rinse and repeat. We are talking organised groups - we pick them up coming out from London and surrounding areas in multiple vehicles. It's very organised and a superb business model. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Chargers-Highest-Quality-Liss-Canisters/dp/B006GMFEA2 - £30 for 100 canisters. That's 300 balloons at £5 each (and we know they were charging and getting that because it's easier to move notes than cash - they never carry cash) - £1500 from a pack. Excellent return on investment. Talk to clean up crews about "not much use" - tent areas were smothered. Remember that these guys are not there to dance - they are there to make money. This is why they hand off the takings - less than £1K keeps them away from the proceeds of crime act.

Heard some horror stories from friends working there. General feeling of being unsafe, and that was from security staff. It would appear that some stories are coming out now - attacks and at least one rape, the rest looking like sexual assaults. Very messy.
 
sim667 said:
One thing about Sgp security guards is that a lot of them are very keen because they seem to to recruit a-level leavers on the promise of putting them through the their SIA.
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Very true - uni students often pick up a badge as a way of earning extra money. Lots of Masters students with me at the weekend at an event. Makes a nice change to be fair. However, security needs all sorts of skillsets - we've had guys bottled from behind, attacked, loads of arrests this year for assault on staff, including ticket staff, bar workers, car park stewards. Seems to be an odd atmosphere.
 
Lots of people told me that the vibe this year was different to previous.

Previously it was very hippy and this year they said the 'gardeners' just felt like ordinary festival goers.

It was still very hippy in the Lost Horizons area though. Lost count of how many convos I had with people about the environment. Chuffed that it was half price for crew.
 
Orang Utan said:
:(
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jul/26/secret-garden-party-rape-appeal-witnesses
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God, that's terrible.

The organisers of an arts and music festival are appealing for witnesses after a woman was allegedly raped in a tent.

Festivalgoers at the Secret Garden Party in Cambridgeshire were being asked if they had heard a woman screaming in the middle of the night following reports of the attack in the early hours of Friday.

Posters were reportedly put up around the site at Abbots Ripton in Huntingdon asking for help from anyone who was at the three-day festival. One said: “Police are appealing for any witnesses who might have heard screaming in the early hours of Friday morning, or seen/heard anything suspicious. Officers are warning Gardeners to be extremely vigilant and take care if deciding to take any substances.”
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