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Jumpers
This page is provided only for information, it does not apply to the 2002 festival.
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Jumpers
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I used to be a jumper. It is a shameful admission - sometimes. It seems to depends who I'm talking to. Jumping over the wall ( or tunnelling under it, or blagging around it) causes a fair few problems every year at the festival and I find myself in the strange position of partly condemning something I used to freely boast about.
"Yeah, I got in for nothing."
"You should have seen us."
"Well, there was this bloke with a rope ladder, pole, human cannon��"
I can't say it bothers me when I see bags come flying over the back of the sacred space or witness someone skulking around the gates, waiting for the security guide to suffer a viscious bout of sneezing. I really don't mind - but it's more complicated than that. The reality is that jumpers threaten the future of the festival . Ever increasing, uninvited numbers, most of whom bring their cars along make some of the Pilton locals very cross and the political situation more difficult for the organisers. Then there is the tent thing. People who buy tickets, park legally and walk through the pedestrian gates usually bring a tent with them. Jumpers sometimes don't - so they haven't got shelter. I'm not saying bunking over the wall is going to end up in tent theft - but there are over a thousand reports of stolen tents every year and the need for shelter is probably a more likely cause than opportunist second hand camping equipment dealers.
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The first time I 'jumped' I crawled under the fence. In those days the fence was more chicken wire, less concrete force field. The next time I climbed over and got caught. I was sitting in the back of a landrover waiting to be thrown off site when a walkie talkie message beeped through
" There's a fence coming down.Let all the jumpers go."
"That's me!" I said.
"Give us twenty quid." said the scouser - and that of course is another problem - not scousers, but dodgy security personnel.
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There are arguments both ways; some would say the festival has grown too big and too expensive. Credit card phone and web purchases are closed to many festival goers. The camping facilities are crap. Well, the camping facilities would be much better if all those jumpers hadn't encroached on the people who paid ninety quid for the privilege. Further tightening of security would put off most free-thinking people. No one wants to sit in a tipi field surrounded by German Shepherds and barbed wire but what about the increasing numbers of jumpers ?
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At the moment there is a delicate balance. It works - just. I won't jump any more because I can afford to buy a ticket and I'm far too scared of spraining something. I don't resent the people who do jump so long as they don't nick my tent or pitch their tents on top of mine. But there are other ways of getting in for nothing. Check the website under the heading JOBS, on line from September-ish. If you're really good you might even get one of those neon bracelet thingies to wave in the face of the security guard you bribed last year.
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Sandy Francis
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Editor's Note:
This view is not the official view of the festival, but that expressed by the writer. To come to the festival without paying for a ticket is theft from the festival and the thousands of people who work hard to make the festival happen. Many do it as volunteers to help the good causes, or for very low rates of pay, no one gets rich out of Glastonbury Festival, except the good causes. There are many opportunities for people to get into Glastonbury who can't afford the ticket from litter picking to performing. See this web site for further details.
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