Avon and Somerset Police Glastonbury Festival webchat and advice

Police Sgt Shirley Eden, who is involved in the planning of the Police Operation at the Glastonbury Festival, and who has worked the Festival since 1993 when she was a mounted officer, took part in an Avon and Somerset Police webchat on Wednesday evening between 6.30 and 8.00pm.

Festival goers were able to log into the chat and ask questions about Police planning for Europe's biggest music festival, and in the 90 minute chat a wide variety of questions were asked and answered including ones concerning traffic management queries; crowd control; numbers of officers patrolling the festival; police handling of drug users and numbers of drug-related arrests in 2010; police interaction with onsite security as well as queries concerning the police helicopter, illegal traders and most importantly how to get backstage to meet Beyonce.

A full transcript of the chat can be viewed here.

The Police are quite visible around the site and include mounted officers as well as officers on mountain bikes who are able to nip around the site, so if you do encounter any problems they should be able to efficiently assist once alerted to a problem.

If you are planning to attend Glastonbury Festival this year, the Avon and Somerset Police have some useful advice:

Plan your journey carefully, check your vehicle is roadworthy, take plenty of food and water with you and be prepared for queues near the site.

Take along only what you need. Anything you do need should be registered for free on Immobilise (www.immobilise.com) before setting off and either keep it on your person or better still secure it in the free property lock-ups.

If a mobile phone is necessary it is best to find an old handset and bring that instead.  

On the site itself you should look out for your friends and ask them to look out for you. Try to travel around the site with your friends – particularly at night when it is dark and often disorientating. 

These days crime is actually very low at the Festival considering the amount of people in attendance and last year for example most of the reported incidents were either drug offences or thefts from tents.

Meanwhile, Festival-goers can stay up to date with Avon and Somerset Police news, photos and crime prevention advice online, on social media and through text messages both before and during the festival as follows:

Online at www.glastonburypolice.org 

On Twitter @PoliceatGlasto 

By text - Sign up to receive text messages by texting Glasto to 81819.