We went to see Take That at the Milton Keynes bowl yesterday. It was amazing, but ruined by the traffic arrangements afterwards!
At the Bowl, everyone parks in fields with a road down the middle. What is supposed to happen is that you get back to your car, wait for the site to be cleared of pedestrians (they close roads for people to walk to their cars on) and then everyone is let out along the road. We were back to our car fairly speedily and took up our place on the road. However, due to the fact there were no marshalls at all, people started other queues on the grass either side of the road, and these queues were then let out first! So much for doing the right thing and getting out first! We got in the car at 11pm and eventually left the car park at 1am.
Then, it must be all of about 10 miles from the bowl to the M1, but this took a further two hours to travel! There were no marshalls, no police and no highways agency people, unless you count the ones who were just sat there watching everyone in the queues. Once we got to the M1 it was empty, so surely there was a better way of getting all the traffic out of the town. It's not as if this was a one off event - the Milton Keynes Bowl hosts loads of events every year. It can't be like that every time, surely? I used to live in a city that had a premiership football team and when people were leaving the ground on match days, surrounding routes were closed off for an hour to get everyone out of the city as fast as possible. It was a bit inconvenient for the locals, but ultimately we got our city back to normal more quickly. I don't understand why it was such a mess, especially in Milton Keynes which was designed around the car!
Rant over. Take That were fantastic, so I don't really mind that I didn't get home until gone 4am. Has anyone else got any similar tales?
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Similar tales?
At practically every major event I have ever attended, including Superbikes at Brands Hatch where it took an hour and a half to get out of the car park, which contained bikes only.
Very brave of you to admit to going to see Take That, by the way.
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Yes, although not as bad - open-air VE-day commemorative concert at Petworth Park, W. Sussex in 1995, to which a 19-year-old paulb was lured by parents with the promise of much drink paid for by other people (forgive me, I was a student...)
Main memory of the event is taking 2 hours to get out of a field somewhere about 3 miles away where we had been told to park and my father's woeful Rover 820 SLi choosing that moment to spring a coolant leak, so we ended up sitting in a cloud of steam with people going "ooh, look at that car, it's broken down!" - this about ten days after my mother's 214 had done a K-series and popped its head gasket on the M4.
Some nice people with a bottle of water topped up the 820's header tank and my Dad then decided to drive home at 80 mph, "before all the water runs out again". Nice one, Dad! (Although we did indeed get home before all the water ran out, so I guess it was OK...) :-)
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We went to see Take That at the Milton Keynes bowl yesterday.
Why don't you email whoever operates the bowl and see what they say - they may think everyone's happy as no-one ever complains? Possibly mention that it would make you reconsider going to an event there again?
I'm in Florida at WaltDisneyWorld at the moment and it's almost sickening to see how well Disney deals with *vast* quantities of people and traffic, especially when a lot of people leave at the same time after a show etc.
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As someone who operates a car service - mainly airports, but I do other longer distance trips as well, I won't accept bookings from people returning from events such as that described, for the same reason that the OP found.
Twickenham, Ascot, Wimbledon and the like are, quite literally a waste of time. You can mormally get in ok, but you can't get out.
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Its in the event organisers interests to ensure everyone gets in as promptly as possible. Once the event's finsihed I guess they're not bothered - its your time and petrol that's being wasted, not theirs.
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I saw Bon Jovi there recently - we sat in the car park for about 45 minutes going no where, then saw some people cutting across the field, onto a pavement, along the pavement and onto the road. (We didn't know this at the time, we thought it just went onto the road)
We were the last ones to make it through before the police arrived :^D
The drop ripped a side skirt off the drivers Mini Cooper S though!
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PG
Tiz no good ranting on here 'cept getting some internal satisfaction and letting off a bit of steam.
WRITE to the Police of the area, copy to the Local Authority (who no doubt would licence the event and also to the organisers.
Strange as it may seem they not be aware of what you (and others) suffered.
dvd
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DVD..I know it will make no difference ranting on here, but I was interested to hear others' experiences.
I'm not going to write to the police as it's nothing to do with them - as with other major events, the promoters and stadium are supposed to put their own arrangements in place - but I may drop the promoters an email.
I have to say it was fun being the only car on the M25 at 4am this morning!
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SWIMBO and I went to the premier classic bike show in the midlands one year. We were ushered into the carpark (field) by very polite marshals (real middle aged gentlemen) and lined up neatly, a considerable way in from the entrance. We decided to leave well before the close to ensure that we didn't have any hassle as previously described. When we got to the car we found ourselves parked in three ranks instead of two, us at the back. We also found that two young chaps in the car in front of us had just finished trying to leave by skidding their car from side-to-side along the row, leaving great furrows. They were FURIOUS, and said that it was my fault for not being observant. If SWIMBO had not been there I would almost certainly have been beaten up.
Since then we have not been to any function in the car.
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SWIMBO and I went . If SWIMBO had not been there I would almost certainly have been beaten up. Since then we have not been to any function in the car.
>>
What does the 'I' in 'SWIMBO' stand for?
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What does the 'I' in 'SWIMBO' stand for?
immediately?
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I saw Bon Jovi there recently
Last time I went to the Bowl was back in the late eighties, ironically also to see Bon Jovi. Seems things haven't improved one bit, as it also took forever to get out of the car park back then as well.
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Went to Knebworth to see the Pink Floyd many years ago.
We were lucky, they moved our car park an hour after the concert ended, but a work colleague who was parked in a different car park there didn't leave until 3.00am.
Many people who went to Knebworth for Robbie Williams on Friday evening missed the concert completely due to the excessive traffic on the A1(M)
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Glad you posted that PG, as my sister is going to the very same event. I now might ring her and inform her of what's in store!
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A few hours in a queue, pah! My uncle went to the Isle of Wight Festival in 1970 and didn't get home until three months later!
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Despite being well marshalled, the RIAT at Fairford is the opposite. It takes hours to get in and getting out is not too bad.
Joe
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As I alluded to on another thread, I went to see The Who (plus The Eels, Super Furry Animals, Zutons (aright 'dere la) and the fantastic Flaming Lips if anyone's interested) on Sunday. 2 hours to get out of Harewood House, another half hour to get to Armley (North Leeds). After that, it took me only 1 hour 10 mins to do 85 odd miles from Leeds to Nantwich!!!!!
I can't imagine what to do to improve things, but heavens it must annoy the local residents to have people queueing past their houses at 1am!!! I know I would kill somebody....
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Armley is in West Leeds! Did you have to go there? Seems a strange place to end up to get from Harewood House to Nantwich. Only way to avoid the queues is to leave early.
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If anyone's coming to the race at Donnington this weekend, local radio is warning of horrific traffic problems from Friday rising to a peak on Sunday. There are signs springing up all over the area directing vehicles to multiple exits from the M1 and other incoming routes, depending on the direction of approach and what type of vehicle (bikes one way, cars another) and heaven help anyone trying to get a flight out of Eat Midlands airport!
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Yes, Dave, Armley is West Leeds not North! Lazy thinking by me.
I did have to go there prior to the blast back to Cheshire as my girlfriend lives there! She declined my suggestion of a taxi or a bus... : )
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I trust she doesn't live in the big house in Armley with castellated walls and bars at the windows!
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What, Mike's Carpets?!!!! : )
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In my younger days some friends and I attended several such events and developed a strategy for dealing with exit problems.
Basicly we would drive parallel to the queue cutting in towards the front. When we got there all the passengers would get out of the car and, smiling sweetly, go and sit in front of the car we wanted to cut in front of. We got hooted at of course but nobody was actually prepared to kill to keep their place in the queue. Wouldn't like to chance it today.
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I always leave such things early, even if it means missing the award cermony or main attraction, I was brought up to avoid the mass exodus. Why am I telling you this?
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With Take That, I would have thought the mass exodus would have been when they started singing ... ;-)
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Hee hee! Well, I tend to agree with the leaving early scenario, but it was The Who!!! Didn't want to miss the last bits. Sad hey?!
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