Festival Crime at Record Low

23 Jun 2004

This year's Glastonbury Festival is set to be the most crime-free event yet as latest police figures show just nine incidents have been reported so far.

More than 41,000 festival-goers braved heavy rain and high winds to arrive at Worthy Farm after gates opened on Wednesday.

But latest crime figures from the festival show arrests and reported crimes are at an all time low, with just four crimes reported by this morning (Thursday) compared with 37 during the same period last year.

Superintendent Adrian Coombs, who is masterminding the million-pound police operation at this year's festival, attributed the drop in crime to Glastonbury’s new security fence and good co-operation between police and festival security teams.

“It is a tremendous achievement,” he said. “Obviously it is our objective to reduce crime as much as we can so we are very pleased with the figures.

“The fence has had a terrific impact on the festival. Ever since it was introduced in 2002 crime has been heading downward. The second reason for the reduction is the partnerships we have formed with other security agencies this year.”

Festival-goers have welcomed the drop in crime. First-time Glastonbury visitors Tony, 22 and Amy, 21, from Southampton, were surprised at the lack of trouble.

“Wherever we look there have been a lot of police around,” said Amy. “My image of Glastonbury was that everyone was going to be drunk and out of it but the majority of people are just chilling out and having a good time.”

Tony agreed: “It just comes down to common sense. You just do not leave anything valuable in your tent and keep an eye on your things. We have definitely noticed a lot of police and security people around too.”

Another reveler, 24-year-old Steph from Manchester, said: We have not noticed any crime at all. It has been a really good atmosphere so far.”

Reported crime at the festival has dropped 70 per cent from 2,400 incidents in 2000 to 700 last year.

Will Saunders

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