On the gate

An interesting weekend, working as a volunteer steward at Charles Hazlewood’s excellent Orchestra in a Field festival at Glastonbury.

I was sent off to assist at orange gate - the artistes’ entrance.  It was quite an eye-opener. 

All were supposed to have tickets, but many turned up on the assumption that their claim as a performer or “friend of one of the organisers” would be sufficient to get in.  Even more interesting was the responses to being challenged, which varied from friendly and co-operative to downright rude and arrogant.   

The security people were excellent and left me thinking what a difficult job they had for probably little more than minimum wage.  They were also doing very long shifts, with periods of tedium interspersed with potentially challenging encounters. 

It was an interesting exhibition of power-play :  someone with fairly low status in society’s pecking order deciding whether to admit someone who clearly thought themselves at the opposite end of the spectrum. 

It didn’t particularly surprise me to observe that those who were conciliatory and reasonable got the best outcome, while the “don’t you know who I am?” approach frequently back-fired.

I came away with increased respect for the potentially tricky job the security people were doing.  They dealt with everyone in a friendly and positive manner, and with a bit of humour thrown in.  I don’t know what the entry qualifications are, but those that I saw all deserved an A* for people skills.