What an absolute scandal !
How many people must have been late for work,missed vital appointments ( eg hospital ) missed trains etc. not to mention the knock-on effect elsewhere of the bus hold-ups.
And where were the police when they were so badly needed - trapped in their on-the-doorstep police station? Control at the main Crossgates roundabout would have enabled traffic going towards the A63 to get through. Similarly with traffic going into town. One final thought: it's just as well York Races were cancelled that day!
EB(York Road)


The traffic situation was a total shambles causing no end of problems for festival goers and residents alike.
I agree it is only for one day, but I am now without a fridge freezer because the delivery driver spent so long in the traffic queue he ran out of time and could not complete my delivery.
Also, can anyone from the highways agency explain why there were no reports of jams on any of the main traffic web sites, (The AA, BBC and their own web site)?
And why the only two Jamcams that were "offline" were those that would have displayed the failure of their traffic (mis)management for all the world to see?
I hope Metallica were as good as I remember them and that the people who were at the festival forgot all about their nightmare journey, at least until they got home, then I hope it all comes flooding back so they can complain to the relevant people.
Maybe they can remind them that the big long stretch of tarmac that runs past the venue is a MOTORWAY and that it was designed to carry large volumes of traffic in relative ease to their chosen destinations, in this case Bramham Park, which just happens to have a motorway exit right outside its front door.
Martin

I was stuck in the traffic jam for 11 and a half hours - with no toilet facilities for the whole time. The traffic management was a farce - the signposting was inadequate, and without knowing the route or the distance involved, I was unaware that it would take so long to get to the site.
Once on the site, and my passengers deposited, I exited the site as directed, only to end up joining the queue of traffic waiting to go into the car parks.
What idiot decided that it would be a good idea to direct the exiting traffic to the car park queue? The whole traffic situation was a catalogue of disasters, but thankfully, the etiquette among the delayed drivers was impeccable - everyone was well mannered and nobody lost their tempers.
The festival organisers need to be brought to book for their lack of foresight and for putting drivers in danger - yes it is dangerous being behind the car for that length of time - and they should not be allowed permission for further event without the appropriate planning in place.
Kathryn Fairs


We travelled over from Grimsby to drop our daughter at the festival. We followed the signs from the A1 down the A58 and got completely gridlocked.
We took about one-and-a-half hoursto travel a mile. Not knowing how far we were from the festival, my daughter and I decided to get out of the car and walk and leave my wife to continue driving in the traffic.
After walking for about two miles, we were told we were still between six and eight miles away from the festival. It was then we met a fantastic local man and his wife, who not only told us of a short cut down some back roads to the rear entrance of the festival, but actually took us there in their own car.
I am amazed at the generosity of these people, who not only have to put up with the traffic mayhem outside their front door, but also who went out of their way to help a couple of complete strangers to get to the festival.
I don't know who you are, but if this gets printed and you are reading this you have restored my faith in human nature. I cannot pass on enough thanks for what you did. They even dropped me back a few hundred yards away from my wife in our car. Thank you once again.
Andrew Dewhurst

The traffic problems are always the same, in my opinion there are two quite simple solutions:
1. Don't let any festival traffic to come off the motorway at J46, the colton turn off, make them use the A1 M1 link as it was designed to be used, to divert traffic away from the A64, and make them turn off at the actual junction for Bramham.
2. Move the festival back to Temple Newsam. Temple Newsam is situated much closer to the motorway and is much easier for the music fans to get to. However local residents would have the same problems with traffic, but nowhere near the number of problems that are caused by blocking the A64 and the Ring Road.
I also think it is very unfair that the only local people that seem to benefit from the festival are the residents of Thorner. I do not see why every house in the village is entitled to free tickets, when they are not really affected by the festival. There is no access to the festival through Thorner, so they are not affected at all compared to the people that live in Halton, Crossgates, Whinmoor and Seacroft, where the roads are blocked solid for the duration of the festival.
The main people who are affected by the festival do not get anything back from the festival and if it carries on in the unorganised fashion that has for the past few years I for one can't see it lasting much longer.
LIAM

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Liam is absolutely spot on when he points out that Thorner residents get free (although I think it is discounted price) tickets. I wonder how many of them have ended up on ebay? There were no such concessions for people who live near Temple Newsam when the festival was there. And guess what? The people who are disrupted by the festival are not those living in Thorner, but the residents of LS15. It's unbelievably stupid to take the traffic off the A1/M1 link.
Arthur, Whitkirk

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My wife and daughter are going to the Festival – they have now been in a traffic jam approaching the site for seven hours!
I hope that the people who are directing the traffic don't organise any events in a brewery.
John – Hebden Bridge

Main Leeds Festival route at standstill

Leeds Festival gridlock nightmare SLIDESHOW

SLIDESHOW: Mudbath at Leeds Festival

It's unfortunate for everyone stuck in traffic, no-one likes delays and traffic jams, but there have been plenty of signs on major routes around the festival for a few weeks now alerting people to the delays, so I think the organisers have done plenty to warn people to avoid the routes. The weather hasn't helped but no-one can prepare for that.
HELEN, Leeds.

It's ridiculous that the traffic for the festival is taken off the M1 at J46 and then routed through the narrow outer ring road and up the single lane A64 when they could be taken directly to the entrance of Bramham park just a couple of junctions further, all to avoid a right turn into the venue.
Surely there must be more intelligent traffic management options available which would avoid unnecessary congestion. Since the A64 is practically useless for all but festival traffic at this time why not make a one way section down from the motorway to the venue and use both lanes for a short while, it's only a few hundred yards after all.
ROB M

I agree with Helen there have been notices along the route for several days now, but I like many other people do not have a choice of which route to take. Our places of work and where we live dictate the routes we have to take. I for one was over half an hour late for work this morning and that was going in the opposite direction to the festival traffic.
I felt sorry for the regular commuters stuck on their inbound journey along the ring road. Most of this was due to the stupidity of selfish drivers blocking roundabouts we had gridlock in all directions. I had to bypass junction 46 where I would normally get on to the motorway and drive down to the George roundabout in Garforth, then through Woodlesford and Oulton just to take up my journey at junction 44.
Why not use the motorway for the festival traffic after all they are supposed to be there to keep high volume traffic moving.
ANNE S

I stupidly forgot about the festival traffic and left my home in Collingham at 11.30 yesterday morning to deliver some work to a client in Leeds.
I passed through Scarcroft and then hit standstill traffic on the A58. Many drivers were out of their vehicles and sitting eating makeshift meals on the roadside. Many left buses and started walking, some with extremely heavy pack packs. I could see that they were walking in the direction that the festival signs told them to go. Little would some of them realise that these signs were doubling or tripling their journey in the supposed cause of traffic management.
I could see no evidence whatsoever of ANY traffic management. All I could witness was GROSS mismanagement of the traffic. There was not a police officer or an events traffic manager in sight anywhere!
I was becoming ill and at 2.30pm I had only managed to reach The Wellington Pub just a mile from where I had first hit the traffic jam. I have a tracheotomy and COPD and am dependant upon nebulisers and suction equipment and was by then in need of medication, so I had no choice but to turn around and go home without delivering my work. Yesterday evening I left here to go to a meeting in Leeds and took the advice of a taxi driver friend and went towards Boston Spa and entered the motorway from the redeveloped roundabout under the A1/M1 and then took the exit for the old York Road and went down past all the traffic queuing on the other side of that very old and very narrow carriage way.
I passed mile after mile after mile of traffic at a total standstill. Everybody was out of their vehicles and sat on the roadside.
In horror I realised that I was actually passing the old blue bus that I had been driving behind on the A58 at 2.30pm when I had abandoned my earlier journey. That bus was still miles from its destination at 5pm and had been in front of me in the morning six hours at that point! It was stood still on the old York Road heading in the direction of the festival as I passed it going the other way.
There was not a policeman or police vehicle anywhere on my entire journey. There was no management of the traffic other than the ridiculous signs which created the problems in the first place. Someone's job should be at stake over this because not only have they put tens of thousands of festival goers through unbelievable stress and horror, but also locals in all parts of Leeds, Wetherby, Collingham, Bramham and the dozens of other areas affected.
And worse than that, they have created a massive additional burden on the environment with huge amounts of extra fuel needed for the exceptionally long diversions and the amount of time being stood with engines running.
The cynic in me wonders if the police apathy and event organisers' apathy stems from the fact that a fairly large percent of the festival goers are from a financially challenged part of our society, i.e. students, travellers, etc.
Yes I realise that the event is attended by people from many walks of life, but I had many hours yesterday to 'People Watch' and I observed happy, easy going people who had a patient attitude but of which there was a very significant percentage who were not dressed in designer clothes or even in modern trendy high street purchases.
It struck me that there was always a significant, well actually, a MASSIVE police presence for the concerts at Harewood House at the other end of Harewood Lane which leads into my village.
There is always superbly smooth police traffic management of those concerts and of other high profile events attended by people at Harewood and also at Roundhay Park.
So surely the key question here is why in all those hours during two different periods of time yesterday was there not one police officer anywhere in sight? Might that be because the police do not have enough respect for this particular event and its attendees?
Might it be a way of causing it to be cancelled in future by actively ensuring total chaos on this occasion? And why aren't the event organisers more in evidence? Shame on all of you for creating such utterly unnecessary chaos and delays!
JO HOURIGAN


While I would agree that the traffic has been much heavier than usual, to describe it as bedlam and meltdown is nonsense.
I live in Cross Gates and passed the traffic on the Ring Road/Station Road three times yesterday evening. I saw no bad behaviour, simply stationary traffic.
I feel sorry for any locals who were stuck in it, but most of us know to avoid that stretch on the day before the festival and take a detour.
IAN, LEEDS