Can someone please explain to me why we can't take cans and bottles into campsite/arena etc but lots of people had cans and bottles.
Where they guests, production crew & performers as it seemed to be ? or did FR lose the plot and stalls weren't using Latitude cups?
Normal campers seemed to be targeted for strict searches and then in the arena no-one was saying why have you got a bottle....... Very puzzled .....

most of the WBC Staff { they run the bars } are volunteers who do not get paid direct but they do get two drinks tokens per day which can be used for a can of beer or a plastic bottle of Cider from the Welcome bar so I expect you spotted some of them walking about.
 
It used to be any drink but they have now reduced the choice.
 
So the cans and bottles you see have not been brought in via a staff gate they are coming direct from the Welcome bar { the only bar in the arena that accepted drinks tokens }

Ah that makes more sense.
But one day I forgot to drop one of my cans of coke back to the tent, so the steward said I could decant it into a plastic bottle if I so wished. But this goes against the 'unopened bottle' policy. It's so stupid. I also saw people having their bottles of SEALED water taken away!!!

I took in plenty of cans each day. There are ways to sneak them in. Saved me a lot of monies!

What is with the lack of soft drink choice? I'm not much of a fan of Pepsi, Tango, 7up  or Redbull but that was about it and what the hell happened to the water supply this time?

Smuggling drinks in is pretty easy, to be honest... Added to the fun of it all! Making up excuses just in case you were caught was a laugh too - I was ready to proclaim myself as a transsexual ;) One of the staff even asked me what I was smuggling in on the Sunday, I told him, he just laughed and let me through. 

They got really strict on Sunday, I got a full body search every time I entered the arena on Sunday, whereas other days they didn't bat an eyelid.

Damaris


They got really strict on Sunday, I got a full body search every time I entered the arena on Sunday, whereas other days they didn't bat an eyelid.

Only some of the security guys were patting down, so it was easy to swap queues! (though why they didn't see this as suspicious behavior....)

My bag didn't get looked in at all.  I was quite disappointed as it must mean that I look like goody two shoes.. I suppose they were right as I wasn't smuggling in anything.  Maybe next year then..

Am also a goody two shoes - only once did my bag get actually looked in. By Sunday I was brave enough to smuggle some cans in ;) not in the bag though ;)

The great thing about looking like a goody-two-shoes is that it's easier to get away with things when you're really not ;) 
I started to get pretty daring, and had the bottles obviously coming out of my pockets and still didn't get a second glance. I think they just get lazy!

I did think it harsh to ban family groups from bringing in tea, coffee and cartons of Ribena, until they started spreading their stashes of illicit booty onto rugs and setting up camp on the floor of the Word Arena. It's not Pleasurewood Hills and it's not Rock and Roll.

Didn't get searched once, some of them were apparently much stricter than others. 

One of the women security women to be honest didn't give a cr@p, oh well.

However on sunday night did see some coked up Jack wills teenager getting detained to be arrested for having drugs on him in the arena gate though . BIG LOL.  

I feel quite broody after smuggling the bag from a box of red wine in down my front last night. It also proved a good way of getting it from chilled to as drinkable as wine in a bag can get.
 
(Special thanks to the family across from us who dicked off early on Sunday and left a super pile of booze and bottled water behind - lovely gesture)