Tickets solding out faster and faster

[weirdforces]

10 minutes ago, maelzoid said:

The growth of festivals over the last 20 years has been phenomenal, despite the fact that consumption of recorded music seems to be on the wane.

I think it's rather because of the fact. Everyone can stream music cheaply or for free and a live experience is something special that people are willing to pay for.

[djdavejohnson]

I think also the growth in interest in live music / festivals is down to people generally wanting more than what was being offered, i.e. the same mundane clubs / bars every weekend. I reached a stage where I stopped going out as much because it just bored me, and instead thought I could save that money and go to see something I really wanna see, albeit on a more sporadic basis. It didn't matter though, I had stuff to look forward to.

Edited April 19, 2016 by djdavejohnson

[mirupuu]

I agree, a festival is an entirely different experience. I think a lot of people are also likely to go for the experience more than the music for example (hence the Kanye West nightmare of last year, where people that are interested with the music clashed with people just wanting a big experience). I personnally didn't do many festival and no real camping one, so hopefully, Glastonbury can be my first haha

[Joshuwarr]

People view festivals very differently now. I guess they were once seen as part of counterculture whereas now people view going to a music festival as like a holiday. I imagine that is partly down to cost but it's probably also because the larger festivals have much broader appeal and host facilities which cater for this. 

[shuttlep]

13 hours ago, Purple aki squat said:

The shame I feel.

I wouldn't ever use the term conjugate.

Conjugate isn't that something you get when you are in Prison and your wife visits?

 

I feel ashamed that that miripuu's English is far better than most of the youth today

[incident]

40 minutes ago, DareToDibble said:

Out of curiosity, why would they want to do that? Surely it looks better for the festival if it sells out in 10 minutes than 24 hours?

Once you get past the impact it has on consumers, I don't really see that it makes much difference.

You might get media stories about "fastest ever sell out" or whatever, but I figure most people realise that (regardless of whether any throttling is going on) those statements are utterly meaningless for any gig where initial demand exceeds supply. Glastonbury could sell out in 1 second if the technology was up to it and configured to allow it. But I don't think anyone would consider that a good thing?

Personally I think the current 20-30 minutes is a reasonable time window. I'd much rather have that than logging onto the web site at 9am and instantly being told "all tickets gone".

[feline]

1 hour ago, maelzoid said:

Festivals are way more popular now, and I think that is what is driving the prices up. Festivals in the early / mid 90s: Glastonbury, Reading (no Leeds) and Phoenix.

The growth of festivals over the last 20 years has been phenomenal, despite the fact that consumption of recorded music seems to be on the wane.

Just wondering then, how come getting tickets for other festivals is easier? Tickets for R&L went like hotcakes in 2009/10 (I sat at my computer for hours trying to get through), yet these days they're still for sale in the weeks before the festival. Is that to do with changing demographics of that particular festival, or might it be that if people are going to fork out over £200 they'd rather go to a new one/one like Glastonbury that has a ton more to offer on top of the music?

[eFestivals]

1 hour ago, DareToDibble said:

It's been interesting reading this thread as it never occured to me they might throttle the speeds (though it sounds like that probably doesn't happen as much - if at all - any more).

I'm pretty damned sure it does.

The coach sale took around 20 minutes to sell out last week - tho from posts on efests, it seems to be the case that no tickets were sold in the first 10 minutes (a glitch in the system I guess). It then took about 10 minutes for the resale tickets to sell out.

It's been 10 minutes for each of these in the last few years too.

I've no idea how many were in each sale, but it seems might odd that they took the same time.

 

1 hour ago, DareToDibble said:

Out of curiosity, why would they want to do that? Surely it looks better for the festival if it sells out in 10 minutes than 24 hours?

because people want to feel they got a fair chance of getting tickets, and if they don't the festival gets flack for it. I know for certain that they've throttled sales speed in the past, as I've been told it by both of See and the guy in change of tickets for Glasto.

I don't know for sure they're still throttling the sales speed, but the times taken to sell suggest they still do.

 

[ElLouise]

I think it since it started being shown on the BBC, the media coverage increased so more people became interested in going. Plus I think the main reason for them selling out faster is that the ticketing system has improved, so it can cope with more people buying them at once. I've been getting tickets for my dad since I was a kid and I've been going for the last 8 times. I think its a bit of both but mainly the ticket system has improved, I remember it when it was an hour and a half to get tickets and it wasn't because there weren't as many people getting them, it was because the system was slower and fewer people could buy them at once. You were just pressing F5 for a lot longer.

There are also fewer pages to go through than a few years ago, the main website would just crash where as now they simplify the page before ticket sales and before if you entered your details and the page went off you would have to start all over again. So it speeds things up for people. 

Also, I think the rise of popularity of festival's in general, is due to the music industry changing and downloads, people want to see live music same with how vinyl are growing in popularity it's something tangible.

To be honest I hope it doesn't get any quicker I don't think I can type that quick. Sorry for the essay! 

[cammie81]

I think social media has a lot to do with it also. Everyone thinks the festival they go to is the best one but when you start seeing pictures and videos of glastonbury you realise there is no place like it and the music is only a fraction of the story.

My first Glastonbury was 2011 so fairly new, but I reckon it must annoy the long timers that find it much more difficult to get to the festival now that word has spread.

[maelzoid]

26 minutes ago, cammie81 said:

My first Glastonbury was 2011 so fairly new, but I reckon it must annoy the long timers that find it much more difficult to get to the festival now that word has spread.

Yes. It does.

But don't worry, we ain't mad at ya.

[richroet]

18 hours ago, mirupuu said:

Hi guys, out of interest I was wondering how come in 2011 tickets sold out in 4 hours, down to 25min last year, and 30min this year. Surely there isn't any more hype nowadays around the festival than 4, 5 years ago. any ideas as to why?

Pretty sure that 2011 was the year that they had issues with the servers and hardly any sales were made in the first 90 minutes until it was resolved. A genius on here spotted their mistake and posted a fix to get around the issue before it was fixed. I like many others benefitted from this and had our tickets in the bag before they fixed it. Not the first time on here people have found routes in I think.

Prior to 2011 I had my tickets twice before they went on sale by guessing the extension based on the previous years link - all it took was changing from g2009 to g2010 for example. It seems all these guesses and backdoors are a thing of the past now.

I think the 15 to 25 minute main sale time is probably here to stay now

[eFestivals]

1 hour ago, ElLouise said:

I think it since it started being shown on the BBC, the media coverage increased so more people became interested in going.

i'd say the biggest single TV effect was from when channel 4 broadcast it. The next year was the first silly year.

[shoptildrop]

1 hour ago, feline said:

Just wondering then, how come getting tickets for other festivals is easier? Tickets for R&L went like hotcakes in 2009/10 (I sat at my computer for hours trying to get through), yet these days they're still for sale in the weeks before the festival. Is that to do with changing demographics of that particular festival, or might it be that if people are going to fork out over £200 they'd rather go to a new one/one like Glastonbury that has a ton more to offer on top of the music?

with Leeds/Reading my view (as someone who went for many years) is that:

• Price is getting higher for core base 
• Less stuff going on, yeah there is now all these dance stages but it came at the expense of other stuff 
• I don't think the dance direction has helped as it just dilutes the festival
• too many repeats within the lineup
• They have reduced number of bars the b*stards!! 

[clarkete]

4 hours ago, saintfletch said:

I sent feedback via email after missing out in the resale in 2013 after getting through 2 or 3 times to enter my details and getting booted out. I kept it very constructive and polite and thought nothing more of it. 2 days later I got a call from SeeTickets saying that they had been contacted by the festival asking them to call me and put my order through. I did tweet about this at the time and found that this happened to one other person. Very lucky indeed and forever grateful to them.

Yes, I've had that once too, may have been that year and it's the only time across 4 decades that I've heard of such a thing, so I felt truly blessed and kept schtum about it

I had a specific issue, which likewise I was constructive and polite about, with no expectation of anything, I just wanted to say what happened.  I haven't the slightest idea why they helped me though - some of the years since I've wished I did!

[fluff164]

28 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

i'd say the biggest single TV effect was from when channel 4 broadcast it. The next year was the first silly year.

Totally agree. I missed that 94 due to my daughter being born, but when I returned there were certainly more bucket hats than dreadlocks! 

[Cheesey]

The superfence made a big difference too. In 2002, when the fence was introduced, it was trivial to get tickets - they were on sale for months. People generally didn't believe the fence was going to work, so they didn't think they needed to buy a ticket.

As it turned out the fence was incredibly successful, and in 2003 the tickets sold out within a day or two. In 2004 the whole process became extremely stressful and it's been that way since, apart from a blip in 2008 due to the Jay-Z effect (combined with the shocking weather in 2007).

[mandb]

One year not that long ago, I think it was straight after the two incredibly wet years (about 6,7 years ago), the tickets did not sell out for weeks. 

Can someone confirm that ?  I might just be dreaming but Im sure that was the case !!

[Cheesey]

13 minutes ago, mandb said:

One year not that long ago, I think it was straight after the two incredibly wet years (about 6,7 years ago), the tickets did not sell out for weeks. 

Can someone confirm that ?  I might just be dreaming but Im sure that was the case !!

2008 - tickets only sold out shortly before the festival. As I said above, probable reasons were Jay-Z headlining, and the weather in 2007 (and 2005).

[Fishman]

1 hour ago, Cheesey said:

2008 - tickets only sold out shortly before the festival. As I said above, probable reasons were Jay-Z headlining, and the weather in 2007 (and 2005).

Can I just add that the Jay-Zed effect had very little to do with it - it was the weather from 2007.

I've been to muddier ('97 & '98), seen heavier rain ('98 & '05) but it was the god-awful relentlessness of it all. 

We were a group of around 20 in 2007, and that dropped to 5 in 2008. Add to that the grim pictures broadcast to the nation and people find other things to do. Nice sunny one the telly and everyone is interested again.

[Cheesey]

4 minutes ago, Fishman said:

Can I just add that the Jay-Zed effect had very little to do with it - it was the weather from 2007.

I've been to muddier ('97 & '98), seen heavier rain ('98 & '05) but it was the god-awful relentlessness of it all. 

We were a group of around 20 in 2007, and that dropped to 5 in 2008. Add to that the grim pictures broadcast to the nation and people find other things to do. Nice sunny one the telly and everyone is interested again.

I agree 2007 was bloody awful, and it obviously had an effect.

IIRC there was a weird mini-backlash going on against Glastonbury at the time as well though. Not just because of Jay-Z headlining, but there was the whole thing about "boutique" festivals, and loads of them were appearing all over the place. Glastonbury became slightly uncool for a brief period.

[Muppetmark]

4 hours ago, eFestivals said:

I'm pretty damned sure it does.

The coach sale took around 20 minutes to sell out last week - tho from posts on efests, it seems to be the case that no tickets were sold in the first 10 minutes (a glitch in the system I guess). It then took about 10 minutes for the resale tickets to sell out.

It's been 10 minutes for each of these in the last few years too.

I've no idea how many were in each sale, but it seems might odd that they took the same time.

 

I got through and was done by 9:02 on Thursday and Ive heard quite a few other people done similarly quickly

[stuartbert two hats]

1 hour ago, Cheesey said:

The superfence made a big difference too. In 2002, when the fence was introduced, it was trivial to get tickets - they were on sale for months. People generally didn't believe the fence was going to work, so they didn't think they needed to buy a ticket.

As it turned out the fence was incredibly successful, and in 2003 the tickets sold out within a day or two. In 2004 the whole process became extremely stressful and it's been that way since, apart from a blip in 2008 due to the Jay-Z effect (combined with the shocking weather in 2007).

It's a long time ago so memory may be failing me, but I remember the tickets in 2002 selling out pretty sharpish - so fast in fact that I was totally caught off guard.  I thought I had forever to get the money sorted and ended up not getting a ticket.  Funds were decidedly more scarce in those days!"

Actually, I've just checked and it took eight weeks, so I really had no-one to blame but myself http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1951143.stm

[Cheesey]

1 minute ago, stuartbert two hats said:

It's a long time ago so memory may be failing me, but I remember the tickets in 2002 selling out pretty sharpish - so fast in fact that I was totally caught off guard.  I thought I had forever to get the money sorted and ended up not getting a ticket.  Funds were decidedly more scarce in those days!"

Actually, I've just checked and it took eight weeks, so I really had no-one to blame but myself http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/1951143.stm

Lots of people were caught out in 2003 - maybe you're remembering that year? I think they sold out in 24-48 hours.

[stuartbert two hats]

9 minutes ago, Cheesey said:

Lots of people were caught out in 2003 - maybe you're remembering that year? I think they sold out in 24-48 hours.

No, 2002 for sure.  I changed jobs at the end of 2003, so I remember where I was when I tried (and failed) to get tickets via a reseller. 

EDIT: The point I forgot to mention is I couldn't get the time off in my new job in 2003, so didn't try for them that year.

Edited April 19, 2016 by stuartbert two hats