Deaf Nobby Burton

Well I learnt a lot about helicopters whilst I was walking my dogs.

Started spamming up my WhatsApp group with news/rumours from here to get the excitement going. They aren’t impressed as they don’t take it as seriously as me.

But that’s just taking it to the absolute extreme. They’re not like a ‘normal’ business, and very obviously they aren’t just our for profit to the point your suggestions above would ever happen, but ultimately if they don’t sell their tickets the festival wouldn’t be what it is, so they still have to think like a business to some extent. They have repeatedly shown they don’t have ever want to take their popularity for granted and assume it will always be an over subscribed success, hence a number of things they do are driven by ensuring the festival remains popular, and never just assuming it will. It’s not a binary situation between their absolute utopia and a capitalist money making machine, it’s far more nuanced that that.

I’ve always just assumed that was something agreed at the time any contracts were signed. I’d assumed some artists maybe insisted on announcing it themselves, and the others who don’t mind agree Glastonbury get to do it on their terms, perhaps in a creative way like they did with Radiohead, or perhaps collaboratively like they did with Foo Fighters. Obviously Glastonbury is crazy popular, but I don’t think they ever want to take that for granted so I always assumed some announcements were carefully timed to generate publicity and interest at certain points, maybe in the lul time in the few months after a sale, or before balance day or the resale, so not driven by the artist at all, presumably on their agreement. These are all just assumptions I had though, so could very easily be completely wrong! (I guess there is always just the possibility HS isn’t actually headlining of course)

I’ve always assumed Glastonbury had a big say in who announces what and when? Otherwise unless an artist was particularly worried about announcing Glastonbury affecting a tour selling, surely it would be in every artists interests to shout it from the roof tops as soon as they sign the contract? But they don’t, and the flow of announcements (especially big ones like headliners) is generally very considered, and more often than not announced by the festival themselves, often in a strategic and creative way.

I don’t think that’s how Glastonbury announcements work is it? I’d imagine in most years 90% of acts are signed 6/12 months before but we don’t get them all announcing it at that point do we?

What actually happened was that immediately after the main sale for 2017 I went on a deep dive looking for tickets, the people running that site said they had a couple of locals who sold tickets plus glamping in their gardens, but at the time they couldn’t commit to selling me them because they were waiting on other people who might want them. A few months later they got in contact to see if I was still interested as they had someone with availability, but I had subsequently committed to Love Fields, as that was the cheapest/best available out of all the options that actually had tickets. Bear in mind Love Fields didn’t advertise availability of tickets either, but they definitely had them as I booked them, and this was before the end of the year in 2016. I think there are two things to consider here, all these tickets are given out by Glastonbury to keep these people sweet and enable them to make a bit of money every year if they want to, rather than piss them off and be subject to a load of noise complaints etc. it stands to reason none of them are going to actively advertise they have these tickets, in fact I’d be absolutely amazed if it wasn’t an explicit condition of receiving them that they definitely don’t, but the reality is if you do some digging they are definitely there. That site said exactly the same thing back in 2016 but they still knew of people that had them. I’d imagine Love Fields get the most tickets (hence being a bit cheaper) due to their proximity to the festival, basically slap bang in the middle of it. I’d imagine they could be the most awkward if they wanted to be. The second thing to consider is the Festival has got more and more popular year on year, so these tickets get snapped up more quickly each time. I remember when I was looking for 2017 winding lake farm (https://www.windinglake.co.uk/home/festival-ticket/) did actively have them advertised for sale on their site (contrary to what I said above) along with various accommodation packages, you could just add them to your basket and pay (if you’re rich that is) but after the 2019 sale when my friends enquired with them, they had all gone already, and they only had a waiting list, same with Love fields. I’d imagine they all just have a growing base of repeat customers who are happy to commit to the following year each time and not worry about going through the main sale, making availability more and more scarce.

Just searched through my emails and it was the people who run this site: https://festivalsorted.co.uk It doesn’t say anything about tickets on the website, but at the time they definitely had contacts for some that did. Bear in mind this was five years ago though, so that situation may well have changed, but no harm in asking them.

I went don’t a massive rabbit hole looking for places that did tickets when I didn’t get them in the main sale, think it was 2017. There we’re definitely at least 5/6 places that did them but they just didn’t advertise it, I guess for obvious reasons. As local landowners they must all get a few tickets to keep them sweet and they use them to shift their accommodation where necessary. Most were prohibitively expensive, probably around the £4/5k mark on average. I can’t find her details anymore, but I also ended up in contact with a lady who knew a handful of very local residents who had tickets and set up tents in their gardens and sold them to people. Some were even within the grounds of the festival and they’d even installed outdoor showers for people who stayed every year. These weren’t actually too expensive, but they were a bit flakey as they were waiting on various people to confirm they wanted them before committing.

Prior to the 2019 festival they definitely advertised some last minute accommodation and ticket packages around end of May, they must’ve of got some tickets from the festival at the last minute. I also know that some friends who failed to get tickets in the October 2019 sale were immediately in conversation with them about trying to get a ticket + accommodation package and they’d gone already. They put them on a waiting and have been in regular conversation with them since. I haven’t seen these friends for a while but last thing they said was that Love Fields had told them they didn’t know how many additional tickets they might get, if any, but they were still on their list. tl;dr they would’ve been selling some ticket + accommodation packages immediately after the sale in 2019 but they all went straight away, they may end up with some more much closer to the time but there will be a big waiting list.

It’s unfortunate but still worth it. I’ve been biting my nails for the past 6 months or so awaiting the rearranged dates of 5 weddings, and I was convinced one would fall on Glastonbury, by some miracle none of them did. I’ve only been able to fully relax when I go the last date through a week or so back.

I’m sure the system would work fine, however if it was based on say, a QR code it would inevitably lead to tons of people turning up with pictures of peoples e-tickets they had been sold, a lot like what happened at the Euro final in the summer. Someone unscrupulous who got access to an e-ticket could easily sell it on to gullible people 1000+ times. Obviously they wouldn’t get in but it could lead to more people being defrauded.

I stayed at Love Fields one year due to not getting tickets, so bought one of their accommodation + ticket packages. The location is incredible compared to all the other glamping options (which I researched extensively at the time) many of which are miles and miles away. It’s literally right by Gate C, so depending on where you spend your time you’re closer to many parts than some of the campsites are anyway. Tons of showers too with no queues. I’d never do it out or choice if I had a ticket, but I have to say it’s location and the ability to have a shower every day, drive right up to your tent to unpack etc. (meaning you don’t have to worry about what you bring and can bring enough booze to easily last the whole weekend) was very nice indeed.