Why has Glastonbury got so popular?

[jeffie]

The simple answer is becauise it's bloody brilliant.

A lot of people who go once, want to go again, those who went in the earliest days and since are potentially still fit enough to be going, so the available pool of people grows each year.

[MEGABOWL]

This talk of Glastonbury 2009 selling out in October isn't right....I didn't get mine til January 2009. Had wanted to go for years but with uni and school never could, never really considered it that year until I saw Blur were announced and I realised I could finally go! Then the Springsteen rumours hit full force and I convinced three friends to go. I remember booking on my birthday, tickets were gone 10 days later after Bruce was announced I think

[Guest]

yeh I guess, I;ve only been back there once but I guess it cant really ever have expanded. But add that bit to all the other areas on site and there must be loads of them.

What really irritates me is they have these massive camping areas and when you look through a crack in their heavily guarded security fences, the tents arent tightly grouped at all. They could have half the space that is allocated and still all fit in there.

[russycarps]

I don't think some space between the tents is much to ask if your a performer.

[Spindles]

Indeed, everyone I've met with access to such areas has been either meeja types, minor aristocracy or just extremely wealthy types who don't actually camp.

[Alcatraz]

now I don't have a clue when they got a website but using wayback the first site I can see is 2000

http://web.archive.org/web/20000622000713/http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/2000/tickets.html

play about with the links and you can even see a map for 2000.

[eFestivals]

now I don't have a clue when they got a website but using wayback the first site I can see is 2000

can anyone recall seeing a official site before 2000 ?

I can give you the exact details.

In 1998 The Guardian did an official website (on the domain glastonbury98.co.uk), that was rubbish. It was so rubbish that I thought "I can do better than that". So I did.

That website then moved to the domain that I bought for it, glastonbury-festival.co.uk. At some point in late '98/early '99 it became the Festival's official website for 1999.

In early 2000 the festival offered to buy it from me, which would have seen me get just 75p an hour (and nothing else) for the work i'd put into that website. So I declined that offer and suggested they come back with an improved one, which they didn't do.

They then created their own website on the domain they use today, as their official site which launched in March or April 2000 .... which pissed me off only because much of the text used was ripped off from the site I'd done (there's quite possibly some of my text still in use on there today, I'm not sure).

There was a bit of a legal argument between me and Glasto about my right to use of their name with the domain that I owned, but which was settled amicably (I was happy to give them the domain after a period of time in use as a page directing people to both the new official site and to my old site [which had become a part of efestivals]).

So there you go. You can, I think, find some cached pages of 'my' official site for '99 by searching for the domain I used for it.

(PS: I then ran their official website for them for the 2002 festival).

Edited November 15, 2013 by eFestivals

[5co77ie]

it's here:

http://web.archive.org/web/19990209072252/http://www.glastonbury-festival.co.uk/

[eFestivals]

it's here:

http://web.archive.org/web/19990209072252/http://www.glastonbury-festival.co.uk/

here's a version from later in the year (Oct '99):-

http://web.archive.org/web/19991004053003/http://www.glastonbury-festival.co.uk/

[eFestivals]

a version from 4th March 2000 (when it was still the official Glasto website)

http://web.archive.org/web/20000304122129/http://www.glastonbury-festival.co.uk/

[Pinhead]

Remember it well. Shame there's no chat archive.

[eFestivals]

and it's "retired" state

http://web.archive.org/web/20000815220142/http://www.glastonbury-festival.co.uk/

[russycarps]

the dancing efestivals logo really needs a nice sensible short back and sides haircut now to reflect the modern audience

[5co77ie]

some things never change - reading the review titles is like reading the message boards today:

http://web.archive.org/web/20010620044154/http://www.efestivals.co.uk/glastonbury/2000/reviews/

and some rumours never change:

http://web.archive.org/web/19990210182856/http://www.glastonbury-festival.co.uk/1999/rumours.htm

Edited November 15, 2013 by 5co77ie

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

the dancing efestivals logo really needs a nice sensible short back and sides haircut now to reflect the modern audience

[Pinhead]

yeah was just looking at that and was like seeing an old friend. Reckon today's audience might relate better to a tweed jacketed banker doing the Charleston in hunters...

[Pinhead]

beat me to it

[carlosj]

And possibly should be wearing Hunter wellies as well.

[russycarps]

some things never change - reading the review titles is like reading the message boards today:

http://web.archive.org/web/20010620044154/http://www.efestivals.co.uk/glastonbury/2000/reviews/

and some rumours never change:

http://web.archive.org/web/19990210182856/http://www.glastonbury-festival.co.uk/1999/rumours.htm

[The Nal]

the dancing efestivals logo really needs a nice sensible short back and sides haircut now to reflect the modern audience

[glasto-worker]

I can give you the exact details.

In 1998 The Guardian did an official website (on the domain glastonbury98.co.uk), that was rubbish. It was so rubbish that I thought "I can do better than that". So I did.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

So there you go. You can, I think, find some cached pages of 'my' official site for '99 by searching for the domain I used for it.

(PS: I then ran their official website for them for the 2002 festival).

[GlastoSimon]

I personally know several people who have never been before who are going, and from suprising demographics for first timers i.e in mid-sixties and going as a family. Basically Glastonbury is now part of the "season", just as much as Henley, Ascot and Wimbledon. The game was up when Harry stopped by last year. Now demand will outstrip supply just like it does for the Mens Final.

[Starchild771]

Was looking for this quote, or similarly the one Mick Jagger made about it being 'like Ascot' c.2013, because a minute ago I was looking for information regarding whether PJ Harvey played in 1994, and found this...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/e9v2fx#p0085cqc

(Scroll to to clips)

Glastonbury 1994 - The Ascot of Festivals?

LOADS of things in that clip I've heard about the festival in 2014. Including things said in this thread. 'Tis interesting!

[Thearg]

Over the years the festival scene has grown in popularity,when I first started going twenty years ago going to a festival was seen as niche thing to do,now it seems everybody goes,all my nephews and nieces and they're friends go to festivals,well it shows how many festivals there are compared to twenty years ago

[Hello... I'm Johnny Cash]

I've often wondered if demand really does outstrip supply by that much?

I've been going since 2003 and nobody in my group (average size of approximately 10) has ever failed to get a ticket - that can't solely be down to just luck?

Sure, we get organised and work as a team. Plus the info on this website tips the odds slightly in our favour but not by that much.

For the first time ever this year one of our group had to rely on the resale (although that was due to our cock up with the registration numbers), but even then we ended up with 4 out of a possible 5 of us getting the order screen up in time to by the 1 ticket we needed.

I might be wrong, but my impression is that the internet has made the demand seem a lot higher that it really is.