Is it too expensive?

[knivesout]

Forget comparing it to the price of tickets to other festivals as they are also too expensive. Consider the ticket prices in isolation. 2003 £105, 2013 £205 (not including travel, parking etc). So that is roughly 100% increase in price in 10 years. I can tell you for certain that my salary has not gone up 100% in those 10 years so it is significatnly more expensive than when I went 10 years ago. Do I get any more for that money ? No. I can still only see as many acts now as I did 10 years ago.

Is it expensive - Yes.

Is it too expensive - For me no, I have tickets after all.

Is it as good value as it was 10 years ago - Hell no.

Is it good value in comparison to other festivals - Yes.

I didn't start going till 2008 so I can't really comment but surely they've expanded the range of the festival a fair bit since then? The SE corner, the Park, etc etc. Obviously I dunno if that merits another 115 quid on the price of the ticket but it does look like there is more to glastonbury than there was in 03 (old timers may beg to differ there of course)

[The_Amazing_Oblong]

I didn't start going till 2008 so I can't really comment but surely they've expanded the range of the festival a fair bit since then? The SE corner, the Park, etc etc. Obviously I dunno if that merits another 115 quid on the price of the ticket but it does look like there is more to glastonbury than there was in 03 (old timers may beg to differ there of course)

There has always been plenty to do it was just a lot less organized/official/in the programme.

I have no problems with prices going up, they have to. Avg pay has risen around 2-2.5% year on year (with 2 or 3 of those frozen for most) so to put up prices of anything by 4-5x that is wrong imo. That goes for ANYTHING, not aimed particularly at Glastonbury.

[stuartbert two hats]

I didn't start going till 2008 so I can't really comment but surely they've expanded the range of the festival a fair bit since then? The SE corner, the Park, etc etc. Obviously I dunno if that merits another 115 quid on the price of the ticket but it does look like there is more to glastonbury than there was in 03 (old timers may beg to differ there of course)

The problem is, as Ray Charles put it so eloquently "You can only sleep in one bed at a time. You can only eat one meal at a time, or be in one car at a time." It doesn't matter much if there's now 2000 performances rather than 1000*. You don't get to see twice as many bands, it's certainly not twice as good as it used to be.

We all (unsurprisingly for the forum) agree that Glastonbury is good value for money, but maybe it would be better if the ticket prices were slightly lower and the festival was scaled down a bit. I mean, I enjoyed seeing a secret(ish) DJ set from Aphex Twin at The Spike this year, but I've never walked up to the railway line from The Glade and thought "You know what this place needs, another venue and bar on some sort of raised tree-house type thing". I mean, it's great. But it's also great to feel like you're at a more egalitarian festival, like how it was 'in the old days'

*Interestingly, eFestivals had this to say about 2003

With over 2,000 performances at 25 or so venues

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/glastonbury/2003/

And this about 2014

Expect something like 2,000 performances at 100 or so venues

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/glastonbury/2014

Have the number of performances per stage reduced by a factor of 4??

[knivesout]

yeah i did find myself thinking about this last year, I suppose that the price of pretty much everything has risen to an extortionate amount - housing, transport, even fucking freddos so unfortunately, there's no reason why our favourite festival would ever be immune

EDIT: i've heard it said here a few times that one of the reasons for the price spike is that the price of diesel, which is crucial for powering the stages, has risen dramatically over the last decade or so. I'm neither an economist nor a fuel scientist so I couldn't verify, but that does sound plausible

Edited October 10, 2014 by knivesout

[The Nal]

Forget comparing it to the price of tickets to other festivals as they are also too expensive. Consider the ticket prices in isolation. 2003 £105, 2013 £205 (not including travel, parking etc). So that is roughly 100% increase in price in 10 years.

Its about 50% accounting for inflation. About an extra £60. ie the tickets in 2004 were £114 I think, which is about £160 now.

And since 04 we've got a much bigger festival, The Park and a few other stages, The SE Corner, better facilities, improved drainage and less paedophiles playing on major stages.

Its the same price as Reading and V Festival and others.

Its a luxury so of course its expensive if you struggle to afford it. But the fact you can bring your own booze is massive. Think I only spent £100 this year on a trip to Sainsburys and food in the festival.

Edited October 10, 2014 by The Nal

[LondonTom]

I have no problems with prices going up, they have to. Avg pay has risen around 2-2.5% year on year (with 2 or 3 of those frozen for most) so to put up prices of anything by 4-5x that is wrong imo. That goes for ANYTHING, not aimed particularly at Glastonbury.

True but its a knock on effect from the festivals own costs in the main, from everything Glastonbury do and seem to be about. I doubt its a willing price hike (and at the same time, maybe they could have kept it down a bit more.)

For instance Acts demand a lot more money to make up for record sales now, even if Glastonbury pays less than most festivals. Its still going have huge increases there.

[frostypaw]

This still seems an odd conversation to have

'Expensive' is such a relative thing and takes no account of value. Beyond that some folk are buying just for themselves, and some for a whole family. I don't think per-person it's even arguable that it's not good value, it's expensive but doing anything is and you're doing a lot of things at glasto - when it can work out at under £10 a gig before anything else it's pretty ridiculously good value.

Of course if you're funding a whole family holiday it's going to cost X times more, but how can that be a surprise?

[UEF]

It's cheaper, it's not cheap.

If you wanted to you could watch it on TV with a few friends, invite them over for a BBQ and some beers on the patio then put your tents up in the garden and you could have just as good at time on a lot less money, given the right company.

[The_Amazing_Oblong]

It's as expensive as everything else but better value than most.

I guess you always pay for quality.

Shut up and feel the width.

I'll stop now...

[knivesout]

It's cheaper, it's not cheap.

If you wanted to you could watch it on TV with a few friends, invite them over for a BBQ and some beers on the patio then put your tents up in the garden and you could have just as good at time on a lot less money, given the right company.

no you couldn't, lets be honest

[Bisque]

no you couldn't, lets be honest

Spot on

[gelworthy]

Tickets for one headline type concert are minimum £50 and even smaller gigs are over £10. For the amount of music you can see at Glastonbury, it is a bargain, if you love music. I go and am literally watching music from 11.00 to 04.00, Fri. Sat and Sun and that doesn't even take into account all that you can see and enjoy on the Weds and Thurs.

[fatyeti24]

The problem is, as Ray Charles put it so eloquently "You can only sleep in one bed at a time. You can only eat one meal at a time, or be in one car at a time." It doesn't matter much if there's now 2000 performances rather than 1000*. You don't get to see twice as many bands, it's certainly not twice as good as it used to be.

We all (unsurprisingly for the forum) agree that Glastonbury is good value for money, but maybe it would be better if the ticket prices were slightly lower and the festival was scaled down a bit. I mean, I enjoyed seeing a secret(ish) DJ set from Aphex Twin at The Spike this year, but I've never walked up to the railway line from The Glade and thought "You know what this place needs, another venue and bar on some sort of raised tree-house type thing". I mean, it's great. But it's also great to feel like you're at a more egalitarian festival, like how it was 'in the old days'

*Interestingly, eFestivals had this to say about 2003

And this about 2014

Have the number of performances per stage reduced by a factor of 4??

Where would you begin to scale it back? For me you can get rid of the other stage, and the acoustic tent. I suspect other opinions would differ. However I really like the park and the late night stuff (remember in the 90s bemoaning that all the music stopped at 12.30am?, now that's not an issue).

I would hate to have to go back to the days of campsite 'fun' as someone drunkenly belts out another oasis singsong around the campfire on an acoustic guitar. Again, I'm sure other opinions would differ.

Edited October 10, 2014 by fatyeti24

[stuartbert two hats]

Where would you begin to scale it back? For me you can get rid of the other stage, and the acoustic tent. I suspect other opinions would differ. However I really like the park and the late night stuff (remember in the 90s bemoaning that all the music stopped at 12.30am?, now that's not an issue).

I would hate to have to go back to the days of campsite 'fun' as someone drunkenly belts out another oasis singsong around the campfire on an acoustic guitar. Again, I'm sure other opinions would differ.

That's the problem. Every time they introduce something new, if it stays for more than a couple of years, then the idea of removing it seems horrific! They tried to get rid of The Glade and Leftfield, but couldn't do it! And they can remove The Park over my dead body! And yeah, the Naughty Corner is brilliant, couldn't get rid of that... Edited October 10, 2014 by stuartbert two hats

[storm]

I didn't bother trying to get a ticket this year. At £225 for a ticket for everyone over 12 + probably around £90 for a campervan ticket it really is too expensive for families when your kids require tickets.

.

Try adding in flights for four (us and the two children who both need tickets) and a hotel room for the Tues night too like we pay. I worked it out in the thread about this last year how much it costs us. I can't remember exactly but with spending I think it was the guts of £3,000 at least. And still well worth it.

You can't compare it European festivals as we live in rip off Britain so it's only fair to compare to other British ones

Reading £205 + BF

Download £195 + BF

Latitude £187.50 +BF

Secret Garden Party £185 + BF

Etc

It's very fairly priced IMO

Ireland is even worse, ticket prices for Electric picnic which is tiny in comparison (and a bit boring imo) and only runs for 3 days were about the same as a Glastonbury ticket last year. And the food prices are astronomical, now that's a real rip off festival..

No denying it is expensive.....but...

When u add it all up, it is absolutely worth every penny. I would pay £300 a ticket no question.

^^^ this

A lot of people have suggested Morrissey could play. He's charging £62 a ticket for the O2. Stones were charging ridiculous prices for their shows too. The selection of artists available alone justifies the ticket fee. When I used to go to Reading I thought that was correctly priced and that has barely any variety in music and virtually nothing by the way of entertainment once the music has finished

Exactly I believe some of the Hyde Park 2013 Stones tickets (and not the particularly "premium" ones either) cost the same as a Glastonbury ticket

Edited October 11, 2014 by storm

[AiiShotTheDJ]

Is it expensive? Probably. However, I came from V festival where I'm used to paying for air. To me, I find it quite good value for money really, particularly because it's something that I really enjoy. I can see why others would say no though and I've had friends that are horrified at how much it costs me!

[monkey1989]

i think its a fair price it might be a little more than other uk festivals but you are usually guaranteed 1 or 2 world class headliners more stages /acts and areas than any other festival in possibly and i could be wrong but THE WORLD , and the little programme and magazine would set you back at least a tenner at most of the other uk fests .

i only have to buy myself a ticket so its not to bad but yeah if your taking a family i imagine you could take them on a cheap 7 day holiday abroad ...... ( but would that be more fun? )

[zero000]

As has been said a lot in this thread, it's expensive but it's excellent value for money. However having said that there may come a point where it's just too expensive for a lot of people. The £300 mark could well be it.

[weaz]

If you took the music out of the equation I still think I would go for the ticket price, great value for 5 days fun.

[Redwinevino]

Ireland is even worse, ticket prices for Electric picnic which is tiny in comparison (and a bit boring imo) and only runs for 3 days were about the same as a Glastonbury ticket last year. And the food prices are astronomical, now that's a real rip off festival..

Oh I know mate! Northern Irish here hah, EP and Oxegen are and were a bloody joke!

[LondonTom]

And yeah, the Naughty Corner is brilliant, couldn't get rid of that...

I'd get rid of Shangri La if we had to (Just because I think it would get people exploring else where )

[knivesout]

purely hypothetical question, if the costs were to be driven down, which area(s) would people be happy to see getting the chop? i'd go for dance village personally, always found it to be oddly grim and not really in keeping with the vibe of the rest of the festival

EDIT: just realised somebody had already asked that question in different phrasing. nothing to see here i suppose

Edited October 13, 2014 by knivesout

[Woffy]

Saw some stuff from the new Damien Hirst 'Schizophrenogenisis' art show the other day.

Utter, utter shite. IMH(uneducated)O.

Some of it is worth paying million of pounds for some people. Not me.

But i bet the people that do pay that money, who can afford it; owning that art makes them amazingly happy and they get an enormous amount of pleasure from it (unless you're a dealer aka a speculator).

Glasto: £220+ value for money?

For me; shit yes. All fuckin' day.

Memories that amazing, year after year, that last that long; great friends made; new experiences of all kinds i'd never get to do / see anywhere else (that my life affords me the opportunity to anywhen else)...

...etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.

Can I / we financially afford it? Just, just.

So, no: for what I get from going to Glasto it is not too expensive. For me.

[stardustjunkie]

To those that think it is too expensive, can I ask how much you think it should cost?

You can keep the cost down massively.

Choose the cheapest travel option from where you live (drive/train/coach/cycle). If your fuel is costing you £50 and a car park ticket is £25, maybe consider the £40 return coach instead?

You could slum it in a tent instead of a campervan, that instantly saves on the campervan ticket cost and the cost of hiring a campervan. If you have your own campervan then you'll save more obviously but you still need a £90 additional cost.

Take plenty of light/easy to carry snacks and meals such as noodles, pringles, breakfast bars etc to keep you going. If you choose to go by car you could take full blown meals with you and a proper camping stove. We cooked all our lunches in our first year and we went by train. Simple noodles, meatballs, rice etc on a little stove thing (not gas, can't remember what).

Take your own alcohol or don't drink. I'm not a drinker so it's easy for me to say that, but Glastonbury is incredible, you don't need to be wasted to realise that. I personally want to remember every second but I don't have issues with people who enjoy it through drink, it really is so enjoyable when you're sober as well though.

Take your own reusable drinking bottle to save on buying bottled water. The tap water is fine.

Ask at the lock ups for loo roll, save on your own/carrying any.

Etc etc etc.

Sure it takes a little more forward planning but if you want to go enough but also keep the cost down, you'll be happy to do it.

[Zoo Music Girl]

25P FOR A FREDDO!!!