Would you like a fairer way to buy tickets?

[DeanoL]

1 minute ago, Kill_Crazy said:

Come on, people. Don't just neg my comment, tell me why you don't agree. This is a discussion board! :-)

Less well off people would struggle to get the money together that early. I'd be all for the line-up not being announced until the refund window has closed though.

[joeltg]

22 minutes ago, Kill_Crazy said:

Come on, people. Don't just neg my comment, tell me why you don't agree. This is a discussion board! :-)

I think dropping the 50 quid deposit could actually make ticket day a bit calmer, just alot to stump up in one go for most, including me. Possibly 2 people are jealous of the lucky run since 2005 

Edited May 19, 2016 by joeltg

[Kill_Crazy]

Yeah, that'd work too. Pretty happy with it as it is to be honest, even if it does get the pulse into overdrive on ticket sale days.

[joeltg]

22 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Less well off people would struggle to get the money together that early. I'd be all for the line-up not being announced until the refund window has closed though.

Yep, agree with that.

Edited May 19, 2016 by joeltg

[JoBalls]

49 minutes ago, Kill_Crazy said:

I would like to see the £50 deposit dropped and full payment made at time of booking. If you're that keen on going then you'll get the funds in place for October rather than pay a deposit and wait for rumours/ lineups to be announced then request a refund as 'i don't like the lineup of music artists'. I say this as it's a performing arts festival not a music festival. 

I think that's easy to say if you've got a decent amount of disposable income... 

[thesecretingredientiscrime]

18 minutes ago, Kill_Crazy said:

Come on, people. Don't just neg my comment, tell me why you don't agree. This is a discussion board! :-)

You came across completely devoid from reality of just how much money £230 is, especially two months before Christmas.

The deposit scheme favours the young, the less well off etc, those who the festival is built on, and who invariably are excluded when you take away schemes like this, through social cleaning.

The festival led the way in the deposit scheme and rightly so, but if anything needs to be doing more to make itself more affordable to all.

[Kill_Crazy]

3 minutes ago, JoBalls said:

I think that's easy to say if you've got a decent amount of disposable income... 

Surely it wouldn't make much difference as you'd just have to start saving earlier. Will still cost the same. In the earlier festivals I attended there was no deposit system so I saved a tenner a week from my wages so I could get one.

[joeltg]

I think as long as there is more demand than tickets, it is always going to seem unfair to some unfortunately.

Glastonbury as a whole is unbelievably well run and organised, it has been tweaked down to this through years of hard work...I think it's probably as fair as it can get. 

[eastynh]

I think the current set up is perfect. No one at all should be given priority. It should not matter if you had been ten times or never before.

The whole circus surrounding ticket day adds to the drama, and I have been on the losing side as often as the winning one as far as getting tickets in concerned.

It definitely keeps us ticking over on here as well. It also adds to the community spirit of it all with everyone trying to help each other and so forth.

[Kill_Crazy]

1 hour ago, thesecretingredientiscrime said:

You came across completely devoid from reality of just how much money £230 is, especially two months before Christmas.

The deposit scheme favours the young, the less well off etc, those who the festival is built on, and who invariably are excluded when you take away schemes like this, through social cleaning.

The festival led the way in the deposit scheme and rightly so, but if anything needs to be doing more to make itself more affordable to all.

I think you're reading into my comment something that isn't there. 'Devoid from reality', 'social cleaning' - really? £230 is a lot for me too. However, as I like attending Glastonbury so much I'm willing to make sacrifices in other areas so I have the money for a ticket. If money was that tight I wouldn't be spending it on a festival.

Edit: As for saying the festival was built on the young and the less well off, where did you get that from?

Edited May 20, 2016 by Kill_Crazy

[DeanoL]

1 hour ago, Kill_Crazy said:

Surely it wouldn't make much difference as you'd just have to start saving earlier. Will still cost the same. In the earlier festivals I attended there was no deposit system so I saved a tenner a week from my wages so I could get one.

But you knew you'd get a ticket. That's what you're missing. It's not about starting saving earlier, it's about starting saving in the knowledge that you're actually going. It'd suck to scrimp and save Feb-Oct, turning down other things, gigs, pub trips, whatever it is you sacrifice to get the money for a ticket... and then not get one. Sure, you'd then have a nice lump sum but your life would have been easier if you could have actually spent that during the year.

The deposit system lets people save while secure in the knowledge that it won't all be for nothing.

[Kill_Crazy]

14 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

But you knew you'd get a ticket. That's what you're missing. It's not about starting saving earlier, it's about starting saving in the knowledge that you're actually going. It'd suck to scrimp and save Feb-Oct, turning down other things, gigs, pub trips, whatever it is you sacrifice to get the money for a ticket... and then not get one. Sure, you'd then have a nice lump sum but your life would have been easier if you could have actually spent that during the year.

The deposit system lets people save while secure in the knowledge that it won't all be for nothing.

Good point but I'd still do it in the hope of a ticket. It's like going home going to Glastonbury 

[Jackomanaco]

Midnight sale might help, who knows? I feel its as fair as it can be

[BadgerMatt]

9 hours ago, incident said:

No, obviously the online sales didn't cause people to have problems getting tickets. The great big fence that now encircles the site caused it, combined with increased overall demand driven by a growing reputation and more media coverage.

People have been able to buy online since at least 1999 (maybe earlier), and it wasn't until 2003 that it first sold out relatively quickly, and 2004 that it became a struggle.

Absolutely. The first year I went (2002) was the first year of the super-fence. I walked up to a shop several weeks after they went on sale and bought three tickets over the counter. At that point the fence was public knowledge, but not everyone would have picked up on the news and no-one had a clue how effective it would be.

The following year was the first year they were all sold online and it sold out in 24 hours. But that wasn't the reason it sold out quickly. It sold out because it was the first year that people knew that they wouldn't be able to hop over the fence for free.

Edited May 20, 2016 by BadgerMatt

[glastouser]

The deposit scheme has to stay, as was said further up the festival led the way in introducing the deposit scheme making what has become an increasing, yet still great value for money, ticket price more affordable. What I do think though is that a deposit should be just that. If you decide to pull out for any reason you lose your £50 rather than just the admin charge. £50 is still a lot of money to me and while still making it affordable may be enough to stop a few of the "i'll get a ticket just incase" crowd on ticket day. 

Other than that I really don't see any fairer way of doing things. When demand outweighs supply there is always going to be disappointed people. See tickets could probably sell the festival even quicker if they wanted making it more like a ballot that if you get through with your first click you get one, if not then you don't which I personally wouldn't want. I quite like the idea of once you get through, holding your tickets for 3 min to get your details in in time though.

As for a loyalty thing I don't think that would work either as someone said earlier, everyone has a right to a ticket. I don't feel after going for 14 years I deserve to go more than my mate who has been once. the long and short of it is that there isn't a way that can please everyone so we just have to hope the system, which is prob as fair as it can be, works for us on ticket day and do your best to give yourself as much chance as you can.

Edited May 20, 2016 by glastouser

[morph100]

System should be limited to sell slower so those that stay pressing F5 longest get tickets, I don't mind a 12 hour stress to beat those less determined:-)

[ourkid1984]

7 hours ago, DeanoL said:

How does that work? You live somewhere without internet access and presumably you don't drive, so you can't get anywhere with internet access after 9pm. But you would somehow be able to travel miles to the nearest town to buy them in person?

From my experiences buses run even in the country until about 5pm but your stranded after then. So would be able to get a bus as long as I was back before the last bus. I did also drop in that phone lines should be used and even the most rural areas have phone lines.

[RickW]

7 hours ago, eastynh said:

I think the current set up is perfect. No one at all should be given priority. It should not matter if you had been ten times or never before.

The whole circus surrounding ticket day adds to the drama, and I have been on the losing side as often as the winning one as far as getting tickets in concerned.

It definitely keeps us ticking over on here as well. It also adds to the community spirit of it all with everyone trying to help each other and so forth.

You summed up my feelings perfectly, the feeling of it being a lottery, the resales, possible secret resales...feels like it's all part of the experience, I get people feelings mg disappointed if they aren't successful this year but no one should feel they have a right to attend whether they have been once or every year since it started.

Edited May 20, 2016 by RickW
Quoted original post as run out of up votes!

[joeltg]

Form a queue at Worthy farm, middle of winter. Answer a few riddles from Michael and Emily themselves, answer all correctly see you in June. 

Edited May 20, 2016 by joeltg

[RickW]

4 minutes ago, joeltg said:

Form a queue at Worthy farm, middle of winter. Answer a few riddles from Michael and Emily themselves, answer all correctly see you in June. 

I believe you may have just solved the problem!

[The_Amazing_Oblong]

No. The only thing I would change from the current format is to extend the amount of tickets that can be bought in a single transaction. Up it to 10 or 12 or even unlimited.

[Padgey]

I never have any luck in raffles so would much prefer to have a bit of an influence in my destiny.

[Spindles]

If nothing else, this thread and the poll it contains are decent evidence that the festival have got things right on the whole.

[TristanGoldsmid]

On whether we should queue up for hours to get tickets... Isn't part of the fun of Glastonbury showing people who may have had doubts about it or not been to a festival before how amazing it is?

If everyone who got tickets was already obsessed with Glastonbury then there would be no one to fully discover it for the first time, at least people without insanely high expectations.

[maelzoid]

This is how it should be done:

At 6:00 a.m. on ticket day, everyone who wants a ticket has to log on to the website. At this point it would probably be oversubscribed. Everyone logged on then has to complete a captcha every five minutes. This goes on for hours. Eventually people get bored and give up and slowly the number drops.  When that number hits the amount of tickets available, everyone who persisted gets rewarded with a ticket. 

It would probably be the most stressful and exhausting 3 days imaginable but Glastonbury should be for the stubbornly persistent.