Record number of people trying .

[drunk pumpkin]

6 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

I have a lot of sympathy for this view. Not to the point that I'm not going to try for tickets, but I certainly don't think regulars deserve to go more than newbies. And agree there's a lot of sneering at newcomers who "don't get the festival".

And there's two ways of looking at this term "bucket list". You can look down your nose and think of it as some box ticking episode to do "just because". Or you can think of something on a bucket list as being a lifelong ambition - something that is held dear - a one in a lifetime experience, rather than "just another festival" like it is for the regulars. Let's give a little more credit to people's motivations, isn't that part of the "Glastonbury spirit"?

Agreed, 

Each and everyone of us had a first time attending and loved it.

We all have to start somewhere!

[FuzzyDunlop]

7 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

I have a lot of sympathy for this view. Not to the point that I'm not going to try for tickets, but I certainly don't think regulars deserve to go more than newbies. And agree there's a lot of sneering at newcomers who "don't get the festival".

And there's two ways of looking at this term "bucket list". You can look down your nose and think of it as some box ticking episode to do "just because". Or you can think of something on a bucket list as being a lifelong ambition - something that is held dear - a one in a lifetime experience, rather than "just another festival" like it is for the regulars. Let's give a little more credit to people's motivations, isn't that part of the "Glastonbury spirit"?

Glastonbury was a bucket list thing for me in 2009, after doing a few leeds & creamfields. It was always "too far to travel". Im celebrating 10 years of the festival for me next year. Missed out in 2013... but Im on my 8th next year.

Everyone  on this forum starts sometime. As lomg as you are not a twat - you will add something good to the festival. There is nothing better than that 1st ever walk up to the stone circle or the sign & looking at the enormity of the place. I wish I could do that for the first time again.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

I don’t know anybody who having gone once isn’t completely desperate to go again and again. Hence why it’s so popular and it’s now an absolute nightmare to get tickets. It’s everyone’s first time at some point.

All three of us who tried (and failed) at work were completely miserable today about missing out, one of our colleagues said something like “I don’t get it, what makes it so special? How is it different to say Reading and Leeds?”

I was completely shocked and taken aback, but I couldn’t actually explain it, I just said it’s something you can’t even compare or quantify, you can only experience it yourself to understand what makes it what it is.

So everybody deserves the chance to go for the first time, probably more so than people who have been countless times before.

It did prompt us to ponder the following question though: Would you rather never get to go again, or have never gone at all?

[stuartbert two hats]

1 minute ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

I don’t know anybody who having gone once isn’t completely desperate to go again and again. Hence why it’s so popular and it’s now an absolute nightmare to get tickets. It’s everyone’s first time at some point.

All three of us who tried (and failed) at work were completely miserable today about missing out, one of our colleagues said something like “I don’t get it, what makes it so special? How is it different to say Reading and Leeds?”

I was completely shocked and taken aback, but I couldn’t actually explain it, I just said it’s something you can’t even compare or quantify, you can only experience it yourself to understand what makes it what it is.

So everybody deserves the chance to go for the first time, probably more so than people who have been countless times before.

It did prompt us to ponder the following question though: Would you rather never get to go again, or have never gone at all?

Never go again of course. The other option is no way to live your life.

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

1 minute ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Never go again of course. The other option is no way to live your life.

You are correct of course, and it’s exactly my answer too, but it would make life easier if I didn’t like it so much.

[dingbat2]

I don't have a problem with it being on anyone's bucket list, after all we all went for the first time for one reason or another. The stereotypical bucket listers will go, an go only once (by definition) but if some of those bucket-listers  'get it', fall in love with it and want to come gain like us lot, then happy days,. They will be the future of the festival

Shit, I am making myself sound old...

[rubenz]

18 minutes ago, BigChief said:

I don’t agree with this, how can you refresh nothing with discipline for 30 minutes? Some people never even saw the holding page. Personally I had the holding page on three devices and was refreshing in a round robin technique, and saw nothing of the booking page.

It has to be down to luck / numbers of people trying for you, one person can’t press F5 better than the next.

I might need to practice pressing mine for April ?

I suppose what I mean is being able to do the basics right to give yourself the best chance( the things that people on here would take for granted ) Agreed that if you don't see a holding page or get kicked out before you pay then your pretty stuffed.

Someone who gets on early and keeps going until the bitter end must have a slightly better chance to get lucky than someone who arrives 5 minutes late,  does a couple of refreshes, moans on Facebook, makes a cup of tea, gives up early etc

I have some mates who I would definitely put ahead of others if I had to pick a squad to send in to try and get through and some who Wouldn't trust to do the basics right or even know what day the sale is on in some cases!

 

[Penrhos]

I couldn't help but feel smug all day at work......

By some fluke I managed to bag 11 tickets for work colleagues - 6 are glasto virgins, the rest including me have at least 6 attendances under their belts (my first was 2010 and was to tick Glasto off my bucket list - I'm now hooked).

Makes up for 2017 when only two people I know at work got tickets in the main sale and I scraped through with a coach resale ticket and went Solo (and camped for the first time in about 30 years).

I already have a list of 3 reg numbers for April to try and get some more "regulars" in for 2019.

 

First thing this morning I emailed them the link for Tort's guide and said they'd better take all their shit home at the end and not bail out because it's too hardcore (having already shown them the pics I took in 2016 & 2017) or they would be off the 2020 list.....

Edited October 8, 2018 by Penrhos

[Garrett_Salas]

It's a shame that it's not workable in the slightest, but I think one thing we could all agree on is that if you leave a tent behind you're banned ( along with your children, and your children's children).

[priest17]

I first went in 2009 as a bucketlist thing (admittedly bought them randomly in January as a why not type thing) but it shaped me into a better person and I've returned every year since. I mean, it didn't fix my inherent flaws or turn me into superman but that year I went to Leeds for the first time as well and I think I've ended up better from going to Glastonbury first. Hard to see people who get it and love it not get tickets (I've been there) but love meeting people that it's their first year, it's the only way it can ever get better (seeing as they keep inviting the same headliners seemingly at this point ahah). Even the land pissers. And the tent leavers. I think it's shit and inherently wrong with no excuse but it takes all sorts for a party. I love this website but 220,000 of you all would be boring.

 

My first one was when I was 16, probably making the most of that paragraph moot. Hope all the bits beyond don't offend anyone ahah.

[Penrhos]

23 minutes ago, Garrett_Salas said:

It's a shame that it's not workable in the slightest, but I think one thing we could all agree on is that if you leave a tent behind you're banned ( along with your children, and your children's children).

Agreed - Leave your shit behind and get blacklisted for 2 years. 

If I can leave no trace when catching a coach after 3 hours sleep at my age then you youngsters can tidy up too....

[Quark]

21 minutes ago, priest17 said:

I love this website but 220,000 of you all would be boring.

 

[Lucy92]

25 minutes ago, Penrhos said:

Agreed - Leave your shit behind and get blacklisted for 2 years. 

If I can leave no trace when catching a coach after 3 hours sleep at my age then you youngsters can tidy up too....

This. It’s a shame it would be hard to police but there should be instant bans for those who don’t love the farm. So many people treat it so badly and there’s just no need! 

Edited October 8, 2018 by Lucy92

[BigChief]

220,000 is a lot of people at the cider bus!

[Alex DeLarge]

Congratulations to everyone who managed to snag tickets, be it your first time or your twentieth time, hope you all have an amazing time.

Commiserations to those that didn't manage it this time around, best of luck in the resale!

 

I'm not going to be able to attend next year so didn't try for tickets and will be reading these forums with envy. 

[D-Low]

1 hour ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

I don’t know anybody who having gone once isn’t completely desperate to go again and again. Hence why it’s so popular and it’s now an absolute nightmare to get tickets.

Had two friends join our group in 2015 and they loved it. Got through for tickets in 2016 and for them as well. During the payment balance window they decided for no reason at all that they no longer wanted to go and cancelled their tickets. My mind is still baffled to the day.

I don't know why anyone who would be lucky enough get a ticket in the October sale cancel for no apparent reason other than "don't know if I can be bothered this year". Utter madness. I knew after my first time I'd found my special place. There's nothing else like it in the world

[FuzzyDunlop]

6 minutes ago, D-Low said:

Had two friends join our group in 2015 and they loved it. Got through for tickets in 2016 and for them as well. During the payment balance window they decided for no reason at all that they no longer wanted to go and cancelled their tickets. My mind is still baffled to the day.

I don't know why anyone who would be lucky enough get a ticket in the October sale cancel for no apparent reason other than "don't know if I can be bothered this year". Utter madness. I knew after my first time I'd found my special place. There's nothing else like it in the world

Next year will be my 8th, but I feel like Im coming to the end - not because I don't love it. I do, but I want to do other things. I don't have much money, a festival.or 2 in the year is my holiday - but there are places in the world that I'd like to see.

I have at this point decided 2019 is my last one for a while... admittedly I said that in 2017!! This year I was going to have a holiday & went to Boomtown instead, but as things stand - 2019 is my last Glastonbury. A bit of me thinks "buy a ticket next October - just in case" & then if I decide against it, I don't pay it off.

[MetaKate]

 

1 hour ago, priest17 said:

I first went in 2009 as a bucketlist thing (admittedly bought them randomly in January as a why not type thing) but it shaped me into a better person and I've returned every year since. I mean, it didn't fix my inherent flaws or turn me into superman but that year I went to Leeds for the first time as well and I think I've ended up better from going to Glastonbury first. Hard to see people who get it and love it not get tickets (I've been there) but love meeting people that it's their first year, it's the only way it can ever get better (seeing as they keep inviting the same headliners seemingly at this point ahah). Even the land pissers. And the tent leavers. I think it's shit and inherently wrong with no excuse but it takes all sorts for a party. I love this website but 220,000 of you all would be boring.

This. It's the mix that makes the atmosphere. Newbies, oldies, keeners, slackers. Once you get there, the magic makes us all equals. 

I think something should be done about the tents, but I'm not really sure what would force people. A deposit you pay when you come through the gates, and only get back when you check out again with your tent? Its a logisitical nightmare. 

What if your tent was stamped with your registration number permanantly and your registration would be cancelled if it was left behind? 

At burning man each person is responsible for their area, and if trash is left behind they are fined, too much trash and the festival will be cancelled, but I'm not okay with that threat at glastonbury. Too scary . 

[The Clearest Blue]

2 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

I have a lot of sympathy for this view. Not to the point that I'm not going to try for tickets, but I certainly don't think regulars deserve to go more than newbies. And agree there's a lot of sneering at newcomers who "don't get the festival".

And there's two ways of looking at this term "bucket list". You can look down your nose and think of it as some box ticking episode to do "just because". Or you can think of something on a bucket list as being a lifelong ambition - something that is held dear - a one in a lifetime experience, rather than "just another festival" like it is for the regulars. Let's give a little more credit to people's motivations, isn't that part of the "Glastonbury spirit"?

Yeah I agree with you, there is nothing wrong with the right type of bucket lister. I was in a steam room last year and there was this lady making polite conversation with another woman. The conversation somehow got in to music and she explained how she went to Glastonbury earlier that year. She said she was slowly working her way through her bucket list and ended up failing to get tickets so volunteered instead, I think she said she litter picked, if everyone wrote this lady off as a bucket lister a valued volunteer wouldn’t have been at the festival.

[RichardWaller]

19 hours ago, dingbat2 said:

I don't think anyone wants a truly fair way to get tickets. That would probably mean a deli-counter type ticket system. You register, then you get allocated the next registration number in a sequence. GFL then sends out invites to reg numbers 1-138000 inviting them to buy tickets. If you buy a ticket then you go to the back of the queue again and are given the next registration number in the sequence, The next year registrations 138001 to 276000 get invites to buy tickets, and so on (ignoring the issues with duplicate registrations). That way it would guarantee  you a ticket every x years (whatever x is) but couldn't get a ticket every year. But it would surely be fair?

The idea would destroy my interest in the festival, i couldn't face the idea of only be able to go every few years. it would probably destroy the festival as well because its the mix of regulars and newbs who give the festival its unique atmosphere

I don't think anyone on these boards really wants a truly fair system for tickets (neither would GFL I suspect) - most of us want to go every year don't we, which isn't fair to others

I wouldn't want that either, you'd probably end up with Coldplay and Muse at the festival more frequently than any customer. I'd miss the buzz you get when you find out you are going too, wouldn't be the same if I knew for certain my next festival was gonna be in 2022 and not sooner. 

18 hours ago, Garrett_Salas said:

First time poster here,

After reading various threads - thought I'd give my opinion. I think the best way to allocate tickets is interesting, from a theoretical point at least, I think in reality the current way works pretty well for the festival and isn't likely to change. 

I saw an idea that I liked in another thread trying to incorporate good causes into it - perhaps add a third october sale after the main where individuals try and get tickets on the condition that they complete x amount of hours for an affiliated charity by April. I think if the hours were substantial enough it'd only be the most determined people. You'd have to find a reasonable number of hours - high enough that it would filter out the less determined but not so arduous that it would put people with minimal leisure time in a hard spot.

My idea would be a lot more controversial... force people to take a personal 'fallow' year after two consecutive festivals. I think at some point there does need to be a change in mindset that going every year is not possible (and even arguably unfair) - the years of people going 10 years consecutively are probably over (assuming everything stays the same) and don't see why going 7 out of 10 years would be unreasonable to anyone. There does seem to be assertions that every newbie is a bucket-lister who only realises on monday morning that their was a sale and that their mate got them one. I think for every one of them, there are four or five that have tried previously but never got lucky and keep trying again each year. For those forced to try something else, there are plenty of other festivals out there depending on your priorities - may even be refreshing to try something else!

*holds shield*

I think I saw the same comment about people volunteering for good causes outside of the festival. I'd probably go for summat like that if the opportunity was there and I didn't get a ticket otherwise. That said I was unemployed last time I volunteered, and I'm knackered at the best of times through work without extra. 

Ah, I've taken a few personal fallow years.. I'd have loved to have been able to go every year since my first one, but I haven't for a range of reasons. I'd expect most of us on here are quite obsessed with the festival but that we're not exactly representative? Most I've done was three in a row, but that was 2002-04 before the registration came in. I don't get the issue anyone has with it being a bucketlist thing, we've all got as much right to be there as each other.

17 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

I have a lot of sympathy for this view. Not to the point that I'm not going to try for tickets, but I certainly don't think regulars deserve to go more than newbies. And agree there's a lot of sneering at newcomers who "don't get the festival".

And there's two ways of looking at this term "bucket list". You can look down your nose and think of it as some box ticking episode to do "just because". Or you can think of something on a bucket list as being a lifelong ambition - something that is held dear - a one in a lifetime experience, rather than "just another festival" like it is for the regulars. Let's give a little more credit to people's motivations, isn't that part of the "Glastonbury spirit"?

Aye, totally agree. We've had our first times, mine was 2002 and it was a fairly late thing, did a ticket and travel package from Hull, had no idea what it'd mean to me till I got there and went back, and back, and back.. We don't own it.

[BambooShanks]

On 10/8/2018 at 3:18 PM, Quark said:

 

7. What is the locking hook on the back of a long drop door actually for?

 

 

I'm pretty sure I aced the other questions, but this one has me stumped and now I don't feel worthy to go to Glastonbury or I've been using the long drops wrong for the last 8 years

[Smeble]

The cat is out of the bag as far as getting coordinated and grouping together, you have 10s of thousands of people all trying for each other and never clearing the system, no wonder it’s a log jam. 

[eFestivals]

1 minute ago, Smeble said:

The cat is out of the bag as far as getting coordinated and grouping together, you have 10s of thousands of people all trying for each other and never clearing the system, no wonder it’s a log jam. 

whatever system there is, people will always try to to game it.

The answer to that, really, is to change the system every few years - but I don't want them to. Every other system I've seen people suggest over the years is inferior, I think. A mix of determination and luck seems to create a good balance in who gets the tickets - both newbies and regulars.

[JoBalls]

19 hours ago, Penrhos said:

I couldn't help but feel smug all day at work......

By some fluke I managed to bag 11 tickets for work colleagues - 6 are glasto virgins, the rest including me have at least 6 attendances under their belts (my first was 2010 and was to tick Glasto off my bucket list - I'm now hooked).

Makes up for 2017 when only two people I know at work got tickets in the main sale and I scraped through with a coach resale ticket and went Solo (and camped for the first time in about 30 years).

I already have a list of 3 reg numbers for April to try and get some more "regulars" in for 2019.

 

First thing this morning I emailed them the link for Tort's guide and said they'd better take all their shit home at the end and not bail out because it's too hardcore (having already shown them the pics I took in 2016 & 2017) or they would be off the 2020 list.....

I'm amazed that your boss will allow 12 of you to take time off at the same time!!

[Quark]

36 minutes ago, Kinkyinuit said:

I'm pretty sure I aced the other questions, but this one has me stumped and now I don't feel worthy to go to Glastonbury or I've been using the long drops wrong for the last 8 years

Ha, it was one of the trickier ones!

If you're carrying a bag / rucksack or similar, you can loop the metal hook through the handle or top strap before locking the door in.  Acts as a hanger to keep bag off the floor. It's a game changer, especially in wet years