Record number of people trying .

[Gabi_says]

I wonder why they still have the temporary holding page instead of restoring the full website with answers to most of the questions lucky and not-so-lucky fans now have ... https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/index.html

Edited October 7, 2018 by Gabi_says

[clarkete]

2 minutes ago, Gabi_says said:

I wonder why they still have the temporary holding page instead of restoring the full website with answers to most of the questions lucky and not-so-lucky fans now have ... https://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/index.html

Because they're dealing with the aftermath of a phenomenal onslaught of demand? 

[Jackomanaco]

The backlash on the socials is leaving a bad taste in my mouth! Some very angry people around

[The Nal]

2 minutes ago, Jackomanaco said:

The backlash on the socials is leaving a bad taste in my mouth! Some very angry people around

Don't go on the socials

[fowls]

20 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Some people might find the sister festival preferable? In terms of time of year/location/price ?

And yeah, the same applies to other festivals, they all compete with Glastonbury. Certainly I know people who used to go to G that now prefer other festivals that cater to them better.

Exactly. There are hundreds of thousands of people wanting to go to Glastonbury. If you said "the same areas and line up will also be available at this other sister festival" a decent proportion would be up for that. Maybe you wouldn't, but there are enough people who have tried but failed for tickets for years who would be willing to try a sister festival for some of the same vibe. 

 

Sure, it isn't Glastonbury, but it's a good alternative that can pick up a name for itself in its own right as the years go by.  In 10-15 years it could grow to be held in the same regard as Glastonbury but different in its own way. There are so many people involved in setting up Glasto that there's bound to be plenty of 'deputies' in the wings who could take the reins of a sister site organisation.

 

It'd be a mammoth undertaking, but I don't see why so many here take it as a hard no.  I see it as similar to the super wall -  sure some moan that the atmosphere has never been the same since, but the majority of punters at the festival couldn't care less, and it safeguarded  the future of the festival. Years on from the wall, it barely garners a mention.

Edited October 7, 2018 by fowls

[Jackomanaco]

1 minute ago, The Nal said:

Don't go on the socials

Good advice, back to my tea, hobnobs and efest

[Matt42]

Unfortunately I cannot attend this year due to scheduling. I sat back and watched the madness and have some observations 

in my circles it seems that more people who have never been are securing tickets. I love the festival but it definitely feels like every year there are more people that have never been before.

its conflicting because if everyone and their Mum is putting Glasto on the bucket list, is the quality of the crowd going to suffer?

as said above - I know some people who would be very disappointed with an announcement of the cure that have tickets this year

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

6 minutes ago, The Nal said:

Don't go on the socials

It’s hard not to though. I couldn’t resist a little look on twitter. The amount of people who don’t understand the concept of supply and demand is simply stunning, only beaten by the level of ignorance and entitlement people possess nowdays. 

[timbrass]

We were 12 out of 18 which seems above average. The Coach ticket advantage seems to have gone now.   You need to run a military operation to maximise you chances - no basic errors like overlapping syndicates.  In a couple of years I can see AI bots trying to book on your behalf - you could then have (say) 500 or 10000 "people" working on your behalf.  There is no "I am not a robot" step in the current booking flow.

[Sawdusty surfer]

2 minutes ago, timbrass said:

  In a couple of years I can see AI bots trying to book on your behalf - you could then have (say) 500 or 10000 "people" working on your behalf.  

I'm sorry to say I think you're right but if it were to happen i'm sure GFL would have a cunning plan to prevent it.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Sawdusty Surfer

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

2 minutes ago, timbrass said:

We were 12 out of 18 which seems above average. The Coach ticket advantage seems to have gone now.   You need to run a military operation to maximise you chances - no basic errors like overlapping syndicates.  In a couple of years I can see AI bots trying to book on your behalf - you could then have (say) 500 or 10000 "people" working on your behalf.  There is no "I am not a robot" step in the current booking flow.

Interesting idea.. how much is it to buy an Indian call centre and retrain the staff? Or when crypto finally goes completely kaput there might be use for all those Chinese bitcoin mines.

[timbrass]

3 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Interesting idea.. how much is it to buy an Indian call centre and retrain the staff? Or when crypto finally goes completely kaput there might be use for all those Chinese bitcoin mines.

You don't need people you just need to parse the online forms and enter a few well defined details.  If the forms stayed identical from a previous year, I think even I might be able to code it!  The Crypto miners are all running ASICs (or GPUs) which are less useful for this. 

[Lucy92]

23 minutes ago, Matt42 said:

Unfortunately I cannot attend this year due to scheduling. I sat back and watched the madness and have some observations 

in my circles it seems that more people who have never been are securing tickets. I love the festival but it definitely feels like every year there are more people that have never been before.

its conflicting because if everyone and their Mum is putting Glasto on the bucket list, is the quality of the crowd going to suffer?

as said above - I know some people who would be very disappointed with an announcement of the cure that have tickets this year

Hopefully people like that end up putting their tickets back in the pot for the resale 

[Mr.Tease]

1 hour ago, Gnomicide said:

 

 

2004 went well over 12hrs if I remember correctly due to technical issues and server fires, can't believe I spent so long refreshing without dying, trying to get a friend's ticket before the Freya link saved me from purgatory! 

[Joshuwarr]

This was probably the worst ticket day for me yet. I'm not too down though as I know the number of people who try in the resale drops off dramatically and I know enough people who have been successful can try for me. I may even give volunteering another go too. 

I do resent a lot of the bitterness I'm seeing from people who don't think it's fair that newbies get their first taste of Glastonbury. I remember being so excited at my first Glastonbury and I wouldn't want others to not experience that too.

[Quark]

11 minutes ago, Joshuwarr said:

do resent a lot of the bitterness I'm seeing from people who don't think it's fair that newbies get their first taste of Glastonbury. I remember being so excited at my first Glastonbury and I wouldn't want others to not experience that too.

Dunno about resent, but I certainly know that the first time I went it was down to a friend telling me how good it was and I figured I'd give it a go. And now I at least like to think that I get it and love everything about it.

Sure some of the newbies will just be the douchebags who go for 2 days to say they've done Glastonbury, but a chunk of them will also fall in love with it like we all have.

I'd wager that a lot of the people who are now veterans from the 90s were seen as absolute tools by thise who started going in the 70s and 80s

[jonnyisRFC]

12/15 for us. 14 of us didn't get a sniff, one guy got in twice and bought 6 x2. 

[henry bear]

4 minutes ago, Quark said:

I'd wager that a lot of the people who are now veterans from the 90s were seen as absolute tools by thise who started going in the 70s and 80s

Yes, bloody upstarts in their Neds Atomic Dustbin long-sleeve t-shirts running around like they own the place.

[The Nal]

52 minutes ago, Deaf Nobby Burton said:

Interesting idea.. how much is it to buy an Indian call centre and retrain the staff? 

I worked in a place before where the bloke beside me "worked from home" but really just paid some lad in an Indian call centre and gave him remote access to his mail and systems and let him do the work. 2 quid a day or something. 

I'm sure if you chucked 20 or 30 quid at it, you cold have dozens of people trying for you for the 20 mins it takes to sell out.

[sedra]

It’s not just the number of people trying it’s the number of devices as well- for every one person you have maybe 2/3/4 devices and browsers so effectively triple/quadrupling demand to get through. I think it’s just down to luck at the end of the day! 

[incident]

1 hour ago, fowls said:

Exactly. There are hundreds of thousands of people wanting to go to Glastonbury. If you said "the same areas and line up will also be available at this other sister festival" a decent proportion would be up for that.

They couldn't say that. It simply would not be achievable without screwing up the finances big time.

Even if you only looked at it from a perspective of music stages, and then only the say 10 biggest ones it'd still be damn near impossible - at the top end of the bill, a lot of the acts cut their fees as a one off thing because they know that they'll get publicity and kudos from being there. So you'd be asking acts to put in twice as much work/time for most likely diluted benefit - in which case it's reasonable to expect that their performance fees would need to rise dramatically to something approaching their normal rates.

When you start to get lower down the lineup, one of the major benefits that attracts acts (again, for vastly reduced fees or in many cases even for free) is that they get to enjoy the festival for the weekend - asking them to up sticks and head up north halfway through the event (or vica versa) is only going to hurt. So the 2nd festival would actually make it more difficult for the first festival to continue as is.

Bear in mind, that's not even considering the numerous things that can't easily be replicated in a second location, such as Arcadia, Block 9, etc. It's also not considering that a second event would put more strain on an already stretched crew.. There's a reason that when they started talking about Variety Bazaar, they were only talking about doing it in fallow years.

[Stokesy10]

12 out of our 36 got tickets, mine included. So bloody happy. Most of us regulars. In my group of 6 only my older brother is a GF virgin, cannot wait. 

[DareToDibble]

1 hour ago, Joshuwarr said:

This was probably the worst ticket day for me yet. I'm not too down though as I know the number of people who try in the resale drops off dramatically

Do we have any idea what the drop off tends to be?

My friends seem confident of getting ours in the resale so I’m wondering if that confidence is justified? I’ve seen people post on here today that it can actually be easier?!

[MEGABOWL]

1 hour ago, Sawdusty Surfer said:

I'm sorry to say I think you're right but if it were to happen i'm sure GFL would have a cunning plan to prevent it.

I honestly think they’re going to have to go to a lottery before long

[Deaf Nobby Burton]

11 minutes ago, DareToDibble said:

Do we have any idea what the drop off tends to be?

My friends seem confident of getting ours in the resale so I’m wondering if that confidence is justified? I’ve seen people post on here today that it can actually be easier?!

Nobody knows, but I’d estimate about 10% so a good 10-15k tickets. A suprising about of people forget to pay for their ticket, people’s circumstances change, people have babies move abroad etc etc. There would have been a lot of people today who would’ve casually logged in and got tickets who may even not be that bothered about going.

I’ve only had to rely on it once, which was last time around and I was successful. It did seem very easy and I was in after only a couple of minutes, but I know that’s just luck and there are no guarantees. Plenty of people were not successful just like today. 

I would say overall your chances in the resale are better than the main sale, simply because although the number of tickets is much lower the amount of people trying must be proportionally far far lower than the main sale. If 10% of tickets go back into the pot probably sub 5% of the millions who tried today will be trying in April.

A lot of the people who in the heat of the moment after failing in the main sale will be fully committed to the resale today, but come April may have made other plans.

The caveat to that is if a really popular band or act are announced that have a committed global fan base you can get a lot of people registering just for that reason potentially making it harder.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Deaf Nobby Burton