T Day.... good for the festival?

[FuzzyDunlop]

The horror stories, the frustration, the anger, the jubliation, the effort... it all adds to the glastonbury story doesn't it? It is also a free & easy way to market the festival.

Would a ballot create the same buzz? I doubt it.

The tickets sell in 35 mins - it makes the press. If you ran the festival - why would you change the formula?

Edited October 8, 2018 by FuzzyDunlop

[Avalon_Fields]

Ticket day is both good and bad publicity, but as they say any publicity is good publicity. I don’t support a ballot, I prefer to stay with the present system because it increases the chances of success to those who are most dedicated to going to the festival (And I say this having failed yesterday).

[kevbizarre]

Having just lost out on cricket World Cup tickets all together in a large ballot, not sure if would be any better.

Although depends on how it is run - single person only may discourage a lot of the groups applying but that isn’t good for the festival.

if it allowed groups (e.g. four people) then you’d probably get way more people actually trying for tickets as you could easily apply just in case you want to go, and then cancel and lose deposit if you can’t. 

Maybe a small set allocation of tickets each year for first time attendees would be good? Don’t know how it could be policed though...

I’m not a believer that because you been a few times before you have a right to keep on going...and I’ve been 6 myself!

[Clareno7]

20 minutes ago, Avalon_Fields said:

Ticket day is both good and bad publicity, but as they say any publicity is good publicity. I don’t support a ballot, I prefer to stay with the present system because it increases the chances of success to those who are most dedicated to going to the festival (And I say this having failed yesterday).

I said the same thing to my husband last night. The thought of tickets going to people who simply fill out a form a few months before just doesn't sit right with me. At least we have opportunities now to increase our chances and feel we've done the best we can.

[Supernintendo Chalmers]

The current system is already like a ballot. I say it every year, forget the number of laptops on different IPs, 4G and all this technical advice, it's down to luck, pure and simple. There was a time when strength in numbers increased your chances but not any more, the festival is too popular now. 

The current system is as fair as possible. The biggest issues they need to fix are:

1. You should always be able to get a holding page. Getting a white screen for 40 minutes is ridiculous in this day and age, regardless of demand.

2. The holding page countdown timer should be reinstated. 

3. Maybe notification of your position in the queue would be worthwhile? Those not really bothered in position 200,000 might give up, freeing up even a tiny fraction of traffic.

4. Under no circumstances should the system ever kick you out once you get to the payment page. This happens to hundreds of people each year and has done since the introduction of this system. It's completely unacceptable. Arguably the only time it prevents you from proceeding is if any of your details are incorrect. You should have 6 minutes to comfortably complete or correct your details. 

And that's it. The system itself is as fair as possible and doesn't discrimate between first timers or veterans, it just needs bringing up to a more reliable standard to meet the demand.

[BlueDaze]

9 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

The current system is already like a ballot. I say it every year, forget the number of laptops on different IPs, 4G and all this technical advice, it's down to luck, pure and simple. There was a time when strength in numbers increased your chances but not any more, the festival is too popular now. 

The current system is as fair as possible. The biggest issues they need to fix are:

1. You should always be able to get a holding page. Getting a white screen for 40 minutes is ridiculous in this day and age, regardless of demand.

2. The holding page countdown timer should be reinstated. 

3. Maybe notification of your position in the queue would be worthwhile? Those not really bothered in position 200,000 might give up, freeing up even a tiny fraction of traffic.

4. Under no circumstances should the system ever kick you out once you get to the payment page. This happens to hundreds of people each year and has done since the introduction of this system. It's completely unacceptable. Arguably the only time it prevents you from proceeding is if any of your details are incorrect. You should have 6 minutes to comfortably complete or correct your details. 

And that's it. The system itself is as fair as possible and doesn't discrimate between first timers or veterans, it just needs bringing up to a more reliable standard to meet the demand.

Couldn’t agree more.. particularly with point 4.

my daughter got through on her mobile and had to ‘Back button’ 8 times on the registration page and then had a Payment Page moment whilst the page froze and asked if you wanted to cancel or wait... the payment eventually continued and we secured tickets but it appears that for dozens on here they got kicked out at that point.... which is truly awful...

The process of registration is in itself the fairest part of ticketing... they could very easily make it into a Sheeran / Adele free for all with technology thrown at it that would mean the first page you get 2 minutes into the sale is ‘sold out’...

i speak as someone that has missed one Glastonbury  since 2007 (by choice)... the festival needs to continually attract new punters to ensure its continued success... sooner or later I am not going to get tickets yet at least my chances are pretty much as good as the next persons.

sort out the Russian roulette that is the booking/payment pages though...

[Crazyfool01]

31 minutes ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

The current system is already like a ballot. I say it every year, forget the number of laptops on different IPs, 4G and all this technical advice, it's down to luck, pure and simple. There was a time when strength in numbers increased your chances but not any more, the festival is too popular now. 

The current system is as fair as possible. The biggest issues they need to fix are:

1. You should always be able to get a holding page. Getting a white screen for 40 minutes is ridiculous in this day and age, regardless of demand.

2. The holding page countdown timer should be reinstated. 

3. Maybe notification of your position in the queue would be worthwhile? Those not really bothered in position 200,000 might give up, freeing up even a tiny fraction of traffic.

4. Under no circumstances should the system ever kick you out once you get to the payment page. This happens to hundreds of people each year and has done since the introduction of this system. It's completely unacceptable. Arguably the only time it prevents you from proceeding is if any of your details are incorrect. You should have 6 minutes to comfortably complete or correct your details. 

And that's it. The system itself is as fair as possible and doesn't discrimate between first timers or veterans, it just needs bringing up to a more reliable standard to meet the demand.

totally agree and especially number 4 ... the number of people that got kicked out at this stage this year seemed massive and lots more than previously  and often on multiple occasions , this should really not be happening 10 years after they introduced the photo registration system ... technology moves on but see dont seem to see this and respond to it like other businesses that need to move with the times 

[Crazyfool01]

3 minutes ago, BlueDaze said:

Couldn’t agree more.. particularly with point 4.

my daughter got through on her mobile and had to ‘Back button’ 8 times on the registration page and then had a Payment Page moment whilst the page froze and asked if you wanted to cancel or wait... the payment eventually continued and we secured tickets but it appears that for dozens on here they got kicked out at that point.... which is truly awful...

The process of registration is in itself the fairest part of ticketing... they could very easily make it into a Sheeran / Adele free for all with technology thrown at it that would mean the first page you get 2 minutes into the sale is ‘sold out’...

i speak as someone that has missed one Glastonbury  since 2007 (by choice)... the festival needs to continually attract new punters to ensure its continued success... sooner or later I am not going to get tickets yet at least my chances are pretty much as good as the next persons.

sort out the Russian roulette that is the booking/payment pages though...

Think I was mind reading with the timing of my post above  

[BlueDaze]

3 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

Think I was mind reading with the timing of my post above  

I think you get my (October) drift ?

[koj]

We never saw an order confirmation screen but we got tickets, not great. We only knew when another of our party got through and the registration numbers said we'd already purchase tickets.

[mcshed]

The thing is anything they do to cope with increased load will cost more, so any changes they make will mean ticket prices going up or less money for charity.  The current system sells all the tickets and is reasonably fair, if frustrating.

[Crazyfool01]

1 minute ago, BlueDaze said:

I think you get my (October) drift ?

you are you are very good with jokes like that .... will return with the upvote as ive currently run out .... looks like they are announcing an end of nov gig in exeter which is localish to me , when chris confirms the date  

 

[Hotchilidog]

When you have such an imbalance between supply and demand there is simply no ideal way of ticketing the festival that will please everyone. I genuinely believe Glastonbury is about the fairest major event out there. As crushing as the disappointment of missing out is, at least once the sold out sign has gone up the touting sites are not full of tickets for sale from profiteers. Every ticket goes to someone who really wants to be there.

My group got lucky this year (and it is luck, nothing else) but last year they did not and they all missed out. I think the system is as fair as it can be.

If I was going to suggest one change I'd maybe lose the deposit scheme this may little the numbers down a little bit.

Edited October 8, 2018 by Hotchilidog

[RichardWaller]

It's a notorious day, that's for sure. Saw the BBC article about the sale over on Facebook and what surprises me even after a decade of registrations, is there were comment after comment talking about touts from people who presumably either hadn't read the article or don't understand the registration thing. 

Whatever system gets used, it's still gonna be luck of the draw. If it did become a ballot, I bet people would get conspiratorial about that anyway. Could still end up with people who succeed or fail five festivals in a row. Unless you're going to take people out of the ballot which would be unfair.

[incident]

1 hour ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

3. Maybe notification of your position in the queue would be worthwhile? Those not really bothered in position 200,000 might give up, freeing up even a tiny fraction of traffic.

I agree with the rest, but there isn't a place in the queue to be notified of.

[DarrenVonBoathook]

31 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

4. ....... This happens to hundreds of people each year and has done since the introduction of this system. It's completely unacceptable. Arguably the only time it prevents you from proceeding is if any of your details are incorrect. You should have 6 minutes to comfortably complete or correct your details. 

This seems to be true for lots of people, but compared to previous years I personally found this year to be a large improvement.

Once I was lucky enough to get to the registration page, it was as solid as a rock. I was through and booked in about 2 minutes, which included missing out a field for my card details and having to go around the payment page again. It reloaded instantly and had kept my other details.

Probably just luck and clearly other people had major issues, but for me it worked well when needed. 

[Keithy]

1 hour ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

The current system is already like a ballot. I say it every year, forget the number of laptops on different IPs, 4G and all this technical advice, it's down to luck, pure and simple. There was a time when strength in numbers increased your chances but not any more, the festival is too popular now. 

The current system is as fair as possible. The biggest issues they need to fix are:

1. You should always be able to get a holding page. Getting a white screen for 40 minutes is ridiculous in this day and age, regardless of demand.

2. The holding page countdown timer should be reinstated. 

3. Maybe notification of your position in the queue would be worthwhile? Those not really bothered in position 200,000 might give up, freeing up even a tiny fraction of traffic.

4. Under no circumstances should the system ever kick you out once you get to the payment page. This happens to hundreds of people each year and has done since the introduction of this system. It's completely unacceptable. Arguably the only time it prevents you from proceeding is if any of your details are incorrect. You should have 6 minutes to comfortably complete or correct your details. 

And that's it. The system itself is as fair as possible and doesn't discrimate between first timers or veterans, it just needs bringing up to a more reliable standard to meet the demand.

I disagree on the different IP's. In the bigger scheme of things it doesn't make a huge difference but it can marginally tilt the odds in your favour. As you say, it's pure luck to pick up an open session on the servers to get in. But the more separate connections you have, the marginally better your luck will be.

1. That's down to the capacity of the See Ticket servers. You can get around that by spinning up more web servers to present the holding page but that costs more money for Glastonbury and ultimately doesn't make much difference. There's still only a finite number of sessions on the booking pages. If for example See have the capacity to hold 50,000 sessions on their web servers then the 50,001 gets the 'timed out waiting to respond' message. If they add more servers in, you just have more servers in, you just move the problem. There are still 50,001 trying to get into the booking section. All you have changed is people's perception of 'success' - I got to the holding page at least

2. I'm not sure what this achieves? Everyone still F5's to refresh their connection. The timer is just a visual thing. The page still refreshed after 20 seconds this year.

3. It's not a queuing system. It's a free for all. You just have to be lucky to hit an open session on the booking page when you are refreshing the holding page. 

4. Again this comes down to the capacity of the See Servers and that is directly related to how much Glastonbury have invested in the ticket purchasing system with See. I imagine they have a fixed price contract with an agreed SLA of throughput of transactions. The only way to fix that is to increase See server capacity which would cost Glastonbury money. At this point it becomes a personal choice. Do you want Glastonbury to spend more money with See tickets on increasing server capacity to ensure all transactions are successful (which won't be cheap I can assure you) or do you want Glastonbury to spend that money on the festival?

[shuttlep]

1 hour ago, FuzzyDunlop said:

The horror stories, the frustration, the anger, the jubliation, the effort... it all adds to the glastonbury story doesn't it? It is also a free & easy way to market the festival.

Would a ballot create the same buzz? I doubt it.

The tickets sell in 35 mins - it makes the press. If you ran the festival - why would you change the formula?

ballot's are also pointless,

 

I have tried the ballot for the London marathon for ten years and never got in. so you would have the same horror stories

[Divein]

I just think the ticket buying system needs to be more stable. Yesterday was easily the worst it's ever been, how can that be in 2018?

People talk about loyalty pots and ballot's but it's not really in keeping with the ethos of the festival to exclude certain people.

I do think that part of it is also due to the ticket buying culture. I mean, how many people get through and then keep trying for others?

Usually during something like that, it would get easier as people buy tickets but that doesnt happen with Glastonbury tickets as there's people trying for loads of groups so it's really hard right up until they sell out.

[brettredmayne]

I tried the back trick and kept pressing proceed but then eventually through me back to holding page .

 

[mpsamuels]

1 hour ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

The current system is already like a ballot. I say it every year, forget the number of laptops on different IPs, 4G and all this technical advice, it's down to luck, pure and simple. There was a time when strength in numbers increased your chances but not any more, the festival is too popular now. 

The current system is as fair as possible. The biggest issues they need to fix are:

1. You should always be able to get a holding page. Getting a white screen for 40 minutes is ridiculous in this day and age, regardless of demand.

2. The holding page countdown timer should be reinstated. 

3. Maybe notification of your position in the queue would be worthwhile? Those not really bothered in position 200,000 might give up, freeing up even a tiny fraction of traffic.

4. Under no circumstances should the system ever kick you out once you get to the payment page. This happens to hundreds of people each year and has done since the introduction of this system. It's completely unacceptable. Arguably the only time it prevents you from proceeding is if any of your details are incorrect. You should have 6 minutes to comfortably complete or correct your details. 

And that's it. The system itself is as fair as possible and doesn't discrimate between first timers or veterans, it just needs bringing up to a more reliable standard to meet the demand.

The only things i'd slightly disagree with here are:

3 - The current system is not a queue (and I don't think it should be one either) so having a position shown isn't appropriate. All that currently happens is people refresh the page in the hope of a random chance a session on the server becomes available when their computer asks for one.

4 - As frustrating as it is to get to the order page and THEN get a time out, a miss is as good as a mile. Unless you've got you're confirmation number you should consider it that you are no nearer to having tickets than someone who hasn't seen a holding page yet as the process can fall apart at any time. It might feel like you've just had "your" tickets taken away from you but the battle is to get to the confirmation number screen, not the payment screen. Having said that, I see no reason why they couldn't design the system so that the battle is to get a payment page only and that once you have that on your machine you are guaranteed the tickets you've requested.

[FuzzyDunlop]

11 minutes ago, DarrenVonBoathook said:

Once I was lucky enough to get to the registration page, it was as solid as a rock. I was through and booked in about 2 minutes, which included missing out a field for my card details and having to go around the payment page again. It reloaded instantly and had kept my other details.

Probably just luck and clearly other people had major issues, but for me it worked well when needed. 

After putting the reg numbers in, it timed out after pressing proceed for me. Then "back" press again... white screen. This happened for about 5 mins. When it went through to the next bit with the boxes with all our names on, it was then all fine & solid. Before tbat, it was a nightmare.

[Hugh Jass]

I bet there are people in the festival marketing department who love the current system - the festival sells out in minutes months in advance of any names even being announced. The frenzied clamour, the news reports, the stories of selling out in half an hour... it all cements the festival's reputation as being the hottest ticket on earth. The bigger the circus around T-Day the more they enjoy it.

I doubt anybody in GF headquarters is in any rush to change anything to be honest.

[Thunderstruck]

1 hour ago, Supernintendo Chalmers said:

The current system is already like a ballot. I say it every year, forget the number of laptops on different IPs, 4G and all this technical advice, it's down to luck, pure and simple. There was a time when strength in numbers increased your chances but not any more, the festival is too popular now. 

The current system is as fair as possible. The biggest issues they need to fix are:

1. You should always be able to get a holding page. Getting a white screen for 40 minutes is ridiculous in this day and age, regardless of demand.

2. The holding page countdown timer should be reinstated. 

3. Maybe notification of your position in the queue would be worthwhile? Those not really bothered in position 200,000 might give up, freeing up even a tiny fraction of traffic.

4. Under no circumstances should the system ever kick you out once you get to the payment page. This happens to hundreds of people each year and has done since the introduction of this system. It's completely unacceptable. Arguably the only time it prevents you from proceeding is if any of your details are incorrect. You should have 6 minutes to comfortably complete or correct your details. 

And that's it. The system itself is as fair as possible and doesn't discrimate between first timers or veterans, it just needs bringing up to a more reliable standard to meet the demand.

On point 3 - there is no queue. each refresh checks for a space on the booking page. It is like rolling the dice. On point 4. once you've entered your registration details your tickets are now held for about 6 minutes while you can calmly enter payment details.

[rubenz]

They could reserve some for people that have carried out certain relevant charity work or something. Give some people a chance to get a ticket via voluntering for good causes before the festival. 

Don't really know how this would work in practice mind.