How much crazier can it get!

[The other Bellboy]

After the events of yesterday, its clear that absolutley no part of the process of getting to Glastonbury is anywhere near easy.

We have all become used to the F5 scramble for coach and normal tickets, but now local and Campervan passes have become just as difficult to get and selling out in such a reduced amount of time.

This makes me wonder if things are actually getting that much more difficult / the festival becoming so much more popular.

We hear stories of 2 million registrations etc.

 I think that some of the problems are now appearing are because of the hype about the festival and the worries that people have over getting their tickets or passes.

I'm sure that a lot of people have more than 1 registration, almost everyone gets into huge groups to try for tickets, uses multiple devices with multiple windows, lots of people have worked out how to get into the mix for local tickets and groups are now trying for and are able to buy multiple campervan passes but who can only use one.

There is no doubt that the festival is extremely popular but its not certain to me that the increase in difficulty in getting there is purely down to an increase in the popularity, i think the way we have all adapted / reacted to these difficulties has actually made it harder for all of us. There's nothing we can do about this of course, its just natural that we all want to get our tickets and passes.

Either way, i'm not looking forward to the 50th anniversary ticket scramble, being there is a big draw for me and i would assume for a lot of others too, so i'm expecting it to be even harder next October.

I winder just how far this level of increasing difficulty will go and if it will ever end! I can't see anything in the near future leading to a repeat of 2008, and nor do i want there to be, the festival does operate on a tight finacial line and 2008 was almost a disater for them.

Congrats to those who have been successful so far and keep the faith to those who still have hurdles / fences to climb to get there:)

 

[uscore]

I don't understand how campervans are getting more difficult.  

Tickets I understand, with 2 million people registered.

 

But the same amount of tickets get bought every year, presumably a similar ratio of people want campervan tickets every year.  So why so difficult this year?

 

[uscore]

One possible answer is that more people help each other.  I bought a friend their campervan ticket, I am not going to be in it.

[glastolover19]

10 minutes ago, The other Bellboy said:

After the events of yesterday, its clear that absolutley no part of the process of getting to Glastonbury is anywhere near easy.

We have all become used to the F5 scramble for coach and normal tickets, but now local and Campervan passes have become just as difficult to get and selling out in such a reduced amount of time.

This makes me wonder if things are actually getting that much more difficult / the festival becoming so much more popular.

We hear stories of 2 million registrations etc.

 I think that some of the problems are now appearing are because of the hype about the festival and the worries that people have over getting their tickets or passes.

I'm sure that a lot of people have more than 1 registration, almost everyone gets into huge groups to try for tickets, uses multiple devices with multiple windows, lots of people have worked out how to get into the mix for local tickets and groups are now trying for and are able to buy multiple campervan passes but who can only use one.

There is no doubt that the festival is extremely popular but its not certain to me that the increase in difficulty in getting there is purely down to an increase in the popularity, i think the way we have all adapted / reacted to these difficulties has actually made it harder for all of us. There's nothing we can do about this of course, its just natural that we all want to get our tickets and passes.

Either way, i'm not looking forward to the 50th anniversary ticket scramble, being there is a big draw for me and i would assume for a lot of others too, so i'm expecting it to be even harder next October.

I winder just how far this level of increasing difficulty will go and if it will ever end! I can't see anything in the near future leading to a repeat of 2008, and nor do i want there to be, the festival does operate on a tight finacial line and 2008 was almost a disater for them.

Congrats to those who have been successful so far and keep the faith to those who still have hurdles / fences to climb to get there:)

 

I think it's a combination of many things that have effected the process. Obviously it's incredibly hard now to get tickets and think it will get worse. I'm not saying it's a bad thing more people want to go,I think everyone should try it. I think with the coverage in the media,the rise of social media and celebrity has opened a lot of eyes to the festival whereas many years ago it was more underground. Also I think the weather played a large part to more people trying this year coupled with the fallow year. Certainly the process of attempting to gettl tickets has become easier over the last few years compared to when you brought in person or called. You think now you can buy a ticket from anywhere in the world while still in bed,which obviously has opened up the potential market more.

I too am not looking forward to the 50th sale but will be doing backflips if do get 1 and for me that's part of the buzz,thinking sh!t man I actually got a bloody ticket.

Did you get one for this year?

[Crazyfool01]

I think it will peak at the 50th ... all things run in cycles and at some point interest will start to drop off ... maybe peoples frustration with difficulties getting things sorted / festivals without friends might start coming into play ... 

[glastolover19]

4 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

I think it will peak at the 50th ... all things run in cycles and at some point interest will start to drop off ... maybe peoples frustration with difficulties getting things sorted / festivals without friends might start coming into play ... 

I think it will peak but don't think it will necessarily decline too much in popularity. I think you're always going to get a lot of newbies each year to try it as one off and your also get newbies who get bitten by the bug and continue to go,think ultimately it's just a changing of the guard type thing. I think it will always be a struggle to get a ticket but that's the dragon we chase

[Simsy]

1 hour ago, The other Bellboy said:

I winder just how far this level of increasing difficulty will go and if it will ever end! I can't see anything in the near future leading to a repeat of 2008, and nor do i want there to be, the festival does operate on a tight finacial line and 2008 was almost a disater for them.

I'm guessing the struggle to sell out in 2008 was at least partly due to the credit crunch - if you're facing redundancy or your house is being repossessed are you going to fork out hundreds for a festival? So all we need is another financial crisis and you're not going to get 2 million people trying for tickets.

Will the 50th anniversary will affect demand? Surely the only people who care that it's a big one are the ones who are interested in Glasto and would be trying for tickets anyway? Unless they announce 3 massive headliners before T-Day.

[stuartbert two hats]

It's an arms race innit.

[Paul_F]

I'm not part of any group trying to get tickets, no multiple registrations, no clever strategies - just plain old F5. I got tickets, others got tickets, others didn't get tickets. I'm not sure it's harder than previous years? There was always a strong possibility that we wouldn't get tickets and we were prepared to accept that. To be honest every time we get tickets I'm equally amazed we're successful.

[stuartbert two hats]

10 minutes ago, Paul_F said:

I'm not part of any group trying to get tickets, no multiple registrations, no clever strategies - just plain old F5. I got tickets, others got tickets, others didn't get tickets. I'm not sure it's harder than previous years? There was always a strong possibility that we wouldn't get tickets and we were prepared to accept that. To be honest every time we get tickets I'm equally amazed we're successful.

I'm involved in a reasonable sized group and in touch with another big one. I'm convinced that this year was the hardest yet. Far more people going without this time.

[BlueDaze]

1 hour ago, The other Bellboy said:

After the events of yesterday, its clear that absolutley no part of the process of getting to Glastonbury is anywhere near easy.

We have all become used to the F5 scramble for coach and normal tickets, but now local and Campervan passes have become just as difficult to get and selling out in such a reduced amount of time.

This makes me wonder if things are actually getting that much more difficult / the festival becoming so much more popular.

We hear stories of 2 million registrations etc.

 I think that some of the problems are now appearing are because of the hype about the festival and the worries that people have over getting their tickets or passes.

I'm sure that a lot of people have more than 1 registration, almost everyone gets into huge groups to try for tickets, uses multiple devices with multiple windows, lots of people have worked out how to get into the mix for local tickets and groups are now trying for and are able to buy multiple campervan passes but who can only use one.

There is no doubt that the festival is extremely popular but its not certain to me that the increase in difficulty in getting there is purely down to an increase in the popularity, i think the way we have all adapted / reacted to these difficulties has actually made it harder for all of us. There's nothing we can do about this of course, its just natural that we all want to get our tickets and passes.

Either way, i'm not looking forward to the 50th anniversary ticket scramble, being there is a big draw for me and i would assume for a lot of others too, so i'm expecting it to be even harder next October.

I winder just how far this level of increasing difficulty will go and if it will ever end! I can't see anything in the near future leading to a repeat of 2008, and nor do i want there to be, the festival does operate on a tight finacial line and 2008 was almost a disater for them.

Congrats to those who have been successful so far and keep the faith to those who still have hurdles / fences to climb to get there:)

 

First off don’t be fretting over what may happen next October.. we have barely finished this one and you have a massive festival to enjoy before that...

Celebrate the planning and anticipation to come... Next October is a world away..

if you are so fraught about 2020 tickets pray for a 2019 mud bath*.... sticking that on the telly will soon put off your bucket listers...

 

 

* this isn’t going to happen btw

[BlueDaze]

I honestly believe that this site has a good deal to do with the ticketing challenges..

efestivals is a major resource in the tips, tricks and planning for t-day and beyond... loads more people know of it and learn from it..

If you want to keep the old timers happy @eFestivals you are going to have to consider a complete rebranding... maybe call it Ffestivals.?

[amfy]

I think there is potentially an issue with a greater proportion of ticket holders wanting campervan/caravan/glamming options.

The people like me who have been going for years are getting older and each year more and more of us decide lugging our stuff 3 miles to pitch is getting too tough. To be fair, it is that, rather than the actual camping that does for me!

Then Glastonbury is also attracting new customers (young and old) that just don’t see camping as part of their essential Glastonbury experience in the way we did at our early  glastonburies. There is definitely a greater proportion of newcomers that only do it on the basis that it turns out ‘you don’t have to camp’.

In turn, there is a greater and greater demand for campervan/caravan/glamping  options. It can only get tougher.

[The other Bellboy]

1 hour ago, uscore said:

I don't understand how campervans are getting more difficult.  

Tickets I understand, with 2 million people registered.

 

But the same amount of tickets get bought every year, presumably a similar ratio of people want campervan tickets every year.  So why so difficult this year?

 

personally i think the demographic is changing a bit, more older people, more young families (those who have been going for years but now have families etc) and also the group thing, there's a panic to get the passes and so this is why there are some groups who get multiple passes and have to send them back. I'm sure the vast majority that want CV passes will get them later as the returns come back out and i also think that they have some flexibility for the number of fields they may rent for the CV area. There must have been an increase in the overall number of passes available due to the use of B and W. The scramble for CV passes this year was so much more intense than 2016 for 2017.

[The other Bellboy]

1 hour ago, glastolover19 said:

I think it's a combination of many things that have effected the process. Obviously it's incredibly hard now to get tickets and think it will get worse. I'm not saying it's a bad thing more people want to go,I think everyone should try it. I think with the coverage in the media,the rise of social media and celebrity has opened a lot of eyes to the festival whereas many years ago it was more underground. Also I think the weather played a large part to more people trying this year coupled with the fallow year. Certainly the process of attempting to gettl tickets has become easier over the last few years compared to when you brought in person or called. You think now you can buy a ticket from anywhere in the world while still in bed,which obviously has opened up the potential market more.

I too am not looking forward to the 50th sale but will be doing backflips if do get 1 and for me that's part of the buzz,thinking sh!t man I actually got a bloody ticket.

Did you get one for this year?

I agree. I'm in NZ this year and have previously bought from Saudi Arabia, the Phillipines and Ireland and i know i would have not been able to wait on the phone for hours on end like people used to have to do.

It is a massive buzz getting a ticket and there's nothing better than seeing that screen with a confirmed purchase:)

I did manage to get tickets, but it really was a scrape. A friend got the main ticket for me on a phone and 16 minutes after the sold out message had come up - that was a miracle! and last night (as it was for me) i got several messages saying not available or sold out - after previous years i didnt believe it so i kept resubmitting the form and changing the options then after about 10 attempts i managed to get a CV pass. I must have got one from a previous transaction that had failed because it was showing everything at that time as sold out / not available. I feel very lucky!

The only issue left is,  we brought our CV with us to NZ so we now have to hire one - now thats going to be fun:) 

[uscore]

34 minutes ago, Paul_F said:

I'm not part of any group trying to get tickets, no multiple registrations, no clever strategies - just plain old F5. I got tickets, others got tickets, others didn't get tickets. I'm not sure it's harder than previous years? There was always a strong possibility that we wouldn't get tickets and we were prepared to accept that. To be honest every time we get tickets I'm equally amazed we're successful.

one person's experience is less important than lots of people's experience.

 

It was clearly much harder this year than others.   Of course, if you happened to get through at 10.01am, you might wonder what all the fuss was about.

[The other Bellboy]

42 minutes ago, Simsy said:

I'm guessing the struggle to sell out in 2008 was at least partly due to the credit crunch - if you're facing redundancy or your house is being repossessed are you going to fork out hundreds for a festival? So all we need is another financial crisis and you're not going to get 2 million people trying for tickets.

Will the 50th anniversary will affect demand? Surely the only people who care that it's a big one are the ones who are interested in Glasto and would be trying for tickets anyway? Unless they announce 3 massive headliners before T-Day.

I can't remember exactly when the credit crunch started to bite, i was lucky at the time and was working 2 very well paid jobs so firstly didnt have time to keep upto date with things and secondly i had quite a bit of cash coming in. I moved abroad in 2009 so was out of touch for a long time.

2007 was of course a mud bath and then there was the Jay Z issue, quite a few things must have come together but some of these things have occurred since and there hasn't been the same issue. I'm really surprised that no one has ever done a case study on 2008 as it was a real blip for GFL. Of course they took a few big steps which changed the way things have ran since then - the change in ticket sale date, the deposit scheme and not announcing the line up until after its too late for anyone to change their minds:) Very good moves for GFL obvioulsy:)

[The other Bellboy]

29 minutes ago, BlueDaze said:

First off don’t be fretting over what may happen next October.. we have barely finished this one and you have a massive festival to enjoy before that...

Celebrate the planning and anticipation to come... Next October is a world away..

if you are so fraught about 2020 tickets pray for a 2019 mud bath*.... sticking that on the telly will soon put off your bucket listers...

 

 

* this isn’t going to happen btw

haha, i didn't mean to come across as fretting - its just a slight concern for all us Glasto obsessives surely;)

There certainly is a lot of planning to do, more than normal for us but thats for another day!

I don't think the mud bath thing has such an effect any more, look at 2016, no issues for 2017 sales - but of course it was the last one before a fallow year. It won't be a mud bath of course, we all know that, we will need sun screen and litres of water just to keep going:)

[The other Bellboy]

26 minutes ago, amfy said:

I think there is potentially an issue with a greater proportion of ticket holders wanting campervan/caravan/glamming options.

The people like me who have been going for years are getting older and each year more and more of us decide lugging our stuff 3 miles to pitch is getting too tough. To be fair, it is that, rather than the actual camping that does for me!

Then Glastonbury is also attracting new customers (young and old) that just don’t see camping as part of their essential Glastonbury experience in the way we did at our early  glastonburies. There is definitely a greater proportion of newcomers that only do it on the basis that it turns out ‘you don’t have to camp’.

In turn, there is a greater and greater demand for campervan/caravan/glamping  options. It can only get tougher.

Spot on i think!

[Ayrshire Chris]

Every year that passes those of us who have been going for years still apply for tickets and every year another crop of glasto virgins are added to the mix. It’s reasonable to assume that every year things will get tougher. Don’t know the solution unless they just have a big lottery draw of every registration instead of the see ticket scramble!

Edited October 27, 2018 by Ayrshire Chris

[stuartbert two hats]

17 minutes ago, The other Bellboy said:

haha, i didn't mean to come across as fretting - its just a slight concern for all us Glasto obsessives surely;)

There certainly is a lot of planning to do, more than normal for us but thats for another day!

I don't think the mud bath thing has such an effect any more, look at 2016, no issues for 2017 sales - but of course it was the last one before a fallow year. It won't be a mud bath of course, we all know that, we will need sun screen and litres of water just to keep going:)

You may be right, but there was a world of difference between 2016 and 2007. 2016 was muddy from the get go, but 2007 was just fucking miserable. I watched about one song of the Sunday night headliners, before heading back to the safety of camp. I remember sitting on a chair, under an umbrella, wearing a raincoat, getting that on by the rain whilst trying to watch The Coral. It was relentless. The rain would stop for a bit, then lash it down ever harder, every fucking day, until Sunday when it just rained and rained and rained.

2016 was muddy. So what? With decent footwear you're fine. That's it, with the added advantage that you don't need to retie your laces very ofte. It rained hard on people out very late one night, and drizzled for a bit on the Sunday, but was otherwise fine. No comparison at all for me.

Edited October 27, 2018 by stuartbert two hats

[glastolover19]

21 minutes ago, uscore said:

one person's experience is less important than lots of people's experience.

 

It was clearly much harder this year than others.   Of course, if you happened to get through at 10.01am, you might wonder what all the fuss was about.

Ummm okay

[glastolover19]

3 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

You may be right, but there was a world of difference between 2016 and 2007. 2016 was muddy from the get go, but 2007 was just fucking miserable. I watched about song of the Sunday night headliners, before heading back to the safety of camp. I remember sitting on a chair, under an umbrella, wearing a raincoat, getting that on by the rain whilst trying to watch The Coral. It was relentless. The rain would stop for a bit, then lash it down ever harder, every fucking day, until Sunday when it just rained and rained and rained.

2016 was muddy. So what? With decent footwear you're fine. That's it, with the added advantage that you don't need to retie your laces very ofte. It rained hard on people out very late one night, and drizzled for a bit on the Sunday, but was otherwise fine. No comparison at all for me.

Yep,only year ever that I considered leaving early

[Simsy]

3 minutes ago, stuartbert two hats said:

You may be right, but there was a world of difference between 2016 and 2007. 2016 was muddy from the get go, but 2007 was just fucking miserable. I watched about song of the Sunday night headliners, before heading back to the safety of camp. I remember sitting on a chair, under an umbrella, wearing a raincoat, getting that on by the rain whilst trying to watch The Coral. It was relentless. The rain would stop for a bit, then lash it down ever harder, every fucking day, until Sunday when it just rained and rained and rained.

2016 was muddy. So what? With decent footwear you're fine. That's it, with the added advantage that you don't need to retie your laces very ofte. It rained hard on people out very late one night, and drizzled for a bit on the Sunday, but was otherwise fine. No comparison at all for me.

I found 2016 much harder work to get around in the mud than 2007, but I don't know if that's just because I was 9 years older 

[stuartbert two hats]

5 minutes ago, glastolover19 said:

Ummm okay

It may be clumsily put, but the point is sound - one single data point doesn't say much, especially when you either get a ticket or not, but if you look at what many people are saying about their success levels, a more meaningful picture emerges.