Ticket Sale Date

[Ayrshire Chris]

5 minutes ago, Lycra said:

 

Yes the deposit provides early working capitol.....Raising the deposit would be the simplest way of reducing the ever increasing balance payment. Other solutions would require wholesale system changes.....As an aside, just noticed I can have 14 nights all inclusive in either Spain, Balearic's or Bulgaria, flight included for less than cost of Glasto ticket!

Interesting comparison, but I would gladly swap a six month round the world cruise for two Glastonbury tickets! 

[Pinhead]

29 minutes ago, Lycra said:

 

Yes the deposit provides early working capitol.....Raising the deposit would be the simplest way of reducing the ever increasing balance payment. Other solutions would require wholesale system changes.....As an aside, just noticed I can have 14 nights all inclusive in either Spain, Balearic's or Bulgaria, flight included for less than cost of Glasto ticket!

Plus presumably the deposit cash goes into some sort of investment fund providing a return on top of the value.

[duke88]

3 hours ago, parsonjack said:

Very true.  But the absence of similar payment plans is likely now beginning to price some previous GF regulars out of the market.  

I put a bit of money away on payday each month for Glastonbury throughout the year, because I can’t afford to pay for it all in one go. Nothing stopping other people doing that, does it really need an organised payment plan?

[duke88]

2 hours ago, Lycra said:

 

Yes the deposit provides early working capitol.....Raising the deposit would be the simplest way of reducing the ever increasing balance payment. Other solutions would require wholesale system changes.....As an aside, just noticed I can have 14 nights all inclusive in either Spain, Balearic's or Bulgaria, flight included for less than cost of Glasto ticket!

You obviously don’t have to go on holiday in the school holidays if you can get two weeks all inclusive for under £300!

[Lycra]

33 minutes ago, duke88 said:

You obviously don’t have to go on holiday in the school holidays if you can get two weeks all inclusive for under £300!

Sadly that restriction has never been imposed ☹

[March Hare]

Personally I don’t mind any of the system.

£50 deposit makes it easy to book for a group of six without breaking the bank. 

6 months is plenty of time to save up the remaining cash for the balance.

GF under no obligation to change the system as we punters are snapping up the tickets in <60 mins. 

From my anecdotal viewpoint the crowd is pretty diverse in terms of age. 

It’s still good value for me given I believe it offers more than any festival I’ve been to.

I’ve got tickets on ticket day and another year failed to.  So have experienced both sides.

[incident]

2 hours ago, duke88 said:

I put a bit of money away on payday each month for Glastonbury throughout the year, because I can’t afford to pay for it all in one go. Nothing stopping other people doing that, does it really need an organised payment plan?

Yep. If someone is struggling enough that they can't plan ahead to pay £50 in October then another £200+ in April, then to be blunt about it they probably have more important things to spend their money on than Glastonbury.

Can definitely make a case that it's become too expensive and is pricing people out, but how the payment is structured is a bit of a side issue especially given that it's entirely predictable and announced up front.

[dentalplan]

GLASTO FOR THE RICH
EARTH FOR THE POOR

[duke88]

7 hours ago, incident said:

Yep. If someone is struggling enough that they can't plan ahead to pay £50 in October then another £200+ in April, then to be blunt about it they probably have more important things to spend their money on than Glastonbury.

Can definitely make a case that it's become too expensive and is pricing people out, but how the payment is structured is a bit of a side issue especially given that it's entirely predictable and announced up front.

Another thing is that Glastonbury is the only festival (that I know of) that has a deposit scheme - other festivals offer a payment scheme, because you have to pay it all in one go otherwise. Once you've paid the £50 you've essentially got six months to put aside money for the rest of it.

[duke88]

9 hours ago, Lycra said:

Sadly that restriction has never been imposed ☹

Sorry, I didn't mean any offence by that

[stuie]

14 hours ago, parsonjack said:

Very true.  But the absence of similar payment plans is likely now beginning to price some previous GF regulars out of the market.  

 

13 hours ago, parsonjack said:

As above....this isn't about attracting punters, it's about ensuring as many people as possible can afford to attend. 

 

To be able to secure the ticket for £50 and have months to save the balance is effectively the same as an instalment system. 

And don't forget Glasto has more worker/volunteer tickets than any other festival. Over a quarter of the people there haven’t paid for there ticket. 

[Avalon_Fields]

8 hours ago, dentalplan said:

GLASTO FOR THE RICH
EARTH FOR THE POOR

There Is No Glasto B

[Lycra]

57 minutes ago, duke88 said:

Sorry, I didn't mean any offence by that

No offence taken. Just one of those things that life throws up. I do have sympathies for families who are exploited at holiday periods. 

[Lycra]

56 minutes ago, stuie said:

 

 

To be able to secure the ticket for £50 and have months to save the balance is effectively the same as an instalment system. 

And don't forget Glasto has more worker/volunteer tickets than any other festival. Over a quarter of the people there haven’t paid for there ticket. 

Saving/budgeting is what rational people do but there are a great many who don't do or can't do for monetary constraints. This itself influences the demographic of those who attend.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Lycra

[stuie]

18 minutes ago, Lycra said:

Saving/budgeting is what rational people do but there are a great many who don't do or can't do for monetary constraints. This itself influences the demographic of those who attend.

If someone can't save £210 between October and April then there's the argument that they can't afford to buy a Glastonbury ticket in the first place. Sure, that not very nice, but there are things we all can't afford to do/buy that we'd like to.

And for those people, they can apply be one of the 1 in 4 that work it or they can choose a cheaper festival, of which there are many.

Adding a payment by instalment option would cost money to implement and operate.  All costs have to be covered so people that pay instalments will end up paying more for their tickets in the long run.

 

 

[Lycra]

Besides tickets prices I believe the lack of personal ambition and camping are major influences on the crowd demographic. Considering the latter I know someone who refused to go to V after learning tents didn't have electrical sockets for hairdryers ?

[hfuhruhurr]

6 minutes ago, stuie said:

If someone can't save £210 between October and April then there's the argument that they can't afford to buy a Glastonbury ticket in the first place.

Unfortunately, there are many people who aren't financially savvy and a payment scheme would help a lot - presumably why other festivals offer it as an incentive. Shit happens and timings can go wrong, like the car needing a repair the same month as the balance payment. A cash flow issue, not an affordability issue.

[Madyaker]

16 hours ago, parsonjack said:

Very true.  But the absence of similar payment plans is likely now beginning to price some previous GF regulars out of the market.  

I’ll never get this. You only have to have 50 quid to secure your ticket then you’ve got 7 whole months to get the rest together. IMO this makes the ticket very affordable. If you can’t scrape together 50 quid for the sale and then put aside another 30 ish a month after that surely you wouldn’t even be considering going to Glastonbury in the first place?

[Guy Incognito]

I should probably know this seeing as I've got the coach 3 times but....can I just check whether you put in your coach location before or after putting in registration details? My group are spread all over the country so we have lots of different possible locations that we could leave from. 

[alanr]

16 hours ago, Pinhead said:

I suspect the deposit system has more to do with generating an early fund that can then go into investing in the event set up before April and pay and secure contractors contracts early.

I seem to remember discussions about this here a few years ago. I think someone said that most of the cash is collected in April so that it is in the same tax year as the actual festival. Apparently this is advantageous for tax purposes.

Alan 

[stuie]

51 minutes ago, hfuhruhurr said:

Unfortunately, there are many people who aren't financially savvy and a payment scheme would help a lot - presumably why other festivals offer it as an incentive. Shit happens and timings can go wrong, like the car needing a repair the same month as the balance payment. A cash flow issue, not an affordability issue.

That'll be because they can't shift all of their tickets with one-off payment option only.

 

 

[hfuhruhurr]

21 minutes ago, alanr said:

I seem to remember discussions about this here a few years ago. I think someone said that most of the cash is collected in April so that it is in the same tax year as the actual festival. Apparently this is advantageous for tax purposes.

Alan 

It would depend on their financial year (which might not be the same as the general tax year apr-apr). It would make sense to realise all costs and income associated with those costs in the same FY. You can probably look up them all up in companies house - I assume there are a lot of separate companies doing different things, so might not be straightforward.

[alanr]

26 minutes ago, hfuhruhurr said:

It would depend on their financial year (which might not be the same as the general tax year apr-apr). It would make sense to realise all costs and income associated with those costs in the same FY. You can probably look up them all up in companies house - I assume there are a lot of separate companies doing different things, so might not be straightforward.

Quick check on google shows "Glastonbury Festival Events" accounts for year ending 31 March. This company has turnover of £44M so I guess it's the main company.

Just noticed until 2016 accounting period was until 31 Dec. I'm not an accounting specialist, so I don't know how relevant this is

 

Edited September 17, 2019 by alanr
Added more info

[Crazyfool01]

so ive got 2 bus goers and 4 main sailers , myself in the main sale ... whats the thoughts on this ? stick with it ? or make a 6 with strangers ? (pm me ) or keep with current plan and add the 2 should we fail in the coach sale ? 

[vintagelaureate]

9 hours ago, crazyfool1 said:

so ive got 2 bus goers and 4 main sailers , myself in the main sale ... whats the thoughts on this ? stick with it ? or make a 6 with strangers ? (pm me ) or keep with current plan and add the 2 should we fail in the coach sale ? 

Maybe make the decision after the coach sale - I imagine plenty of people will look to take up the offer. 

My actual group is a 6.

I found out Saturday that another group I know are trying for coach tickets and then Worthy View. They're a 4, and another 2 want general sale so I advised them to pair up if unsuccessful - 5 of the 6 have been a few times so should know the system.

I'm still dreading ticket day - it's getting harder to get leave from work and sort child care every year too.

 

Edited September 18, 2019 by vintagelaureate