Green Man 2023

[March Hare]

3 hours ago, garethsideas said:

Links to actual ticket pages avoiding the queue...

Settlers: https://greenman.ticketline.co.uk/order/gateway/13364665/green-man-2023-settlers-pass-brecon-beacons-2023-08-14-10-00-00
 

Settlers payment plan: https://greenman.ticketline.co.uk/order/gateway/13364729/green-man-2023-settlers-pass-payment-plan-brecon-beacons-2023-08-14-10-00-00

General: https://greenman.ticketline.co.uk/order/gateway/13364668/green-man-2023-festival-brecon-beacons-2023-08-17-10-00-00

General payment plan: https://greenman.ticketline.co.uk/order/gateway/13364728/green-man-2023-festival-payment-plan-brecon-beacons-2023-08-17-10-00-00

Thanks for this. 12 of us got sorted through these links

[SweepingTheNation]

Little bit over four hours:

 

[rug568]

With demand so high they've got to consider moving ticket day to Saturday/Sunday

I do not have a job where I can sit in an online queue for an hour 

[benali]

Interesting to see what they do next now.

Find a bigger site to cater for increased demand is one option. Hopefully Fiona will remember what happened to Big Chill when they moved from Larmer Tree and it totally ruined the festival.

Sacking off Ticketline is another, it's a crap website and has horrendous booking fees. Releasing tickets in batches like EOTR could work.

Seen a lot of people who have been going for years getting upset because they failed to get tickets today and I really feel for them. I would have been mortified if I didn't get mine.

It would never happen but I'd potentially be in favour of some kind of loyalty scheme to reward the longer term attendees. It's just mad how it's gone in a few years when you used to be able to get tickets months after they went on sale with no problem.

It's not like the festival has got loads better in the last 5 years, it's largely the same. So why are there now so many people fighting over tickets? Is it because festivals in general are getting more popular, or maybe a lot of regular Glastonbury punters suddenly realising that it's maybe not that great now and looking for an alternative?

Whatever the reasons I hope they find a solution.

[Hooskerdoo]

As a teacher, with no way to sit in a queue for ages, I never got close. But out of interest, how much were campervan tickets this year? The price hike last year was horrendous, nothing short of profiteering really. Just wondering if they hiked them again this year.

[March Hare]

There will be plenty on Twickets for those who missed out. Don’t lose hope. It’s not over yet

[dizzymoo]

3 hours ago, Hooskerdoo said:

As a teacher, with no way to sit in a queue for ages, I never got close. But out of interest, how much were campervan tickets this year? The price hike last year was horrendous, nothing short of profiteering really. Just wondering if they hiked them again this year.

Campervan £180.40, motorhome £241.60 (which we had to opt for as we have a caravan). Don't know what prices were last year but it feels very expensive. The real kicker is the booking fees - £64 in all for 4 tickets and 1 motorhome pass

[BBC7BBCHEAVEN]

11 hours ago, benali said:

Interesting to see what they do next now.

Find a bigger site to cater for increased demand is one option. Hopefully Fiona will remember what happened to Big Chill when they moved from Larmer Tree and it totally ruined the festival.

Sacking off Ticketline is another, it's a crap website and has horrendous booking fees. Releasing tickets in batches like EOTR could work.

Seen a lot of people who have been going for years getting upset because they failed to get tickets today and I really feel for them. I would have been mortified if I didn't get mine.

It would never happen but I'd potentially be in favour of some kind of loyalty scheme to reward the longer term attendees. It's just mad how it's gone in a few years when you used to be able to get tickets months after they went on sale with no problem.

It's not like the festival has got loads better in the last 5 years, it's largely the same. So why are there now so many people fighting over tickets? Is it because festivals in general are getting more popular, or maybe a lot of regular Glastonbury punters suddenly realising that it's maybe not that great now and looking for an alternative?

Whatever the reasons I hope they find a solution.

It's the same with everything these days, just the nature of how easily information is available now on social media etc. so people are more on the ball for ticket sales

My first Glasto was around 2007 and it was a breeze getting tickets, no mad rush just bought some when we all decided we fancied. Now I dread it every year

 

[BBC7BBCHEAVEN]

10 hours ago, Hooskerdoo said:

As a teacher, with no way to sit in a queue for ages, I never got close. But out of interest, how much were campervan tickets this year? The price hike last year was horrendous, nothing short of profiteering really. Just wondering if they hiked them again this year.

Campervan prices are a joke, especially considering EOTR charge almost half the price (£170 Vs £100)

I see no justification for that cost when car parking is £5, what extra works involved for campervans?

[evannn]

11 hours ago, benali said:

So why are there now so many people fighting over tickets?

In addition to festivals becoming more popular in general, two things I can think of for GM: festivals becoming an alternative to holidays abroad (and green man being a very popular one for families); and latitude changing significantly, sending its earlier fanbase elsewhere

[lessthanwill1]

3 minutes ago, BBC7BBCHEAVEN said:

Campervan prices are a joke, especially considering EOTR charge almost half the price (£170 Vs £100)

I see no justification for that cost when car parking is £5, what extra works involved for campervans?

Car parking is £24 but I take your point.  I actually have no idea I’m afraid.  I would guess it’s because they have limited space to offer campervans and therefore there is a lot of demand for those tickets, and therefore they can charge a lot of money for it as people will buy them regardless?

Alternatively, perhaps there are added infrastructure costs for having campervans on site?  🤷‍♂️ 

[lessthanwill1]

11 hours ago, benali said:

Interesting to see what they do next now.

Find a bigger site to cater for increased demand is one option. Hopefully Fiona will remember what happened to Big Chill when they moved from Larmer Tree and it totally ruined the festival.

Sacking off Ticketline is another, it's a crap website and has horrendous booking fees. Releasing tickets in batches like EOTR could work.

Seen a lot of people who have been going for years getting upset because they failed to get tickets today and I really feel for them. I would have been mortified if I didn't get mine.

It would never happen but I'd potentially be in favour of some kind of loyalty scheme to reward the longer term attendees. It's just mad how it's gone in a few years when you used to be able to get tickets months after they went on sale with no problem.

It's not like the festival has got loads better in the last 5 years, it's largely the same. So why are there now so many people fighting over tickets? Is it because festivals in general are getting more popular, or maybe a lot of regular Glastonbury punters suddenly realising that it's maybe not that great now and looking for an alternative?

Whatever the reasons I hope they find a solution.

Why are there so many people fighting over tickets?

My guess:  Demand for tickets continues to increase because:

- attendees love it and want to go back;

- the festival gets more well known each year and this increases the number of people who are likely to buy tickets; and

- increased demand for domestic holidays more generally because of the climate emergency.  

At the same time:

- the site hasn’t materially increased in size as far as I know nor has the number of attendees, or at least both haven’t increased in line with the demand for tickets; and 

- they/ticketline don’t appear to have properly upgraded the tech that supports the ticket buying process and therefore it is unable to sufficiently handle the website traffic, leading to poor customer experience. 

Solutions?

As you say, one solution is to increase the site and the number of attendees.  This will obviously allow more people to come and reduce the issue of people fighting over tickets.  I hope they don’t go down this route. It is arguable whether it would be even possible in its current location.  The site and size of attendees is perhaps the most important factor to me in why I choose to go (and I think it is also key for others).

Another solution is to improve the ticket buying process.  They could sack off ticketline - but is there a better alternative provider?  Clearly they need to upgrade whatever software they use so it can handle the amount of traffic they experienced yesterday.  I also wonder whether having both early birds and general on sale led to an unnecessarily high volume of website traffic.  I would guess that having early birds on one day and general sale on another day would reduce overall volume and make it easier for the website to handle the processing? A loyalty scheme is an interesting idea but it would be controversial, depending on its nature.  I don’t necessarily agree that those who have been before should be entitled to tickets.  I’ve never got Glastonbury tickets despite five years of trying.  I don’t hold this against Glastonbury. 

Ultimately, this is fantastic news for GM and a reflection of the way they organise and execute the festival.  The concern is whether they change the festival to keep up with demand in a way that ruins the festival.  I guess this depends on GM’s appetite for profit.  One would hope that as an independently owned business without shareholder pressure, they don’t necessarily have that same pressure to continue to grow that other festivals might.  I (selfishly?) hope they are happy with the way things are and carry on largely as normal, and perhaps tinker with the ticketing process just to try and make that process a little less stressful. 

[WMWMOfficial]

On 8/24/2022 at 2:50 PM, lessthanwill1 said:

Bring it on!

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Sigur Ros - Phoebe Bridgers 

Honestly, I'm PRAYING Sigur Ros appear as headliners this year, that would genuinely make it for me, no matter the rest of the line-up 🙂

[slumberjack]

If they are going to release early bird and standard tickets the same time, surely they just need to get rid of early bird? First time I got in adult tickets were sold out.  Then they were available but no little folk.  Switching between early bird and standard wasn't easy.  We ended up just paying full price as we were getting stressed, even though there were probably still some early bird ones available in reality, just that the availability kept changing.

[scatteredscreens]

10 minutes ago, slumberjack said:

If they are going to release early bird and standard tickets the same time, surely they just need to get rid of early bird? First time I got in adult tickets were sold out.  Then they were available but no little folk.  Switching between early bird and standard wasn't easy.  We ended up just paying full price as we were getting stressed, even though there were probably still some early bird ones available in reality, just that the availability kept changing.

Don't you worry, I'm sure GM will be looking at the demand and thinking there was no point us selling X number of tickets for £30 cheaper. Bet they're gone next year.

[slumberjack]

1 minute ago, scatteredscreens said:

Don't you worry, I'm sure GM will be looking at the demand and thinking there was no point us selling X number of tickets for £30 cheaper. Bet they're gone next year.

Aye, reckon you're bang on there. 

[scatteredscreens]

Fair play to them though, they've fostered a high demand from a high quality event. They haven't filled it to the rafters with corporate greed, if any type of festival deserves it, it's the independent ones. I'll be back litter picking next year fingers crossed.

[March Hare]

A friend of a friend, who clicked express pay, is now having their ticket payment refunded because Green Man say it didn’t actually secure a ticket.

What a mess

[March Hare]

1 hour ago, slumberjack said:

If they are going to release early bird and standard tickets the same time, surely they just need to get rid of early bird? First time I got in adult tickets were sold out.  Then they were available but no little folk.  Switching between early bird and standard wasn't easy.  We ended up just paying full price as we were getting stressed, even though there were probably still some early bird ones available in reality, just that the availability kept changing.

The early bird things is an intentional sales technique to give the feeling of scarcity to those logging on.  There might only be 1% of tickets sold as early bird but they know people who don’t get early bird still buy a full price ticket.  It’s still a business after all and it’s obviously working as they sold out.

[incident]

4 hours ago, BBC7BBCHEAVEN said:

Campervan prices are a joke, especially considering EOTR charge almost half the price (£170 Vs £100)

I see no justification for that cost when car parking is £5, what extra works involved for campervans?

There's a load of reasons.

Campervans are (by necessity and by law) far less densely packed in than cars - just look at an aerial photo from any festival, the space usage usually equates to about 4-5 Cars per 1 Campervan. (Photo from Glastonbury 2016)

Campervans also require a shitload more infrastructure than any car park - they require more fencing, fire towers (or a suitable CCTV network) to keep 24/7 watch on the space, more toilet provision, Elsan points, etc. Because of all this - the festival usually has to rent those fields for longer than they would for Car Parks.

£24 for cars vs £170 for Campervans doesn't seem that disproportionate to be honest. In terms of profit margin, it's probably not far off being the same.

[scatteredscreens]

1 hour ago, incident said:

There's a load of reasons.

Campervans are (by necessity and by law) far less densely packed in than cars - just look at an aerial photo from any festival, the space usage usually equates to about 4-5 Cars per 1 Campervan. (Photo from Glastonbury 2016)

Campervans also require a shitload more infrastructure than any car park - they require more fencing, fire towers (or a suitable CCTV network) to keep 24/7 watch on the space, more toilet provision, Elsan points, etc. Because of all this - the festival usually has to rent those fields for longer than they would for Car Parks.

£24 for cars vs £170 for Campervans doesn't seem that disproportionate to be honest. In terms of profit margin, it's probably not far off being the same.

Great post breaking it down.

Also to be honest I'd say that if you can afford the luxury that is a camper van, you can probably stomach the extra cost.

[riverlodge]

2 hours ago, incident said:

There's a load of reasons.

Campervans are (by necessity and by law) far less densely packed in than cars - just look at an aerial photo from any festival, the space usage usually equates to about 4-5 Cars per 1 Campervan. (Photo from Glastonbury 2016)

£24 for cars vs £170 for Campervans doesn't seem that disproportionate to be honest. In terms of profit margin, it's probably not far off being the same.

Spot on. Might be controversial but reckon it is even more skewed than that, not only in money but gate size.

Lets say instead of one camper you could fit x3 extra cars and tents.

The one camper gives you: £170 and (say) 2 tickets totalling £500 = 2 people for £670.

The three cars gives you: £135 (if priced as blue) and (say) 6 tickets totalling £1500 = 6 people for £1635.

So reducing campers by 200 vehicles gives you ~800 more adult tickets and about £200k incremental revenue (if you up the gate capacity for those 800 tix). That ignores the infrastructure saving that incident describes. Why not ban 'em (apart from accessibles of course).

[metallimuse]

Hello, first time poster in here.

Heard the news that this had sold out for the first time which peaked my interest and I'm too lazy to read through the thread to find out if there is a consensus of who the headliners may be next year?

[lessthanwill1]

13 minutes ago, metallimuse said:

Hello, first time poster in here.

Heard the news that this had sold out for the first time which peaked my interest and I'm too lazy to read through the thread to find out if there is a consensus of who the headliners may be next year?

Welcome!  GM sold out quicker that ever this year.  It usually sells out, just not this quickly!

No consensus yet.  Just wild speculation at the moment.  I’m thinking Sigur Ros and Yeah Yeah Yeahs are quite likely candidates as they will presumably be around in the Summer next year given the new albums and seem to be in GM’s ballpark for headliners. 

[Guy Incognito]

1 hour ago, lessthanwill1 said:

Welcome!  GM sold out quicker that ever this year.  It usually sells out, just not this quickly!

No consensus yet.  Just wild speculation at the moment.  I’m thinking Sigur Ros and Yeah Yeah Yeahs are quite likely candidates as they will presumably be around in the Summer next year given the new albums and seem to be in GM’s ballpark for headliners. 

Think these are both excellent shouts. 

Sigur Ros - YYYs - Phoebe Bridgers would be my guess.