Glastonbury licence hearing postponed, but no need to worry

The hearing which considers whether to grant Glastonbury Festival a Public Entertainments Licence, which was due to take place next Monday, 6th December, has been postponed.

The Licensing Board of Mendip District Council will now meet on Monday 17th January to consider the application for the 2005 Festival. We understand that the delay is only for the Council's administrative reasons, and not due to any problem having occurred with the application.

eFestivals will, as we've done since 2001, be on hand that evening to report the goings-on live as they happen. Find out first with eFestivals!

Subject to the granting of the Public Entertainments Licence, Glastonbury Festival 2005 will take place from Friday 24th June until Sunday 26th June, with the gates expected to open on the Wednesday (22nd June) as usual.

Discussion is still taking place within the Festival as to how tickets may be sold next year. As has been widely reported, the Festival are considering using hi-tech credit-card type tickets which may include photos.

Although it's good to see the Festival seriously considering what can be done to help stop the resale of tickets for silly prices - meaning that all those who want to go and can get a ticket should only pay the ticket face value - eFestivals is concerned about the possibility of administrative cock-ups causing greater unhappiness than the touting its designed to curtail.

And, if the system works as we presume - with photos being posted in after a ticket sale on the telephone (the UK is not yet ready for internet-only sales) - then tickets can be still be sold on, with the original buyer sending in the photo of the person they've sold the ticket on to. The system could end up being as open to abuse as the system was this year.

And then of course there's the "Big Brother" aspect to consider. While we respect the Festival for exploring all the options, this seems like a sledgehammer to crack a nut: surely needing photo ID cards for a festival is over-the-top? Perhaps time would be better spent ensuring that the systems to handle the actual sales were of the capability that the Festival wants for next year?

You can let the Festival know your thoughts via the Radio 1 website here.

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